Lost and Found

Indian cinema has surely taken gigantic leaps in story and concept if we’ve managed to pull an entire feature film exclusively about a man getting trapped in a highrise apartment in Mumbai. Yes, you guessed it, today’s Lost and Found is Trapped, the 2016 thriller starring Rajkummar Rao and well, a rat. This Vikramaditya Motwane film manages to infuse dread and discomfort into a plot whose premise...

Sometimes, even the most impactful films seem to slide away without being noticed or acknowledged. Perhaps, they weren’t marketed like wholesome entertainers. Or maybe they were perceived as festival films and thus considered suitable only for those with a nuanced taste. But if you’re one who doesn’t judge a movie by its trailer and is willing to try out something new, this one’s for you. Today’s...

Today’s Lost and Found is Shubho Mahurat, directed by Rituparno Ghosh. With Rakhee as the protagonist, the film was Ghosh’s personal hat-tip to the innumerable Mrs Marples who reside in every household, unacknowledged, or even uncelebrated. Ghosh paints the character of Ranga pishi, played by Rakhee, with all the necessary quirks of a sharp detective mind. With straight-faced humour and whip-sharp...

Following the tradition of featuring critically-acclaimed films that hardly got the attention they deserved when they were released, today’s Lost and Found is Kaamyaab. This Hardik Mehta directorial released in March 2020 but barely managed a few weeks in theaters on account of the pandemic and was only discovered by some when it dropped on Netflix.  Kaamyaab delves into the mundane life of a reti...

Neeraj Ghaywan’s 2015 directorial debut Masaan also launched Vicky Kaushal in a compelling turn. The film, which also stars Richa Chaddha and Shweta Tripathi, is a deeply moving depiction of how some are profiled on account of their caste and also packs a heart-wrenching love story.  The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it bagged two awards and Kaushal’s performance also earned hi...

Shankar Nag’s socio-political Kannada feature film Accident, released in 1985, bagged the National Film Award and several Karnataka state film awards for Best Picture. Acting alongside him was his real-life brother Ananth Nag and his wife Arundathi Nag. The film was critically acclaimed for its engaging storyline about the tussle between corrupt politicians and the Indian judiciary in the 80s. Col...

Batman is arguably the most popular superhero in the world. The DC comic book character has appeared in countless adaptations over the years ranging from film, television, and video games. In the past decade alone, the character has been played and voiced by several actors. But, fans and critics will point towards one adaptation as the most definitive version of the caped crusader - Kevin Conroy’s...

Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh is based on the real-life story of the Aligarh University professor who was persecuted and laid-off for his sexual orientation and translates as a heart-breaking story of discrimination. When a local news channel manages to shoot this professor allegedly having sex with a rickshaw puller, he’s singled out and ostracised and eventually, compelled to consider extreme measures....

The horrifying and heartbreaking tales of war and destruction in certain African nations have often prompted empathy and concern. So it’s hardly surprising that the premise has been adopted in films, television shows, and even in video games over the years. Films such as The Last King of Scotland, Hotel Rwanda, and Blood Diamond have captured the tragedies as sombre reminders of those who’ve endur...

The Malayalam film, Ishq, surprised audiences with its intriguing narrative and thought-provoking subtext when it was released in 2019. The film, starring Shane Nigam, Ann Sheetal, and Shine Tom Chacko tackled issues on moral policing, misogyny, and also how society perceived victims of sexual assault. The story is about a young couple, played by Nigam and Sheetal, who have their car stopped at ni...

This Alfonso Cuarón masterpiece bombed at the box office when it was released in 2006, despite receiving rave reviews. This dystopian sci-fi action-thriller, based on the book by P. D. James, with the screenplay written by Cuarón, is set in the year 2027 when infertility threatens to end human civilization.  The plot is set in the UK where state surveillance, policing, and harsher border control,...

Filmmaker Rohena Gera’s Sir, featuring Tilottama Shome and Vivek Gomber, is a poignant tale of the class divide. The film had its world premiere at the 71st International Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Gera’s previous works include the comedy series Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi (where she was the screenwriter) and the 2013 documentary titled What’s Love Got To Do With It?  Sir narrates the story of Ratna,...

Arguably one of Anurag Kashyap’s best films, Ugly takes a dark, twisted and relentlessly unsparing look at the follies of humankind. Set in the chaos of Mumbai, Ugly revolves around a group of men after a little girl is kidnapped. One afternoon, 10-year-old Kali, played by Anshikaa Shrivastava, goes missing from her father Rahul’s vehicle. A distraught Rahul rushes to the police to file a complain...

Director Amole Gupte’s Stanley Ka Dabba is a love letter to all childhood memories of school, tiffin breaks, and the joy of discovering your friends’ lunch — which invariably tasted better than your own. Starring Partho Gupte as the titular Stanley, the film offers an oblique commentary on our education system that often allows teachers to exercise unchecked control over children without any ramif...

Habib Faisal’s National Award-winning comedy-drama Do Dooni Chaar is the kind of film that touches a necessary nerve. Searingly earnest and mildly humorous, Do Dooni Chaar chronicles the thankless life of a math teacher with a local school who doubles up as a tuition teacher only to make ends meet. The film finds Rishi and Neetu Kapoor filling in as the Duggals, a middle-class Punjabi family from...

This relatively unknown British police procedural is quite simply one of the most well-written shows today. The plot revolves around the fictional anti-corruption unit of Scotland Yard called AC-12. The series follows DS Steve Arnott played by Martin Compston, DC Kate Fleming played by Vicky McClure, and their uncompromising boss Superintendent Ted Hastings played by Adrian Dunbar, as they investi...

Shahid is a 2013 biopic on the life of human rights lawyer Shahid Azmi who was  assassinated in 2010. Directed by Hansal Mehta and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap and UTV Spotboy, the film is headlined by Rajkummar Rao who plays the eponymous lawyer who invested his life for the lesser-privileged and stood up for those who had been wronged. This underrated gem won two National Awards (Best Actor and...

Helmed by Harshavardhan Kulkarni, the writer of Hasee Toh Phasee and director of the forthcoming Badhaai Do, Hunterrr is a truly special film that went largely unnoticed when it released in 2015. This Gulshan Devaiah and Radhika Apte-starrer is an adult romcom with a twist. The film revolves around sex addict Mandar Ponkshe (played by Devaiah), who almost mechanically straddles several female part...

Konkona Sen-Sharma’s directorial debut, A Death in the Gunj may be packaged like a whodunit but is a lot more than just that. Prior to the film’s release, the actress-filmmaker had shared that it was loosely inspired from the stories her father narrated to her as a child. Set in 1979 in McCluskieganj, this mystery revolves around a family vacation that doesn’t exactly go as planned. The ensemble c...

Today, we’re talking about Sachin Kundalkar’s 2012 dramedy Aiyyaa which is a remake of the director’s own Marathi film Gandha. The quirky comedy headlined by Rani Mukherji follows the story of Meenakshi, a feisty woman who meets various arranged suitors to eventually fall for an artist (played by Prithviraj Sukumaran). Kundalkar’s breezy narrative and eccentric characters ensure you’re consistentl...

Marital discord has always made for good cinema. From Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan’s iconic love story Abhimaan (1973) to the Jude Law and Carrie Coon-starrerThe Nest (2020), there have been many films that have closely depicted fragmented relationships and the pain and suffering that some couples go through when a marriage begins to go south. Chandan Arora’s 2005 film Main, Meri Patni aur Woh starri...