Movies
Animal review – Ranbir Kapoor plays one of the vilest protagonists in cinema history
Kapoor plays the scion of a wealthy family whose violence is the result of a craving for love and validation, in a regressive Bollywood blockbuster
Phuong Le
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Sam Bahadur review – Indian war hero Sam Manekshaw is the guy who can do no wrong
Meghna Gulzar’s somewhat episodic biopic of Indian army officer Sam ‘the Brave’ Manekshaw presents him in terms of outright, if charming, heroism
Catherine Bray
Movies
The Mission review – a missionary comes a cropper on reaching an ‘unreached’ tribe
Documentary traces a 21st-century American evangelical’s reckless efforts to convert an isolated tribe, and his fatal encounter with them
Phuong Le
Movies
Leo: Bloody Sweet review – leave your logic at the door for rampaging action yarn
The Tamil version of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence is wildly enjoyable, packed full of hyenas, car chases, fight scenes and, of course, song and dance
Catherine Bray
Movies
12th Fail review – Indian exam yarn offers hope on overcoming corruption and poverty
This semi-true story of a young farmer who uses his grandmother’s life savings to sit police officer exams in Delhi fosters the idea that success is possible through effort alone
Leslie Felperin
Movies
Indian actor Anil Kapoor wins court battle over AI use of his likeness
The actor can now send an injunction if his image or voice is used in gifs and deepfakes as well as for unauthorised merchandise
Andrew Pulver
Movies
Bollywood film accused of trivialising Holocaust with Auschwitz scenes
Calls for Prime Video to remove Bawaal after using death camp as relationship metaphor
Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi
Movies
Bawaal review – redemption romcom in spectacularly poor taste
While the premise – an awful man learns from his much better wife – is serviceable, the plot, centring on a tour around second world war sites is woefully misjudged
Leaf Arbuthnot
Movies
A Rifle and a Bag review – quiet study of a marginalised Indian family
Documentary follows Somi and her husband, who are struggling to live an ordinary life after their past as Naxalite guerrillas
Peter Bradshaw
Movies
While We Watched review – nerve-jangling portrait of an Indian reporter holding the ruling party to account
TV anchor Ravish Kumar calls out the propaganda that passes for news – and faces the consequences of challenging Modi – in this essential documentary
Wendy Ide
Movies
While We Watched review – reporter Ravish Kumar’s quiet courage in Modi’s India
News anchor Kumar stays quietly courageous amid nationalist hysteria in Vinay Shukla’s tense documentary – but its final note of hope has been undermined by recent events
Peter Bradshaw
Movies
Satyaprem Ki Katha review – Bollywood get-the-girl romcom bursts with colour
Tolerably corny taboo-busting tale of a lovable loser who courts a beautiful woman features epic dance scenes and catchy, involving music
Leaf Arbuthnot
Movies
Against the Tide review – old ways vs the new in a study of modern Indian fisherfolk
Seafaring friends from Mumbai cope with a changing climate and an unforgiving economy in different ways in Sarvnik Kaur’s poetic, beautifully shot documentary
Ryan Gilbey
Movies
Bheed review – lockdown thriller cuts across India’s class conflict
A tense, state-of-the-nation drama set in Covid-era India successfully exposes how the caste system underpins much of the country’s division and strife
Cath Clarke
Movies
Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway review – Rani Mukerji goes dowdy in mama-drama ordeal
Adaptation of a nightmare true story about a woman whose children were removed by the Norwegian state gets passionate too late
Ellen E Jones
Movies
‘A beautiful, natural bond’: Oscar-winning director Kartiki Gonsalves on her elephant short film
Gonsalves’s The Elephant Whisperers uses a tender family dynamic to explore climate change, shrinking animal habitats and our warped perception of the wild
Manik Sharma
Movies
Selfiee review – stan v superstar caper is a copper-bottomed crowd pleaser
Director Raj Mehta’s professionally packaged comedy hits all the bright, wacky notes, just don’t expect anything more than sheer daftness
Mike McCahill
Movies
Stricken by smog: the miraculous, Oscar-tipped film about Delhi’s bird hospital
Years in the making and boasting astonishing footage, All That Breathes tells the extraordinary story of the bodybuilding brothers getting pollution-choked birds flying again. We meet its director
Patrick Barkham
Movies
Pathaan and the king of cinema blast Bollywood out of the doldrums
Millions flock to see return of actor Shah Rukh Khan, despite rightwing calls for a boycott
Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Mumbai
Movies
Bollywood is obsessed with Pakistan. We’d be flattered if it weren’t so nasty
Try as the industry might, Modi’s quasi-fascist politics cannot be set to jaunty music and helicopter stunts
Fatima Bhutto
Movies
Pathaan review – daft Shah Rukh Khan spy caper is more fun than Bond
The Bollywood megastar plays an unfeasibly ripped agent brought out of retirement to foil the fiendish terror plots of Outfit X
Cath Clarke
Movies
Gandhi Godse Ek Yudh (War of Ideologies) review – dangerously bland alternate history
In imagining a world where Gandhi and his killer learned to get along, Rajkumar Santoshi simplifies differences that remain perilous for India
Phuong Le
Movies
Wrestling tigers and hurling motorcycles: how SS Rajamouli’s RRR cast a spell over the world
The Indian director was as surprised as anyone that his astonishingly larger than life, logic-defying action film has found a huge global audience. So is Hollywood on the horizon?
Steve Rose
Movies
Best movies of 2022 in the US: No 5 – RRR
An epic tale of two Indian revolutionaries told in all its plot-twisting, tiger-fighting, action-packed glory makes for a joyous, often ludicrous movie of air-punching brilliance
Steve Rose