The Long Take

Kapil Sharma’s debut stand-up special for Netflix— I’m Not Done Yet —makes an incredibly strong case for why he should be. We discuss the strange thought process that must have gone into putting something like this together, the safe material that Sharma (poorly) performs, and why this barely qualifies as a stand-up special at all. — Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar , The Long Take is fully...

Will Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth —available on Apple TV+—appeal to anyone but die-hard Shakespeare nuts? We discuss what could have possibly motivated Coen to tackle the material at this point in his career, and the pointed visual aesthetic that evokes a very particular period in cinema history. Along the way, we talk about the performances of Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, and th...

Is HBO Max’s Harry Potter reunion special a blatant cash grab or the jolt of nostalgia our pandemic-infected souls need? We take the opportunity to look back—like Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and the rest of the cast—on our memories of the Harry Potter movies and how they’ve evolved over the years. We also talk about the impact directors Alfonso Cuarón and David Yates, in particular...

To close out the year, we list down our top 10 films of 2021—counting down from 10 to 1. Our lists span from a Zoom movie to a stellar Malayalam New Wave title, and from a harrowing animated documentary to an impossible-to-describe fantasy epic. Along the way, we also point out why lists such as this are so arbitrary, and how long we should ideally wait before discussing the best films of 2021. An...

Is Minnal Murali —the new Malayalam superhero movie on Netflix—a goofy sendup of the genre or an earnest attempt at creating a bold new homegrown franchise? We discuss the film’s bloated length, its dedication to fleshing out both the protagonist and antagonist, and the various subtexts buried underneath its low-key charm. We also talk about its failures (a lot of fat could be trimmed), its future...

We’re divided on Decoupled , the new Netflix sitcom starring R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla. We discuss the show’s problematic protagonist, debate whether the humour is tone-deaf or satirical, and wonder how involved director Hardik Mehta was, considering the strong stamp of authorship that creator Manu Joseph has left all over the place. We also highlight some notable scenes, and draw compari...

Aranyak —the new Raveena Tandon-starrer on Netflix—is so uniformly poor that it has exactly one scene that stands out as being competently made. Otherwise, it never knows what it should be. We discuss how everything—from Vinay Waikul’s direction to Charudutt Acharya’s writing, and from the accents and forced goofiness to Tandon’s central performance as a small-town cop—is so utterly misguided. We...

The deeply-confusing Bob Biswas —the Kahaani spin-off on ZEE5—continues Abhishek Bachchan’s downward career trajectory. We discuss the film’s convoluted plot, the nods to John Wick and Jason Bourne , and stylistic departure from Sujoy Ghosh’s original. — Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar , The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work. The Long Take is av...

The Beatles: Get Back —a three-part Disney+ documentary series—is a Shoah -like exercise in self-indulgence from director Peter Jackson, a man who has never seen a piece of footage that he hasn’t wanted to make longer. We discuss the epic’s aimless structure and its demanding eight-hour run-time, but also the moments of musical magic in it, and Jackson’s fascination with restoring old footage. — H...

Can Dhamaka —the new Netflix thriller directed by Ram Madhvani—reintroduce Kartik Aaryan as a serious dramatic performer? We discuss whether the film lives up to the potential of its high-concept premise, the various grudges that it bears and how it fares, and how reticent it is to deviate from the Korean original on which it is based. — Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar , The Long Take is fu...

Red Notice —Netflix’s latest bid at spawning an action film franchise—feels like it has been created by an algorithm in a Hollywood lab. Will it follow in the footsteps of Extraction , or end up more like 6 Underground ? We discuss how tragically it wastes three of the world’s biggest movie stars in Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, and Gal Gadot—while pondering over the boring and repetitive careers...

Does Chloé Zhao’s Eternals really deserve the unenviable tag of being the worst-reviewed Marvel movie? We talk about the film’s glaring plot holes, its false sense of ambition, and how it wastes stellar performers in Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie. We also discuss the bland action, the absence of Zhao’s distinct style, and the overstuffed roster of characters. — Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naa...

Director Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune looks wonderful and is filled to the brim with A-list actors, but it is oddly distant and too reverential of the source material. The film’s most subversive moment is when it reveals itself to be half a story. We discuss its over-reliance on clunky exposition, how it fails to do justice to evergreen themes such as colonialism, and...

