We recommend: The best new movies and TV series

Editor’s note: Excess angst in the pants this week. A gallery of rogue lovers onscreen and off. Toh Ti Ani Fuji has ex-lovers making sense of one another in Tokyo. Dacoit in theatres is bloody and messy featuring a bemused Anurag Kashyap. There’s a wacky Tamil one: Love Insurance Kompany. Fresh off the big screen are Vishal Bhardwaj’s O’Romeo and the must-watch Tu Yaa Main. One has crocodile tears, the other a crocodile. There’s also Frankenstein’s monster finally getting a dating app match in The Bride! Oh, and the fifth season of The Boys is here; is there any end to it—but who’s complaining?

*****

New releases

Toh Ti Ani Fuji (Marathi, also available in Hindi)

They were in love. They had their issues. The issues got the better of their love. Familiar? But they get a second chance in Tokyo. Familiar? Sometimes. Critics have praised the Marathi romantic drama for its sincere and dark portrayal of how a relationship blooms, falls apart, and the pieces are carried as pieces, never a whole, for years, regardless of what kind of reunion is in store.

Scroll's Nandini Ramnath wrote, "Toh Ti Ani Fuji is the kind of grown-up, intimate and sexually frank drama that’s rarely available in Marathi cinema. Featuring stupendous performances by the leads and several moments of piercing honesty, the movie isn’t afraid to confront the darker aspects of the Toh-Ti dynamic."

Rahul Desai of The Hollywood Reporter India wrote, "The craft of the film supports its unnerving ambitions (...) I like the way Japan is woven into the story as a character. Particularly the metaphor of Mount Fuji as a “dormant volcano” and “visible from everywhere,” pertaining to the central relationship: an exotic tourist destination, but with a simmering personality within."

Where to watch: SonyLIV

Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa (Hindi)

Rajat Kapoor has done it again! Oh, a chamber drama, with his theatre buddies, that’s a dark comedy, revealing of the human soul, and there’s a must-have corpse. Starring Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Waluscha De Sousa, Saurabh Shukla, Koel Purie, Sadiya Siddiqui, Neil Bhoopalam, Palomi Ghosh, and more. 

Critics have mostly praised it. The Hindu’s Anuj Kumar wrote, “...Kapoor explores the irony of the title — how love can coexist with deep loathing in close relationships. When a bully is celebrated or tolerated, does that behavior become contagious?”

Where to watch: Zee5

Dacoit (Dual release in Telugu and Hindi)

More ex-lovers reuniting, this time featuring smoke, metal, adrenaline, and haemoglobin. One of Telugu cinema's brightest stars, actor-director-screenwriter Adivi Sesh, and Mrunal Thakur, play lovers who hate each other but need each other. The complicated screenplay pushes them into a heist years after their nasty breakup. Anurag Kashyap, playing a cop who's seen it all, is on the chase.

Here's Nandini Ramnath for Scroll.

The film’s writers – Adivi Sesh and Shanil Deo – have decided to earn every bit of their screenwriting credit. Sesh and Deo are determined to roll out a series of twists, unmindful of how ridiculous they are. At least the dizzying developments do generate giggles in a mostly overwrought movie in which Adivi Sesh glowers endlessly and Mrunal Thakur weeps copiously.

Where to watch: Theatres

Love Insurance Kompany (Tamil)

Not the most imaginative science-fiction idea, but it stars Tamil cinema's romantic man of the hour Pradeep Ranganathan alongside rising star Krithi Shetty. The ever-entertaining SJ Suryah plays the nasty head of a corporation that has devised a dating app in 2040, not too different from the ones we have now. The leads are supposed to not work out, as per the algo. Which flummoxes the bad guy, determined to be proven right.

Vishal Menon of The Hollywood Reporter India called the film "boomercore" and wrote: "What’s worse is how the jokes never land. For all the talk of the future, the film feels ridiculously old-fashioned in its values." 

