Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri: Winding Narrative Drowns Out A Promising Premise
|
Sameer Vidwans' film is an ambitious romance that wants to challenge convention, but keeps circling familiar emotional beats without digging deeper, Ishita Sengupta reviews.
| | | | Cast: Kartik Aaryan, Ananya Panday | | | | SAMEER VIDWANS' Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri (TMMTTM) , the latest film backed by Dharma, brings back the eternal conflict: love or family? The production house has forever been concerned with this contention and has had leads in films pushed against the wall to make a choice. Even Karan Johar’s last directorial feature, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023), explored this by recasting the discord as warring ideologies. TMMTTM attempts something similar but with far less fun. It is not that the film doesn’t try. If anything, Vidwans' new work (he directed Satyaprem Ki Katha before this) travels a distance and undertakes an increasingly gruelling runtime to show that it indeed is having fun. The story quickly moves to Croatia, and during a yacht week (dotted with parties), the two leads, Rehaan (Kartik Aaryan) and Rumi (Ananya Panday), fall in love. For context, they had run into each other at an airport earlier and ended up sharing the same flight and itinerary. They bickered and fought, and soon, love was awaiting. A pivotal moment occurred when Rumi, an author, cried about getting poor reviews on her novel, and Rehaan consoled her, saying that he would give it 4 stars. At a time when critics as a profession are undergoing a crisis of faith, this isn’t a good sign, but the film insists we roll with it, and we do. Stream Hindi rom-coms, such as Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Jab We Met, and more on OTTplay Premium! Get JioHotstar, ZEE5, Sony LIV, Fancode, Discovery+ and 25+ OTTs |
| | Anaconda: The Trashy-Fun Reptile Movie We Deserve — & Need |
The Paul Rudd-Jack Black starrer is a buddy comedy disguised as a Hollywood parody disguised as a creature thriller (that can’t keep a straight face — or fangs), writes Rahul Desai.
|
| | | Cast: Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton | | | | SPOOFING THE SELF-SERIOUSNESS of any original action franchise from the 1990s is the only way to go, particularly in this social-media era where the meme-fication of nostalgia is a genre in itself; Jurassic World should be taking notes, but it’s too busy doing legacy cash-grabs. In terms of meta-reboots of cult horror hits, Anaconda is more inventive than the latest Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Final Destination instalments. Needless to say, the 1997 creature feature starring Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight and Ice Cube is the wonky ghost that haunts Tom Gormican’s creature comedy, starring Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn and Thandiwe Newton. And needless to say, it’s a satire on filmmaking: a reboot within a reboot that reveals the sheer futility of reboots. Think The Studio meets Tropic Thunder (Jack Black double bill, anyone?) meets Scary Movie meets The Hangover meets…Anaconda? Either way, the worse such movies become, the better they feel. That’s a superpower. Stream the latest films and shows with OTTplay's Power Play monthly pack, for only Rs 149. The plot is straight from B-movie heaven. Doug (Black) is a failed filmmaker who shoots wedding videos in Buffalo; his best friend Griff (Rudd) is a Joey-coded background actor in Los Angeles. They had planned to conquer Hollywood together as horror-movie geeks, but Doug backed out to be a normie, and Griff struggled his way into his late 40s. They reunite on Doug’s birthday, only for Griff to convince him and their other two high-school besties — Kenny (Zahn) and Claire (Newton) — to live their dream and shoot a gritty Anaconda remake (“spiritual sequel”) in Amazonian Brazil. Why such a specific project, you ask? Because Griff claims to have landed the rights of the book on which the 1997 hit was based. He essentially owns the IP, so off they go as an indie ragtag crew with a local handler named Santiago, whose pet anaconda will star in their film. Parallely, a gold-mining crook named Ana crashes their boat party on the river; she’s being chased by gun-toting men, so she segues into their adventure as an unlikely ally. Hers is not a necessary track, but what is necessary anyway? Before they know it, of course, the American crew finds themselves in the middle of a real Anaconda movie, where a mutant snake stalks, crushes and swallows all humans in its watery path (including a slick Sony Pictures crew shooting an ‘official’ reboot). |
| | The one newsletter you need to decide what to watch on any given day. Our editors pick a show, movie, or theme for you from everything that’s streaming on OTT. |
| 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. |
| | Hindustan Media Ventures Limited,
Hindustan Times House, 18-20,
Second Floor, Kasturba Gandhi
Marg, New Delhi - 110 001, India |
DOWNLOAD THE OTTPLAY APP 🔽 |
| | Liked this newsletter? Forward it, or share using the buttons below! |
If you need any guidance or support along the way, please send an email to ottplay@htmedialabs.com . We’re here to help! |
©️2025 OTTplay, HT Media Labs. All rights reserved. |
| | |
