A guide to all the movies that released this weekend. Read the reviews and take your pick!
Oru Naal Koothu: Like a little dance of life
After last week’s Iraivi , here is another film that’s about women and yet treats its flawed men with compassion. Oru Naal Koothu keeps intercutting between stories — and these transitions are beautifully done, a combination of a good screenplay and good editing. >Read our review
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The Conjuring 2: Horror at the Hodgsons
The Conjuring may have gotten away with its over-reliance on jump scares, but the sequel gets exposed. It doesn’t take long before you realise that the film needed to be much more than just another case from the Warren stable. >Read our review
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Te3n: A good old-fashioned mystery
Ribhu Dassgupta’s Te3n , based on the 2013 South Korean film Montage is slow and relaxed instead of a quick-paced, edge-of-the-seat thriller. The kind that will keep the viewers engaged depending on their age, levels of patience and interest in easy-going mystery thriller. >Read our review
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Jaggu Dada: A torturer’s paradise
The film aspires to the leave-your-brains-at-home-entertainer kind but one only wishes that the filmmakers hadn’t done that too. Yet again, here’s a film that tries to pass off vulgar and demeaning sequences replete with misogyny as comedy. It is just three hours of noise and an excuse for Darshan to be on screen. >Read our review
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Do Lafzon Ki Kahani: A boring love story
Randeep Hooda is getting into the habit of trying to stretch himself to the utmost as an actor. Unfortunately, in films that don’t quite deserve it. No wonder the effort shows, and how. After getting emaciated in Sarbjit , Hooda breaks his lovely nose and disfigures his pretty face in Do Lafzon Ki Kahani . But, instead of gushing over his performance, you end up wondering: why the hell should he be trying so hard? >Read our review
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Vees Mhanje Vees: Back to school, but no lessons learnt
Despite its good intentions and public-interest aspirations, the film is problematic in many aspects, making you wonder about its purpose. It is more a Brahminical tale of education and self-importance than a truthful commentary on the dismal state of education in rural Maharashtra. At its heart, you have a Brahmin heroine — conveyed in parts by her surname ‘Vaidya’, the type of house, and her comparatively privileged and respected status in the village — who becomes a teacher like her father, thus naturalising inherited caste occupations. >Read our review
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Okka Ammayi Thappa: An idea that goes waste
Okka Ammayi Thappa has an interesting premise. It had the scope to be an entertaining, edge-of-the-seat thriller that shows how a hero rises above a sticky situation. Instead, within 30 minutes into the film you are left wondering what’s happening on screen. >Read our review>
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Warcraft: Weariness of war
As the film proceeds, it becomes increasingly clear that Warcraft is just another fantasy film that fails to engage at an emotional level. It has some visual flair it owing to its video games origins: the 3D, for a change, works and it is also brighter than most of what we see today in 3D. >Read our review
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Right Right: Too late for comfort
The film’s strength is never the screenplay, but the atmosphere, thanks also to the composer J.B’s tunes that strike a chord. Over time though, the saccharine nature of the treatment plays spoilsport. The director outstretches his creative liberties to arrive at the central conflict. The conflict too isn’t quite a strong one, but we get a sense of direction in the film only in its second hour. >Read our review
