Plus: Reviews of ‘Emergency,’ ‘Azaad’, ‘Paatal Lok season two and ‘The Roshans’. Here are this week's top reads from The Reel.

How are Malayalam filmmakers so good at writing and staging crime thrillers? Why is it that this film industry is rolling out one crackerjack mystery after another? Sruthi Ganapathy Raman investigates the matter.

Film: Malayalam whodunits are all the rage. How do they do it?

With ‘Sookshmadarshini’ available for streaming, here is a look at how Malayalam filmmakers craft rivetting crime thrillers.

scroll.in

‘Emergency’ review: A parodic Indira Gandhi biopic

Directed by and starring Kangana Ranaut.

scroll.in

‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’ at 25: An enduring charmer about losing and finding love and happiness

Director Rajiv Menon revisited the Tamil movie, starring Tabu, Aishwarya Rai, Aiith, Mammootty and Abbas.

scroll.in

Start the week with a film: ‘Pepe’ is the (possibly apocryphal) story of Pablo Escobar’s hippo

Dominican director Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias’s debut feature is available on MUBI.

scroll.in

‘Azaad’ review: A love triangle between a man, a woman and… a horse

Abhishek Kapoor’s Hindi movie, starring Amaan Devgan and Rasha Thadani, is out in cinemas.

scroll.in

‘The Roshans’ review: Warmth with a bit of illumination

Shashi Ranjan’s docuseries about Hrithik Roshan’s family is out on Netflix.

scroll.in

‘Paatal Lok’ season 2 review: The netherworld has a new address but a familiar roadmap

Sudip Sharma’s series for Prime Video, directed by Avinash Arun Dhaware, is led by Jaideep Ahlawat.

scroll.in