Tere Ishq Mein: Terrible Is An Understatement |
Aanand L Rai uses two films as thematic bookends: Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal and his own Raanjhanaa. None of them is great, but at least they had conviction. And, honesty. Tere Ishq Mein, however, has none, Ishita Sengupta reviews.
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| | | Cast: Dhanush, Kriti Sanon | | | | IN AANAND L RAI’s Tere Ishq Mein, a girl tries to save a boy. He is rowdy and raging; she is focused and attentive. He is a goon; she is a scholar. They are a match made in Hindi cinema heaven, but in the filmmaker’s world, which habitually upends convention only to settle for more perverse versions of it — his last two films, Raksha Bandhan (2022) and Atrangi Re (2021), were hollowed-out bad takes on love and filial ties — this is a recipe for doom no matter which way things spills. Even with these assumptions, Tere Ishq Mein manages to set new lows, unfolding an affront to all senses and living beings, harming, I believe, even the empty chairs in theatres in the process. On a broader level, the film is a spiritual sequel to Raanjhanaa (2013), one of Rai’s early works that gained notoriety in retrospect. Set in Benaras, it centred on Kundan (Dhanush), a man who gave up life in pursuit of love. Over the years, Raanjhanaa has accrued a polarising legacy, with the love story both elevated in pop culture and dissected for glorifying stalking. In comparison, Tere Ishq Mein is more straightforward. It is so bluntly revolting that the possibilities of any future discourse are abated by the brain-dead numbness it induces. Delve into Aanand L Rai’s world of intense love dramas and watch some of his popular films like Raanjhanaa, Tanu Weds Manu and Atrangi Re with an OTTplay Premium subscription. Get JioHotstar, Zee5, Sony LIV, Discovery+, Fancode and 25+ OTTs for only Rs 149 per month. |
| | Victoria: About Womanhood, Wounds & Quiet Resistance |
Victoria gently peels back the layers of a young woman’s life, set against the backdrop of a modest salon that becomes a silent witness to fractured dreams, shared sisterhood, and subdued rebellion, writes Neelima Menon.
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| | | Cast: Meenakshi Jayan, Sreeshma Chandran, Jolly Chiriyath | | | | HOW FITTING THAT A BEAUTY PARLOUR — traditionally seen as a space for surface-level transformation — would become the ideal site for women to slowly unravel their burdens, vulnerabilities, and quiet acts of resilience. In Sivaranjini’s 84-minute film Victoria, this modest parlour in a sleepy Kerala town becomes more than a workplace; it’s a holding space for silent endurance, where conversations are hushed, glances are loaded, and the looming weight of patriarchy is ever-present, despite the near-complete absence of men on screen. ALSO READ | Sivaranjini On Victoria: Crafting Anxiety, Intimacy & Feminine Solidarity On Screen At the centre of it all is Victoria, a young woman (a superb Meenakshi Jayan) who works at the parlour. From the outset, it’s clear that her role is underpaid and undervalued. She is expected to manage the establishment almost single-handedly, juggling multiple responsibilities with little structural and emotional support. The parlour itself reflects her condition — barely maintained, with minimal tools and resources, and functions on neglect and quiet efficiency. Victoria isn’t a fiery rebel or an archetypal victim, but her silence, passivity, and internalised submission speak volumes. She can rarely assert herself and seems conditioned to accommodate others' needs (however absurd that is). This is exemplified when her neighbour makes an outlandish request to leave a rooster in the parlour. What might initially seem like a surreal, even comical intrusion slowly morphs into something more symbolic. The rooster struts awkwardly among the women and mirrors the absurdity of Victoria’s situation — an out-of-place creature in a hyper-feminine space, tolerated without question. |
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| Each week, our editors pick one long-form, writerly piece that they think is worthy of your attention, and dice it into easily digestible bits for you to mull over. |
| In which we invite a scholar of cinema, devotee of the moving image, to write a prose poem dedicated to their poison of choice. Expect to spend an hour on this. |
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