We recommend: The best new movies and TV series

 

Editor’s note: An interesting week at the movies by virtue of sheer variety. Don’t miss Hamnet, a speculative take on William Shakespeare’s creation of Hamlet. Also in theatres is the three-hour Brazilian political thriller The Secret Agent, starring a charismatic Wagner Moura. On Netflix is Accused, a Hindi MeToo thriller with a woman accused. There’s also the second part of Bridgerton season four, but most of you know that. Crime hounds who don’t mind subtitles, don’t miss the Tamil series Thadayam.

 

New releases

 

Hamnet (English)

 

Chloé Zhao's semi-beguiling take on the origins of William Shakespeare's Hamlet locates the play's secret chord in Hamnet, the bard's son who died at 11. The film has been nominated for eight Oscars.

 

Zhao exploits perennial sadboi Paul Mescal's rakish charm in the film's early moments. William (Mescal) rushes to bed and wed Anne (Jessie Buckley) before riding off to London and test his luck as a playwright. William and Anne are soon parents to three, including the twins Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) and Judith (Olivia Lynes). 

 

The marriage strikes 13 o’ clock after Hamnet's death sends William off to composing Hamlet, while Anne stays back grieving. Their love is strong but she needs proof. William delivers in a play that has the whole world share their tears.

 

The MVPs are Buckley and Jupe, giving soul-crushing performances as mother and son, and cinematographer Łukasz Żal (Cold War, The Zone of Interest) whose haunted images perfectly complement the portentous first half. A reliable Joe Alwyn doesn’t try too hard in his small but significant role of Anne’s brother.

 

The film is as speculative as Irish author Maggie O’Farrell's source novel. Adam Nayman of The New Republic, in a positive review, wrote on the guilt-ridden absentee father’s drive to create Hamlet: "With a central character so preoccupied by mournful self-incrimination, the play’s existentialist textures of angst and indecision, as well as its morbid inventory of familial betrayal and flawed father figures, carry a potent charge of survivor’s guilt."

 

Many critics noted Zhao dropping the film's subtleness and sensitivity right after Hamnet's death and going for full-blown melodrama. In a caustic review for Time magazine, Stephanie Zacharek wrote, "Zhao doesn’t know how to take a less-is-more approach: there’s one crucial moment when Buckley’s face could tell us everything we need to know, but lest we fail to get the memo, her emotions need to be punctuated with an agonised scream."

 

Where to watch: Theatres

The Secret Agent (Portuguese)

 

The times demanded an almost-three-hour Portuguese-language political thriller set during Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985) featuring a professor trying to escape persecution be made—and raise a storm worldwide.

 

Four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor aside, its awards run began early, during its Cannes 2025 premiere, where lead Wagner Moura (Pablo Escobar from Netflix’s Narcos) won Best Actor and Kleber Mendonça Filho won Best Director.

 

The film is a sobering look at life under an oppressive government’s scanner darkly, where dissidents hide in the dark hoping for light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian, in a glowing review, wrote:

 

The Secret Agent doesn’t have the imperatives of a conventional thriller and expecting these will cause impatience. It’s more novelistic in its way: a movie of character, a showcase for Moura’s complex, sympathetic performance – but also the platform for some thrilling, bravura film-making.

 

Where to watch: Theatres 

 

Accused (Hindi)

 

The SheToo thriller stars the steely and sensitive Konkona Sensharma as Geetika, a doctor accused of sexual misconduct. Pratibha Rannta plays Meera, her wife, trying to process the accusations while making sense of her place in her partner’s life. 

 

Most critics noted the novelty of the premise but were mostly disappointed by the lukewarm denouement, especially with a far superior film about a female MeToo accused already existing: Tár (2022)—watch the Cate Blanchett-starrer on JioHotstar.

 

Scroll’s Nandini Ramnath praised the film’s early portions and the two central actors.

 

Konkona Sensharma and Pratibha Rannta expertly bring out the differences in appearance and temperament between the heroines. Geetika strides alpha male-like in pantsuits through the hospital’s corridors, her every step signalling ambition and purpose. Geetika is always a facial expression away from exploding – Sensharma brilliantly brings out Geetika’s aggressive body language, hauteur and escalating panic.

 

Meera, a paediatrician, is softer and gentler, often seen performing tasks at the house she shares with her spouse. Pratibha Rannta is compelling as a woman forced to acknowledge the skewed dynamic with her beloved partner.

 

Where to watch: Netflix 

 

Blossoms Shanghai (Mandarin, etc.)

 

The director of In The Mood For Love, that movie you love revisiting to romanticise the one that got away (or doesn’t exist IRL), has a sumptuous 30-episode period drama about one man's rise to glory in 1990s Shanghai. Fans of director Wong Kar-wai (Chungking Express, Fallen Angels) might be slightly disappointed by the absence of cinematographer Christopher Doyle, the main man responsible for the acid-trip look of WKW’s early work. Nonetheless, the first 10 episodes of the Chinese series are streaming with the next 10 due for April. No complaints.

 

Where to watch: MUBI

 

Nukkad Naatak (Hindi)

 

A New Indian Express report notes that this low-budget indie was directed by Tanmaya Shekhar, "a 28-year-old Kanpur IIT student, who wants to make a change in society through his films." Okay!

 

The plot involves two engineering students, but more importantly, theatre activists, who get expelled from college. The feisty woman and the shy man piggybacking on her attitude are given a chance to redeem themselves: get five kids from the slums to join school. The plot pushes the duo to confront their privileges, have coming-of-age arcs, and so on. 

 

The production company is literally called How to Enter Bollywood. The film involves an army of first-timers, entirely disconnected from the Mumbai movie machine. The team travelled across India and performed street theatre to promote the film. Videos of these have gone viral. Suffice to say, the creation of the film itself is the bigger story here.

