What I Watched – May 2026

Perfect Days: Wrote about this here

Vaastuhara: Aravindan’s last movie. A friend of mine, while helping her parents shift residences from Delhi to Kolkata, reset a password for her dad as ‘Vaastuhara’ – The Dispossessed. Reminded of the movie that I probably watched decades ago, I found it on YouTube. Mohanlal at his peak, a fiesty Neena Gupta, Shobana and her aunty Padmini, were a delight to watch. The politics around the transfer of refugee agricultural labourers from Bengal to Andaman is something I need to read up about.

Genius: Picasso: Landed up on this series after finishing Picasso’s biography by Patrick O’brien. Despite Antonio Banderas’ presence, I found the whole series dull and quit after 3 episodes.

No Other Choice: In a normal world, when one is laid off, the options are to either upskill or keep applying. In Park Chan-Wook’s world, there’s an other option – murder off your competitors and become the Hobson’s Choice for the recruiter. Quirky and fun.

Apex: This theme has been done to death but the novelty here was Charlize Theron’s agility and the breathtaking allure of a lesser showcased landscape – the Blue Mountains National Park in Australia

Hell or High Water: Randomly chanced upon this and thoroughly enjoyed the watch. Conservative America, guns, cowboys, Indians, oil and a crime heist. Wonderfully executed

A Passage to India: Wrote about this here.

The Devil Wears Prada:

Goliyon ki Raasleela Ram-Leela:

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: It took me 26 years but I finally watched the movie that I always associated with the flying scenes that were a rage when the trailer was first released in 2000. The plot requires attention.

Decision to Leave: Park Chan-Wook’s tale of a detective’s obsession with a suspect was a complex piece of storytelling. I could fully well understand the detective falling for her. Tang Wei was stunning in every frame!

The Sheep Detectives: My only regret was in not being able to take my daughters along to watch this. The show timings were weird and by the time I went, they were off to Kerala. Craig Mazin, the scriptwriter who came up with this tale of talking sheep trying to solve the murder of their shepherd, also wrote the script for Chernobyl! How does one do this?

Kadaknath: A friend dragged me to the Habitat Center to watch this Bhil language movie which was screened as part of the ongoing film fest. The setting, the tribal heartlanf of Gujarat, an area where I spent a week two decades ago still looks more or less the same – bikes being the main source of transport, semi arid landscape, and dispersed settlements. The film was well taken and the Director who engaged with the audience made a sincere appeal to spread the word so that the theatrical release helps them break even. So here I am, doing just that.

Rome and Juliet:

Certified Copy: Wrote something about this movie here.

Dunkirk: Rewatched this after years and it was only this time that I was able to fully appreciate what a masterpiece this movie is. Understated yet so moving. The editing in of Churchill’s speech at the end was a masterstroke.

La Haine: Discovered this thorugh ChatGPT. There’s a Paris beyond the city of cheese, handbags and wine. And that Paris is that of the suburbs populated by migrants, Blacks, Arabs and patrolled by skinheads. Matieu Kassovitz’s movie documents a day in the life of three friends – one of whom comes into possession of a revolver. A series of events that spiral into a heartbreaking climax!

Dhrishyam 3: Lalettan is way past his prime. So to see a movie where flashes of his brilliance get showcased was a joy. As I expected, the movie should never have been made as it struggles to follow up on the same plot that made the previous two editions a blockbuster. The twist in the end was lame and didn’t carry a punch.

Amma Ariyan: John Abraham’s movie has been in the news thanks to its screening at the Cannes Festival. The movie is streaming on YouTube and I enjoyed watching it. Had this movie been made today, it would have been dismissed as woke nonsense. But for this to have been released in Communist Kerala in 1986 was par for the course. The movie had references to Mandela, Che Guevara, privatization of education and what not. I guess a separate post in this is warranted!

Agraharathil Kazhuthai: Soon after watching Amma Ariyan, I also watched this movie featuring a cute donkey as the central character. The movie reminded me that I should also catch up with Au hasard Balthazar, which was also referenced here.

Black Mass: I caught this in the flight to Abu Dhabi and was distracted most of the time. But notwithstanding that, Johnny Depp was brilliant essaying the role of a real life Boston gangster.

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