Lensmen Reviews

Balan Review | A Delightful Combo of Character Exploration and Emotional Payoffs

Aswin Bharadwaj — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:09:53 +0000

If you look at the soul of the latest movie from Chidambaram, after Manjummel Boys, Balan, it captivates you by showing how one can add so many layers to a single line said by a character. It is not like you won’t realize the importance of that line when it is first mentioned in the […]

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Secret of Kalinga Review | An AI-Heavy Mess That Proves AI Can’t Substitute for Vision and Craft

Aswin Bharadwaj — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:03:55 +0000

In the early parts of the new Malayalam fantasy thriller Secret of Kalinga, it was almost like it was okay on paper, but the limitations in pulling off something like this on a minimal budget were causing the issue. But as the movie progressed, you slowly realize how mediocre the imagination is, and it was […]

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Backrooms Review | A Captivating Concept Elevated by Foreshadowing and Ambiguity

Aswin Bharadwaj — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 03:20:59 +0000

There are many ambiguous elements in the latest A24 distributed film, Backrooms, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons. The movie was extremely absorbing in its concept, and it was fun to see discussions among audience members right after the end credits rolled. Backrooms, in a way, is like those early Christopher Nolan films in which you […]

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Disclosure Day Review | Spielberg’s New Alien Tale Is an Intriguingly Crafted, Unsurprising Movie

Aswin Bharadwaj — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:08:28 +0000

The premise of the latest Steven Spielberg film, Disclosure Day, is not something we have not seen or anticipated. There have always been conspiracy theories about UFOs being spotted, and Disclosure Day is pretty much a fiction that explores this possibility. It is said that Spielberg, who had always had a fascination with this concept, […]

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Parimala and Co Review | A Scattered Dark Comedy That Ran Out of Ideas After the Initial Burst

Aswin Bharadwaj — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 14:09:01 +0000

If you look at the promos for the latest Tamil comedy from Pandiraaj, Parimala and Co, it gives that Mohiniyattam kind of vibe, where they’re taking a spin on Paapanasam, the Tamil remake of Drishyam. With Urvashi and Jayaram sharing crackling chemistry on screen, it felt like the movie would have enough dark humor to […]

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Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai Review | David Dhawan’s Pregnancy Comedy Suffers From Creative Impotency

Aswin Bharadwaj — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 01:41:53 +0000

There was an anecdote that Juhi Chaturvedi, the writer of movies like Vicky Donor, Piku, etc., shared in an interview about one of the writing assignments she got post the success of Vicky Donor. When she asked for some time to write the script, the producer gave her a breakdown of the writing process. He […]

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Masters of the Universe Review | A Lazy Superhero Movie That Uses a Scrapped MCU Algorithm

Aswin Bharadwaj — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 02:09:43 +0000

For many of the 90s kids, He-Man and The Masters of the Universe is a nostalgic memory. It has a space almost equivalent to all the other superheroes, like Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc. Since I knew how the episodes in those animated series were designed, I was curious to know how, in this advanced era […]

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Mollywood Times Review | An Unapologetically Entertaining Film That Explores the Cynical Grey Zone

Aswin Bharadwaj — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:03:55 +0000

The director of the movie Mollywood Times, Abhinav Sunder Nayak, had said that this movie is part of the success trilogy he is planning, and Mukundan Unni Associates was the first in that. And he had also said that this one will not be as cynical as Mukundan Unni. If you were slightly disappointed by […]

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Maa Behen Review | This Black Comedy on the Patriarchal Gaze Lands Safely, Not Smoothly

Aswin Bharadwaj — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:38:54 +0000

The title of the latest Netflix original film by Suresh Triveni, Maa Behen, is pretty striking because it is generally used as an insult. The title song of Rani Mukerji’s Mardaani has lines that say “Jis duniya mein maa behne Rishte nahi hai, gaali hain.” So the ultimate goal of this movie, written by Pooja […]

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Obsession Review | This Mad Spin on Unrequited Love Gloriously Reinvents the Horror Genre

Aswin Bharadwaj — Sat, 30 May 2026 13:17:43 +0000

More than people who love watching cinema, I think the ones who should really watch the most talked-about Hollywood film of recent times, Obsession, are the filmmakers. How this movie is rooted entirely in its writing can inspire many filmmakers and even push some people to step outside their comfort zones. With the storytelling not […]

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