Aswin Bharadwaj | Lensmen reviews

Antappante Athbudha Pravarthikal Review | Vipin Atley Delivers a Hasty Religious Satire With Untidy Writing

Aswin Bharadwaj — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 16:33:28 +0000

What made me watch the new Malayalam film Antappante Athbudha Pravarthikal was that it was written and directed by Vipin Atley, who made an impressive debut as a writer with his first film, Homely Meals. In the pre-release interviews, the crew talked about how they had to get the camera at the last minute during […]

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The Odyssey Review | Christopher Nolan Gives a Humane Spin to Homer’s Fantastical Epic

Aswin Bharadwaj — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 11:58:39 +0000

At its core, the new Christopher Nolan movie, The Odyssey, explores the regret of a man. And it is interesting that through his last two films, Nolan has moved away from the label of being someone who takes up complex projects to becoming a filmmaker who makes grand-scale movies that deal with one individual’s guilt. […]

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Varavu Review | A Stiff and Stale Thriller That Wastes a Fluid Joju George

Aswin Bharadwaj — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 11:02:19 +0000

I mentioned in one of my previous reviews that when we post on social media saying we miss a certain kind of film we used to see in our childhood, a segment of the filmmaking community mistakes that as us requesting they bring back that style of filmmaking. The reason for the success of many […]

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Ikka Review | Netflix Lighting and Middling Filmmaking Meet Hammy Acting

Aswin Bharadwaj — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:23:07 +0000

Ikka, the new Netflix original movie featuring Sunny Deol and Akshaye Khanna, is the typical heightened courtroom drama that will make you raise your eyebrows at its twists and coincidences rather than leave you surprised. For an audience exposed to good content, the twists they have hidden from us won’t feel like a surprise, since […]

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Moana Review | This Live-Action Version Is Not Bad, but Ultimately Insignificant

Aswin Bharadwaj — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 14:12:11 +0000

When the live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon was released last year, they were not trying to recreate the animated film scene by scene. They were addressing a more mature audience, and certain nuances were included in that movie. It provided an experience that was beyond a mere revisit of the same story. […]

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Dhamaal 4 Review | Dead Brain Cells Are the Prerequisite for This Green-Screen Garbage

Aswin Bharadwaj — Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:39:07 +0000

If you look at Ajay Devgn’s filmography in recent years, it’s filled with remakes of hit films or sequels to established IPs. The funny thing is, when it comes to sequels, his movies have created sequels to remakes where the original filmmaker never tried to do a part two. Son of Sardar 2 is one […]

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Idhayam Murali Review | A Familiar Coming-Of-Age Romance Saved by Its Self-Aware Humor

Aswin Bharadwaj — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:28:52 +0000

Idhayam Murali, Atharvaa’s new film written, directed, and produced by Aakash Baskaran, is a good example of how you maneuver a seemingly outdated, cringe subject and make it a passable entertainer in totality. The movie’s trajectory is almost like Vaaranam Aayiram. While the Gautham Vasudev Menon movie had a holistic approach towards an individual’s overall […]

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I, Nobody Review | Nisam Basheer’s Genre-Blending Thriller Is Fabulous and Flawed in Equal Parts

Aswin Bharadwaj — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 11:01:51 +0000

In I, Nobody’s prerelease interviews, Prithviraj had said that it is difficult to confine the film to a single genre. Well, when I watched the movie, that claim completely made sense as it was transitioning from one genre to another, and some of the genres have a very contrasting nature. Like you won’t expect a […]

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Satluj – Punjab ’95 Review | A Gutting True Story That Exposes a System That Mocks Accountability

Aswin Bharadwaj — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 11:30:06 +0000

Before jumping into the review, for those who are unaware of the history of this new movie, Satluj’s, previously titled Punjab ’95, censor board challenges, this movie was in a tussle with the CBFC of India from December 2022. The movie talks about the extrajudicial killings carried out by the Punjab Police during the Punjab […]

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Gatta Kusthi 2 Review | A Regressive Downgrade With a Silly Plot and Unnecessary Sexualization

Aswin Bharadwaj — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 06:08:38 +0000

In my review of 2022’s Gatta Kusthi, I had said that even though it’s not a perfect movie, it had a layer that asked the rural drama movies to think differently. Gatta Kusthi was a film about a man who was conditioned by the patriarchal setup, coming to terms with the idea that women also […]

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