Rajiv Vijayakar is the Entertainment Editor at South Asian Herald. He has been a journalist and critic for over 25 years and was part of the National Film Awards Jury in India in 2011 and 2015. He has authored four books, the latest of which, “Music by Laxmikant Pyarelal,” won the National Award for Best Book on Cinema in 2021. He also was on the 2025 jury for choosing the Indian entry for the Oscars.
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The title means a ‘heartbeat.’ It narrates the story of a foul-mouthed, near-inhuman and completely unscrupulous and callous man living and prospering (not necessarily by fair means) in a foreign…
Saif Ali Khan is back on OTT after Jewel Thief last year in a gritty desi avatar with Kartavya. Known for earning acclaim every time he steps into rustic and rooted characters, as…
The Marathi movie dream run continues… Baapya (loosely translating as a ‘grown-up man’) is a film whose title may suggest a comedy. But it actually deals with a serious issue that…
The fifth month of the year is here and we have already had Anushka Sharma celebrate her birthday on May 1 and legendary character artiste and one-time leading lady and producer Aruna Irani observe…
A wise man once said, “The most valuable gift one can give one’s child is time.” Is that also true in reverse? Do parents too need time from their children?…
An untold story of India’s 1990s financial crisis—the intriguing and hard-hitting teaser of Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s GOVERNOR: The Silent Saviour has just been released. The film narrates yet another untold story—of yet…
If a textbook is written on how to make a good movie, this can be included as great example. Krishnavataram Part 1: Hridayam, planned as the first of a tri-lingual trilogy,…
In films in particular and Art in general, there is no discrimination between Hindu and Muslim, and even less between Hindi and Urdu. As Hasrat Jaipuri had asserted once, the…
I chose to watch the bilingual in Marathi, not Hindi. The essence of many a dialogue can be lost completely in translation. Having watched both Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior (2020) and Chhaava (2025), I…
With Hera Pheri (2000) turning the tide in favor of very successful comedies that were clean, Hindi cinema moved beyond the increasingly trope-driven, actor-driven and even double-entendre comedies, most of which tended…
Time and again, romantic triangles have been box-office fodder. And ditto rom-coms. When these two genres are blended, we have the rom-com triangles: Pati Patni Aur Woh (1978) and its reboot in…
Irrfan Khan was an actor par excellence. It was his restraint and minimalism that marked every character that he essayed. He used his eyes to convey his emotions with effortless…
It was a unique introduction to the film’s music score, which is already available online. Aamir Khan’s production, Ek Din, was intended to be his son Junaid Khan’s first release, as…
The series is said to be inspired by Ratan Khatri, the matka king of Mumbai. Khatri was the kingpin of the matka, a form of betting, which became one of the most lucrative…
Lyricist Irshad Kamil, who is flying high today, has written lyrics for films like Chhaava (perceived as a ‘propaganda’ film last year) as well as Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar The Revenge, also considered in the same…
In a first-ever collaboration, Jio Studios, Sanjay Dutt’s Three Dimension Motion Pictures and Aksha Kamboj’s Aspect Entertainment have come together to recreate the magic of the iconic film, Khal Nayak, with Khalnayak…
