From attention-grabbing triumphs to creative misfires and familiar masculinities, a year-end reckoning across film and television
2025 Wrap: The Good & Not-So-Good Of Film Pop Culture
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It’s the end of 2025, and it’s time for my annual Global-Hollywood-World-Cinema-but-Sometimes-Indian awards list. There is no shortage of categories and no dearth of trophies to hand out this year, Rahul Desai writes.
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ND BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, we’re a year closer to death. Not to sound morbid, but given the sheer drama on and off the screen these days, time doesn’t pass — time gets closer to ending. On that very positive note, it’s the end of 2025, which means only one thing: it’s time for my annual Global-Hollywood-World-Cinema-but-Sometimes-Indian awards list. There is no shortage of categories and no dearth of trophies to hand out this year. A gentle reminder that not just the ‘best’ wins these things. We believe in diversity of merit, mediocrity, autocracy and general controversy. Everyone makes the news, it’s hard not to, so no reason they shouldn’t be recognised. Having said that, here goes: Best ‘Greatest Film Of All Time’ Cultural Moment Award: SINNERS It was Challengers last year, but Ryan Coogler’s vampire-race-music-horror epic is more of a heavyweight in terms of cinematic and socio-cultural merit. Sinners tore a hole in the fabric of White Hollywood for a hot second in April. It got such early Oscar buzz that, as usual, it’s no longer a top contender. But that doesn’t take away the sheer power and genius of a film that’s as anthropological as it is innovative. It does for Black history and cinema what nobody else could: a masterpiece so cold that it will invariably prove to be too good for today’s America and for awards season. |
2025's Most Riveting Films & Series That Made Us Stop Scrolling
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Attention is a rare currency in our current content landscape. But there have been a few movies and series in 2025 that have demanded attention, writes Swetha Ramakrishnan.
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THERE WERE SEVERAL MOMENTS this year when the endless finger-dance of scrolling just stopped. I was tempted to finish a reel that had barely caught my attention, but the minute I pressed play on a few titles released this year, my phone was locked away, my attention rapt, and the thought of doomscrolling was far behind me. Attention is a rare currency in our current content landscape. But there have been a few movies and series in 2025 that have demanded attention. Ones where it seemed rude to look anywhere but at the screen. From the simmering fury of Mrs. and the complex protagonists of Dies Arae, Paatal Lok Season 2, to the creepy unease of Khauf, some titles earned our collective attention not with viral formulas but by presenting riveting storylines and intimate character arcs. They were made with the belief that audiences are capable of nuance and cerebral stamina. They weren’t designed to distract or merely entertain; they made space in our minds for days. They reminded us why we love cinema and TV series in the first place: to get lost in a world created with artistic integrity. |
2025 Is The Year Of Angry Men In Hindi Cinema |
The angry men in Hindi films today are either acting out for being overlooked by their father or fighting against a past that, by all means, has passed. Ishita Sengupta writes.
| LAST WEEK, a look from Akshay Kumar’s upcoming film was shared widely on social media. The image comprised the actor donning a thick beard and a man-bun. In the world of Artificial Intelligence, the veracity of the claim is dubious but also not implausible. Nor is apprehending what Kumar, looking like that, is expected to do. Here are my guesses: he is playing a historical character and beating up men around him, or depicting a chapter from history and beating up men around him. In either case, he will be beating up men. In the recent past, there has been a radical and definitive transformation in the leading men in Hindi cinema. They all appear to be looking the same and are exceedingly angry. This year alone offers several examples. Sonu Sood in Fateh (to be fair, the actor was clean-shaven) and Shahid Kapoor in Deva in January, Vicky Kaushal in Chhaava in February; Sunny Deol (the OG) in Jaat later. There are more instances. Rajkummar Rao in Maalik, Tiger Shroff in Baaghi 4, Farhan Akhtar in 120 Bahadur, Dhanush in Tere Ishk Mein and Ranveer Singh in Dhurandhar. Last year, Varun Dhawan stepped out in Baby John looking raging mad. |
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