We recommend: The best new movies and TV series

Editor’s note: A new Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson film, a new Tom Cruise and Alejandro G Iñárritu film, and well, a new Drishyam. Along with these, there is Florence Pugh in East of Eden, a new season of the Prime series Dupahiya, and Bethlehem Kudumba Unit finally drops on streaming. 

*****

Verity (English)

Michael Showalter’s psychological erotic thriller film stars Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson. In any world, this should count as a reason persuasive enough to watch the film. Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, the plot centres around a struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson). She is employed to finish the rest of the remaining writing on a series whose original author, Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), suffers a car accident and is left paralysed. 

The adaptation is as pulpy as it gets, with the lead stars being praised for their performances. “There’s a very real power in fiction, even the kind that “real writers” might tend to look down on, but most of it can be demystified by taking a beat and making room for ambiguity. Verity would fall apart if it gave us that chance, but this well-furnished popcorn thriller crucially denies it from its characters as well, or at least encourages them to deny it from themselves,” writes Indiewire. 

Where to watch: Theatres

Digger (English)

Alejandro G Iñárritu and Tom Cruise come together for the first time with this film. In this satire, a Texan oil mogul called “Digger” Rockwell (Cruise) is informed that his company’s reckless practice, which he was warned against, has caused a crisis. And this might cause a nuclear attack. 

Highly anticipated, the film has received polarising reviews. “Most people won't go to see it – and some people who do will walk out halfway through. But that doesn't mean that Digger is a failure. It's just that it's a bizarre, hectoring, conceptually challenging eco-satire, so it's not likely to be mistaken for Mission: Impossible,” writes the BBC. 

Where to watch: Theatres

Drishyam The Conclusion (Hindi)

Hindi cinema has a remake problem; it also has a sequel problem. Drishyam inhabits both. Originally based on the Mohanlal starrer, the film closely followed the original in its two iterations. The finale, however, marked a departure. Directed by Abhishek Pathak, this is a surprisingly gratifying conclusion to a long, overdrawn narrative of a father going all out to protect his family. 

“Riding on a taut script that is predicated on mishaps and moves of the past, Drishyam: The Conclusion stitches together a tale that is fascinating enough not to lose much steam as it makes its way to a flummoxing and inconclusive denouement. The elements strewn along the pathway to the climax do their bit to hold the film together,” says NDTV. 

Where to watch: Theatres

Prem Keetanu (Hindi)

Another in our newfound tradition of including films that are so bad that they are good. Directed by Apoorv Singh Karki, the film is a remake of the Malayalam romantic blockbuster Premalu (2024). The premise is surprisingly dated: two men, one woman; after rejecting both, she chooses one. Because. 

Starring Veer Pahariya, Aafiya Sayed, and Aparshakti Khurana, the Hindi version does little to upgrade the troublingly regressive messaging of the original. 

Where to watch: Theatres

East of Eden (English)

John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel gets a stylish makeover in this new limited series starring Florence Pugh, created by Zoe Kazan. The series is set in the 19th century, kicking off when half-brothers Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Charles Trask (Mike Faist) meet Cathy (Pugh), battered and bloody. Adam rescues her, and eventually falls hopelessly in love with her. Charles, on the other hand, remains deeply suspicious of Cathy. She, really, is at the heart of this series, with her enigmatic actions prodding the narrative. “As a high-quality family saga, then,” writes The Guardian, “it’s brilliant, compelling entertainment. As an excoriation of human nature, as an examination of how helpless we are before our inborn proclivities, it perhaps cannot help but lack the heft it needs.” 

Where to watch: Netflix

Pooja Meri Jaan (Hindi)

Navjot Gulati’s Pooja Meri Jaan, starring Mrunal Thakur as the titular Pooja, is a complex interrogation of courtship, romance, and the interpersonal dynamics that the Me Too movement of the late 2010s helped articulate to the public. Aniket (Vikramsingh Chauhan) dies by suicide upon being rejected with a degree of harshness. She is then accused of abetment of suicide, for which Sana (Huma Qureshi) defends her. The execution doesn’t quite match up to the ambition here; writes Scroll: “The treatment of the complicated relationship that can exist between conflicted women and monomaniacal men is shallow, just as the big truth about the actual dynamic between Pooja and Aniket is treated as a twist rather than an insightful exploration of gender ties.”

Where to watch: Zee5

Chumbak – Part 2 (Hindi)

Chumbak, Netflix’s throwback Hindi sitcom, released its first set of episodes last month. The next lot is also out now, and it’s the kind of silly, mindless, old-school fun that’s hard to find these days, featuring stalwarts like Deven Bhojani and Neena Gupta. The plot revolves around five oddball families packed together in tight houses in a Mumbai neighbourhood called Chumbak. But the real charm here is in the exaggerated, almost cartoonish characters goofing off. The Hollywood Reporter India writes: “It’s eight hours of shrieky, screwy, scaba-dabba-doo slapstick. No fruit hangs too low in this garden of gags. "She's my Twitter wife," says Bhojani. "I mean, my 'X' wife".”

Where to watch: Netflix

Doing Life (English)

A wall separates Anika (Naomi Baker), pregnant and struggling to keep it together, and Carousel (Jay Reeves), a man with much to offer. He’s an inmate at the prison she works at. During a riot, he protects her and the baby. They exchange letters with each other, and a special bond develops, as each one only has the written word—the handwriting, the thoughts and emotions on the page—to make sense of each other. The film, directed by Tyler Perry, is about second chances. 

Where to watch: Netflix 

Schumacher ’94 – The Birth of a Legend

Back in 1994, Michael Schumacher was a young upstart with big dreams. Eventually, he would go on to become one of the all-time Formula 1 greats, with seven Championships to his name. But in one of the most controversial seasons in the history of the sport, Schumacher announced himself on the biggest stage with his debut title win. A new Netflix documentary travels back in time to trace—through archival footage and fresh interviews with the family and others—the birth of this modern great, in a season marred by intense rivalries, controversial crashes, and, tragically, the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at the San Marino Grand Prix, leading to major changes within the sport. 

Where to watch: Netflix 

One more chapter

Dupahiya S2 (Hindi)

The new season of this slice-of-life village dramedy sheds its Panchayat-lite tendencies to find its own voice. We pick up in the aftermath of Roshni Jha’s (Shivani Raghuvanshi) wedding being called off, and all the ensuing drama in the family’s life. She wants to become an officer. The dad has lost his job. The son still has dreams of becoming a viral superstar. There’s a cop plugging away at a scam in the back. There’s a lot happening in this capsule of rural India, and the reviews suggest that it largely succeeds. Writes The Hollywood Reporter: 

Beneath the low-calorie filmmaking and ‘timepass’ patterns, there’s a genuine curiosity about why Indians behave the way they do. It may feel like the tone trivialises the crisis, but it actually humanises the genre. It’s watchable, because it watches us back.

Where to watch: Prime Video 

Fresh off the big screen

Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (Malayalam)

This Girish AD film made waves upon its release. Although set against a tricky premise—a younger girl falling for an older man—the outing is a surprisingly charming encounter. Starring Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju, it has received unanimous praise. The streaming drop might be the best time to catch up. 

Where to watch: JioHotstar