Sardar Udham —director Shoojit Sircar’s new film starring Vicky Kaushal as the revolutionary freedom fighter—is an indescribable epic that alternates between a spy thriller and a quiet character study, but has the scope of The Revenant and Lawrence of Arabia . We discuss the film’s unique time-hopping structure, and the incredible final act, in which Sircar dramatises the Jallianwala Bagh massacre...

With Rashmi Rocket —director Akarsh Khurana’s new film on ZEE5—Taapsee Pannu finds herself in the unenviable position of having starred in three terrible films in the same calendar year. If Pannu were in Hollywood, no filmmaker would touch her. Not only does Rashmi Rocket do a disservice to the real-life stories it is inspired by, it also disrespects two beloved film genres by making a mocker...

Even the random appearance of a Karni Sena guy can’t distract from the fact that House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths —the new true crime documentary series on Netflix—is more than just a by-the-numbers telling of a crime story that gripped the nation. We talk about our memories of the Burari deaths, the seemingly endless dark spiral that Indian news media is in, and directors Leena Yadav and Anubh...

Break Point —the new ZEE5 documentary series directed by Ashwiny Iyer and Nitesh Tiwari—soars on the strength of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi’s compelling story, but it’s no The Last Dance. We talk about the seven-part series’ cheap-looking filmmaking—the fake backgrounds, the cheesy graphics, and the lack of archival footage—and wonder how much better it would’ve been had the Tiwaris put...

The second season of Kota Factory —now acquired by Netflix—begs the question: why was this TVF show ever popular in the first place? We discuss its one-dimensional characters, and its tendency to overuse Jeetu Ex Machina, which involves throwing Jitendra Kumar’s fan-favourite character at every problem. We also talk about its lack of female perspective on screen, the series’ ignorance of real...

Sandwiched between two godawful short films in Ankahi Kahaniya —the new anthology on Netflix—is director Abhishek Chaubey’s near-silent near-perfect story about solitude in a big city. We discuss the jarring discrepancy in quality in these three chapters, how director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari failed to capitalise on an intriguing premise, and why director Saket Chaudhary might get slapped by Meryl Stre...

Mumbai Diaries 26/11 —the new Amazon ensemble series led by Konkona Sensharma and Mohit Raina—is flying under the radar for now, but as we discuss on our podcast, it probably won’t for long. We talk about the show’s politics, which feel almost revolutionary in the context of what we’ve been made accustomed to seeing. We wonder how creator Nikkhil Advani can deliver both this and The Empire. A...

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings took us back to cinemas after 18 months—and we liked it so much that not once do we discuss committee-driven filmmaking or cynical-minded China appeasement, topics that should invariably come up while talking about Disney movies. What we do discuss is Tony Leung’s scene-stealing turn as the “villain”, comparing him and the film favourably to Black Panther...

Dev Patel-led epic medieval fantasy The Green Knight —written, directed and edited by David Lowery—takes an Arthurian legend and filters it through a millennial lens. We discuss the film’s momentous scale, its timeless anxieties, and Patel’s near-perfect central performance as a talentless man who believes he’s destined for greatness. Along the way, we talk about our favourite scenes, the exquisit...

Kuruthi —the new Malayalam-language movie on Amazon Prime Video—has a lot on its mind: communal hatred, environmentalism, and a Biblical notion of good and evil. But does it do justice to any of those ideas? We discuss the film’s hyperreal nature and how it could’ve gone further (akin to its inspiration Get Out ), director Manu Warrier’s meticulous handling of the home invasion portion, and its la...

Just because Sidharth Malhotra looks like a movie star, Bollywood has spent a decade trying to make him one. His latest vehicle, the war drama Shershaah, is a by-the-numbers vanilla biopic that doesn’t do justice to its subject, the Kargil War hero Captain Vikram Batra. We discuss the film’s strange pacing, director Vishnu Varadhan’s handling of the action and the drama, Dharma Productions’ delibe...

Is James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad a much-deserved apology to DC fans for David Ayer’s mismanaged original film? We discuss why we are willing to ignore the movie’s thin plot, have come to embrace its ridiculous and over-the-top tone, and believe The Suicide Squad would be deemed “anti-national” if it was made in India. We also talk about our favourite gags (shout-out to King Shark and Polka-Dot Ma...