 

Where to watch: Theatres

 

The Bluff (English)

 

Priyanka Chopra Jonas showed her action chops early, in the fourth year of her career with Farhan Akhtar’s Don (2006). She has since stressed out her glutes, sprinted about and beyond Mumbai’s studios, and kicked sundry ass in Hollywood productions like Quantico, The Citadel, and Heads of State. Set in the 19th century, The Bluff stars PC as Ercell, an ex-pirate who has to protect her family from an old enemy, one Captain Connor (Karl Urban; Billy Butcher from The Boys). Millions of dollars worth action scenes follow, with PC literally cutting men down to size.

 

Simon Abrams of Rogerebert.com, while being moderately critical of the film, did add: “The Bluff exemplifies a very enjoyable type of nostalgia-bait, even if it’s never as good as its elevator pitch.”

 

Where to watch: Prime Video 

 

Thadayam (Tamil)

 

Murders most foul are afoot. The only thadayam (clue) is that the killers are disappearing with the taaii, a piece of jewellery indicating where women are married. The police are clueless, except the mysterious and eccentric SI Athiyamaan (Samuthirakani). Together with his new boss Lakshmi (Sshivada), he must cross into Andhra Pradesh to get to the bottom of the carnage.

 

Scroll was mighty impressed with the six-episode series. The review called it a “crisp show” that is “amply suspenseful and a decently rigorous police procedural”, reserving praise for Samuthirakani’s local Sherlock act.

 

Where to watch: Zee5

 

Paul McCartney: Man on the Run (English)

 

Yet another film about the Beatles, you say? What’s another drop in the ocean, we ask. Macca, legitimate rock ‘n’ roll superhero and arguably a genius in the true sense of the word, is front and centre in this latest rock doc, both on screen and off (he exec-produced Man on the Run). The film uses archival video, audio, and photo records of Paul McCartney and his late wife, Linda, as well as their peripheral orbit, to paint a portrait of the great man.

 

It covers the period from the bitter late stage Beatles era, starting 1969, to his latter-day endeavours with the mom-and-pop band Wings, which too ended by 1981 (the latter band taking up much of the real estate here). It’s a film largely for Macca stans and Wings fans (with a mix of seen and unseen footage), as Alissa Wilkinson in The New York Times wrote, or for Beatles rookies looking for a quick McCartney 101. She helpfully added: “For those who fall somewhere in the middle, it’s less satisfying. But don’t worry: I’ve no doubt there’s another Beatles-related documentary en route.”

 

Where to watch: Prime Video 

 

 

Fresh off the big screen

 

Ikkis (Hindi)

 

Amitabh Bachchan's grandson Agastya Nanda plays martyred 21-year-old Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal who defied orders, barrelled into enemy territory, notched 10 confirmed tank kills, and became a legend. Dharmendra plays his grieving father trying to understand his son 25 years after his death. Jaideep Ahlawat plays a Pakistani armyman carrying a dark secret. 

 

Director Sriram Raghavan, known for his stylish crime thrillers (Ek Hasina Thi, Johnny Gaddaar, Badlapur, Andhadhun), told Scroll about why he made Ikkis:

 

Our references included American films like Saving Private Ryan but also Russian films like Ballad of a Soldier and The Cranes Are Flying, which are essentially humanistic films about war. Yes, there is an enemy, there is death and violence, but at the end of it, there is a certain ache in the heart, which is what I wanted to bring out.

 

Where to watch: Prime Video

 

One Battle After Another (English)

 

Paul Thomas Anderson’s attempt at an anachronistic political thriller is actually a father-daughter story. Leonardo DiCaprio plays an ex-Leftist revolutionary who has to rescue his daughter (Chase Infiniti) from a mad White supremacist armyman (Sean Penn), who might just be the real father. Benicio del Toro has the scene-stealing role of a karate teacher who keeps telling Leo’s reluctant hero to stay steady under pressure. Do not miss Penn's otherworldly performance and a bravura climactic car-chase scene that has to be seen to be believed.

 

Where to watch: JioHotstar

 

Bugonia (English)

 

Two well-meaning nutcase eco-terrorists kidnap a powerful CEO of a pharmaceutical giant, convinced she is an alien plotting humanity's destruction. The girlboss, played by Emma Stone, is held captive and made to face crazy psychological interrogations. Power shifts happen as the confrontations get increasingly surreal.

 

A solid dark comedy on corporate mistrust and end-of-days paranoia, this one's directed by Stone's BFF Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, Poor Things), the only man who knows how to click photos of a woman, undirected.

 

Where to watch: JioHotstar

 

Black Phone 2 (English)

 

Hit sequel to hit horror film sees the return of primary cast members. Mason Thames is Finny Blake, the young boy who escaped the clutches of the masked serial killer The Grabber (Ethan Hawke, reprising his role) in part one. This time, Finny's young sister Gwen (Madeline McGraw) is thrown into the mix. Some terrible things are at play, and a black phone rings in dreams beckoning the siblings towards something dark and dangerous. The director is Scott Derrickson, who directed Hawke first in the creepy 2012 horror film Sinister.

 

Where to watch: JioHotstar

 

 

One more chapter

 

Bridgerton S04 Part 2 (English)

 

A handsome British aristocrat Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) falls for person-of-colour maid Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), who lives with a cruel stepmother.

 

The fourth season of the global hit series, lab-created for casting aggrieved glances at your male partner, has drawn comparisons with season two. Benedict, the romantic bohemian or the stoic and intense Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) from S02—with whom would you travel blind?

 

PS: There’s a fab orchestral cover of Charli XCX’s 360 in episode five.

 

Where to watch: Netflix