What I Watched – September 2025

A Brighter Summer Day: The Taiwanese auteur Edward Yang’s masterpiece was a four hour long drama. I would have enjoyed it better had I seen it in one or maximum two sittings. The story takes place in the early sixties when many families who had fled from mainland China after 1949 were still struggling to adapt, and teenage street gangs were being formed due to their parents’ confusion about the future. The cinematography was out of this world. Sharing a couple of screenshots below:

Alappuzha Gymkhana: Small town stories of groups of friends are the flavour of the season in Kerala these days. After flunking their exams, a bunch of boys decide to learn boxing to secure a college admission through the sports quota. So the training, running, eating and ofcourse loving form the plot before the climax – the district championships.

Coolie: I didn’t follow much of this. my only memory is of Amir Khan coming on screen in the last five minutes and firing machine guns, gleefully finishing off people and mouthing something in Tamil. The joke is on us I guess.

Rome Season 2: Augustus’ fallout with Antony and the subsequent Antony-Cleopatra love story are the center on which the season revolves. Both the seasons of Rome are underrated and must be watched more widely.

Coriolanus: This 2011 adaptation of Shakespeare’s play was fun. Setting a Roman story in modern day Europe with machine guns instead of swords was cleverly done by Ralph Fiennes in his directoral debut.

Saiyaara: There are many things that I’m curious about Gen Z. but their taste in cinema may not be one of them. This surprise hit that smashed box office records was such a dud. If the heroine suffers from amnesia, one doesn’t have to ape the conclusion of 50 First Dates.

Lokah: Almost everyone who watched this recommended it. For me, it was just meh. The superhero mania is catching up with Malayalam cinema. Mixing traditional folk lore and multigenerational timelines is a nice business formula. And like the Marvel Universe, the movie ends with teasers of whats to come – a sword wielding avatar.

Materialists: The movie was a beautiful exposition on the role of economics in love and marriage. If you’re in love with your soulmate, its probably driven by an unconscious evaluation of social status which is influenced by the person’s age, height, profession, bank balance and ofcourse class. Romance is seldom detached from material realities. In the end when Lucy decides to get back with John, its not just a triumph of true love. Its also driven by John’s decision to get serious about finding a job and earning a steady income!

Thugs of Hindostan: Watched this while reading about the Thugs of India. Apart from a few minutes of a genuine representation of the original thugs of India, the rest of the movie was just some brainless masala with the usual tropes of Aazadi aspirants fighting the evil red-coated Brits.

The Deceivers: In 1988, Pierce Brosnan starred in this Merchant-Ivory production in which he infiltrates a thugee group and ends up becoming murderous like them. As I wrote earlier, watching Neena Gupta, essaying the role of a weavers wife, when rescued from committing Sati, starts speaking in Queens English. That threw me off.

Laal Kaptaan: This would definitely be one of the best movies that I watched this year. Saif Ali Khan as a warrior ascetic (Ghosain) in pursuit of his brother was a marvel in scripting and direction. The movie was a visual treat covering the arid landscape of Central India. I’m surprised that the movie wasn’t well received.

Nishanchi: A movie-critic pal of mine invited me to join her for this movie. While I wasn’t too keen, the movie was excellent. Anurag Kashyap returns to his gangster formula and serves an entertaining movie checking all the AK boxes – violence, rustic humour, desire, blood, guns and most importantly, the pulse of North Indian towns.

Beau Travail: This French classic was a delight. Set in Dijibouti and centered on two soldiers of the French Legion, the movie was a slow, meditative and engrossing.

One Battle After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson’s work is already being hailed as a classic and is predicted to sweep the Oscars. DiCaprio was too good with his comic timing and the political messaging was nothing but an overtly critical look at today’s America. I couldn’t help but notice the homage to the Batlle of Algiers – the movie DiCaprio watches while waiting for his daughter to return. (The Algerian Resistance was the inspiration and the template for most of the resistance movements including the PLO. Had written about it earlier this year).

Hridayapoorvam: The newly minted Dadasaheb Phalke awardee’s latest outing was another dud. Each Mohanlal movie nowadays moves me and I grieve for the thespian we all loved once upon a time for his on-screen prowess. Botox can mess up one’s ability to emote.

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