Where to watch: Theatres

Outcome (English)

Keanu Reeves plays the delightfully named Reef Hawk, a Hollywood star who's been AWOL, coping with his demons for five years. Just when he and his friends feel he's got it all together, a video from the past resurfaces that has him going on an odyssey to figure out which hater loves him so much. Directed by and co-starring Jonah Hill. There's also Cameron Diaz. Music by (this one's for rock nerds) Magnolia (1999) composer Jon Brion, close collaborator of, you name it, Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and Frank Ocean.

Where to watch: Apple TV

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord (English)

Hallelujah for Star Wars nerds. The new animated series mines the depths of one of the franchise’s most iconic villains, and it’s got rave reviews. 

Here's a promising paragraph from Empire magazine's positive review from Amon Warmann. Stop reading if you don't know the lore.

Maul contains multitudes, and we see a great many of them over the course of the season. Maul the schemer takes precedence early on as he looks to take revenge on his enemies. Maul the teacher is one of the strongest storylines, his not-quite-allies-but-not-quite-enemies dynamic with young Jedi Padawan Devon Izara (Gideon Adlon) one of the backbones of the season. Through them, the political undertones that have always been a part of Star Wars become more explicit too, with dialogue like, “What does it mean to be a Jedi? Guardian of peace and justice in a time of lawlessness,” and, “You don’t realise the fragility of these institutions until they’re ripped away,” nodding to the US’ current political moment. Later, Maul the betrayed comes to the fore in a moment of startling vulnerability that leads to well-earned tears.

Where to watch: JioHotstar

Untold: Chess Mates (English)

One of chess's most controversial moments gets the Netflix documentary treatment. Cheating allegations following Hans Niemann's shocking victory over Magnus Carlsen in 2022 is what’s at stake. Investigation, lawsuits, reputational damage, an attempt for a comeback culminating in a high-stakes rematch. This one’s a potboiler.

Where to watch: Netflix

Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic (English)

A behind-the-scenes docu about the making of the new Harry Potter series. 

Where to watch: JioHotstar

Fresh off the big screen

O’Romeo (Hindi)

Vishal Bhardwaj and Shahid Kapoor team up for a pop-Shakespearean take on an apocryphal tale of love and vengeance from Mumbai mafia lore. Tripti Dimri plays the damsel in distress, biding her time to strike with venom when the iron is hot. Her frequent co-star Avinash Tiwary plays the glowering baddie with great joy. Featuring fab tunes from the Gulzar-Bhardwaj-Arijit Singh trio.

Where to watch: Prime Video

Tu Yaa Main (Hindi)

Uptown girl and downtown boy find each other on social media. The collab goes awry as they travel to no man’s land and are caught in a dry pool with a hangry crocodile. Can they trust each other to find something real beyond playing footsie? 

Where to watch: Netflix

Scream 7 (English)

Can you believe it? The Scream franchise has been running for three decades. Neve Campbell is still screaming and fighting Ghostface. Are they in love? This one's strictly for the fans.

Where to watch: BookMyShow Stream

Thaai Kizhavi (Tamil)

A most beautiful dark comedy. An elderly moneylender is bedridden. Her sons and estranged husband swoop in on her home to get hold of the assets. But the dastardly matriarch intends to have the lot in a deadly grip until the very end.

Where to watch: JioHotstar

The Bride! (English)

Take that exclamation mark seriously. Frankenstein’s monster, played by Christian Bale, is looking for a lover. He finds one in another undead maniac, played by Jessie Buckley. Together, they drag everyone around on a rollercoaster ride putting bad guys in their place.

Where to watch: BookMyShow Stream

One more chapter

The Boys S05 (English)

This is the final season of the series that possibly induced mass superhero fatigue over the past five-six years leading to the once seemingly invincible Marvel and DC flopping face-first in theatres. Superheroes are perverts too, and villains can find redemption as well, is the core message of the series based on the graphic novel by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson.

This conceit goes all the way back to Alan Moore's ’80s graphic novel Watchmen. But where Moore somehow managed to tightly control the integrity of his work, limiting the comic book adaptations to exactly one film and one season of a televised series, Amazon and showrunner Eric Kripke have dragged their tale for five whole seasons. For the fans, of course.

Where to watch: Prime Video