Vishal Menon
The Hindu·HollywoodReporterIndia·Indian Express·Film Companion
Vishal Menon is the Assoiciate Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, India.
Unmadham
2026 · HollywoodReporterIndia
A complex story about writer's block, stuck in a shoddy investigation drama.
Vishwanath & Sons
2026 · HollywoodReporterIndia
A plasticky family drama that is just about watchable thanks to Suriya's performance, with the overall impact largely depending on how you feel about Mamitha Baiju's acting.
Vaazha 2
2026 · HollywoodReporterIndia
Adulting And All Its Moods In This Beautiful Bromance. The film surrounds itself with so much of the ordinary that the images we see on screen begin to feel like they are ours.
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit
2026 · HollywoodReporterIndia
Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju's charm powers this ageless, age-gap romance.
Once More
2026 · HollywoodReporterIndia
To call Once More an intense love story would be to reduce it to just one aspect that make this film wonderfully frustrating.
Magudam
2026 · HollywoodReporterIndia
40 minutes into the three-hour-long Magudam, you feel like there's almost nothing you've been told that matters to the larger plot.
Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil
2024 · Film Companion
Basil and Prithviraj have their own chemistry going on, one that feels fresh and rewarding
Vishwaroop 2
2018 · The Hindu · Aug 2018
...too dialogue-heavy for an action thriller...
Kaala
2018 · The Hindu · Jun 2018
...an underwhelming film made for Rajinikanth, the politician
Pelé: Birth of a Legend
2016 · Indian Express · May 2016
All too linear and straightforward. Pele: Birth of a Legend, is a glorious opportunity missed. It had all the ingredients for a humongous biopic. With Pele, the canvas was always going to be broad. But the simplistic treatment, followed by the feeble performances by the cast, makes this film a huge let down.
Sethupathi
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
Sethupathi is one of those films with a second half so good that you are willing to forgive it its first-half flaws. Vijay Sethupathi, who we last saw playing a rowdy in Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, shows that he can be just as good playing a character on the other side of the law.
Uppu Karuvaadu
2015 · The Hindu · Nov 2015
One wonders what these ideas could have been with better execution, with a bit of craft. There's so much good material, so many interesting characters, so many funny ideas…but they remain mere ideas as we watch Uppu Karuvadu.
Hero
2015 · The Hindu · Sep 2015
It's rather surprising that Salman Khan, given his present form, has chosen to produce such an insincere film. What do you call a film even Salman Khan can't save? Hero.
All Is Well
2015 · The Hindu · Aug 2015
All is Well is the kind of film you want to show to that relative who assumes it's easy to watch movies for a living.
Hamari Adhuri Kahani
2015 · The Hindu · Jun 2015
...could still have an audience considering the lady sitting next to me was sobbing during the climax, but given how the three youngsters sitting in front of me were constantly on their phone, it is perhaps a story that would have been best left untold.
Bombay Velvet
2015 · The Hindu · May 2015
In one of the most spectacular-looking Hindi films in recent times, Kashyap transports us effortlessly to a different age and time. Despite pacing issues, the tendency to overstate the obvious and an inconsequential Tommy gun shootout, the film stands true to an indie filmmaker's idea of a blockbuster. The film is every cinematic cliché and so much more. It is every crime movie you have already seen but so much more.
Vai Raja Vai
2015 · The Hindu · May 2015
With Vai Raja Vai, Aishwaryaa has gone unapologetically commercial and this time, her protagonist, Karthik (Gautham Karthik) suffers (or should I say gains?) from a Nostradamus-like power to predict. As I walk out of the theatre, I can't help but feel that her second film too suffers from bipolar disorde
Ungli
2014 · The Hindu · Nov 2014
With its incoherent subplots and all its silly dialogues that would embarrass even David Dhawan's dialogue writer, Ungli becomes a shadow of what it could have been.
Happy Ending
2014 · The Hindu · Nov 2014
The promos -- with its kitschy Paaji Tussi Such a Pussycat song -- promised a quirky entertainer from the makers of the poignant Shor in the City and the fun Go Goa Gone. But what it becomes, at the end of it, is the kind of film it thinks it's making fun of.