I grew up in a household that banned movies except for a select few. This rule at home meant that when cinema-related debates like Vijay vs. Surya popped up in my classroom, I had to think on my feet. I would take Vijay’s side “because he dances well.” Had I ever watched him dance? No.
15 years later, I still haven’t caught up and everyone around me is painfully aware of it. My friends make me watch classics with them and listen to their Rajini playlists.
I’ve had more free time this year compared to the last few and to fill it up, I’m making movie-watching a habit. I read somewhere that “2026 is a comeback year for movie theatres” so I’m hopping on the bandwagon while trying to catch up on the old stuff. Here’s some of the movies I’ve watched this year so far, rated un-expertly
- Project Hail Mary
Expected it to be like Interstellar but apart from some stunning visuals and good score, there was little similarity. As my brother and I articulated, it seemed like Interstellar’s main thread was the science and the legacy carried on by the daughter while Hail Mary’s was the heartwarming friendship between a human scientist and an alien mechanic. Cried a couple of times while watching this. Like a broken record, I kept doing the thumbs down + “amaze amaze amaze” catchphrase for a week after. 9/10
- The Drama
A mind-bender of a movie that left me and my friend awake all night (to calm down, she watched a sitcom and I scrolled through reels.) Robert Pattinson is extremely convincing as a guy who overanalyses his girlfriend’s mistake from years ago and spirals his way into cheating on her and having a physical altercation at his own wedding. Given that the last movie of his I remember watching is Twilight, this was a very pleasant surprise. I was also taken aback by the camera work which I now know is an A24 hallmark. 2/10 for contentment after watching, but 7/10 for impact
- Michael
Hooted a lot. Teared up a bit. I listened to a lot of Michael Jackson as a pre-teen and I remember being enamoured by the physics-defying lean in the Smooth Criminal music video (like everybody else), so this was a movie I was invested in from the get-go. I left the theatre feeling nostalgic, hopeful and other such good things. A lot of the discussion surrounding this movie paints it in an unflattering light - too sanitised, something that glossed over the allegations that he faced - but I’m on the side of the fence that absolutely loved it. A wonderful retelling of his journey as an artist. The fact that his nephew, Jaafar Jackson, plays him in this movie? AH! 10/10! WHAT A LEGEND.
- Vaazha 2
Quickly looked up if I was supposed to have watched Vaazha 1 before this but turns out you don’t. A real warm journey that follows a bunch of bros through their shenanigans in school and afterward. Some of the scenes (not the drug ones) took me back to my own shenanigans. I learnt later that this is Savin S.A’s directorial debut and if this is a first, I’m already looking forward to the next one. My only nitpick was the fight scenes were a little too long for my liking. I was a little confused about how the movie would conclude given the characters were on seemingly very different arcs, but it connected beautifully. 7.5/10
- K3G
Unexpected tear jerker. So much melodrama but that’s the point isn’t it? I’m closer to understanding why Karan Johar’s directorial style is so loved. Kajol was amazing at playing the bubbly no-nonsense girl who I/SRK couldn’t help falling in love with. I was pointing at the screen whenever Kareena Kapoor showed up because all the “Poo” references I’d come across over the years finally had context. The only downside was that I was a little disturbed by the father’s obsession with (who was supposed to be) his future daughter-in-law but apart from that, my heart was doing a little dance throughout. 9/10 6. Salaam Namaste
I was staring at Preity’s outfits for the majority of the movie because they were just so colourful and chic. I looked up the the stylist afterward - her name’s Surily Goel and was the first Bollywood movie she styled for. The entire movie was a rollercoaster of a watch of two ambitious and commitment-phobic people finding their way to each other forever. It deals with live-in relationships and pregnancy before marriage, which was surprising given this was made in the early 2000s. It may be because my attention span’s shot that I had to pause the movie a couple times but otherwise, I had a good time. “Exhjactly” 8/10
- DDLJ
This was another tear jerker (”Ja Simran Ja” was the trigger.) It turns out that Kajol and SRK ending up together always is. I found myself singing “pyaar hota hai deewana sanam” to myself during and after the movie. I went down a rabbit hole to find out why DDLJ was such a humongous hit and learnt that while many movies at the time dealt with eloping, this was the first where the hero actually worked hard to get the heroine’s family’s approval, which was a groundbreaker of sorts. The Europe scenes were all my favourite because of how pretty they were, but it was Kajol and SRK’s chemistry that kept me invested for the 3 hours. Palat/10