Udita Jhunjhunwala

Writer, film critic, curator | Articles/reviews in Hindustan Times, Vogue, Scroll, Mint, Firstpost, AFP, Hindu, India Today, Moneycontrol IG: Udita_j

Articles

White smoke on the silver screen: How Hollywood sees the papacy

6 days ago | livemint.com | Udita Jhunjhunwala

In the lead-up to the conclave that elects the head of the Catholic church, global streaming platforms saw a dramatic resurgence of interest in papacy themed movies and series that offer an imagined and fictionalised glimpse of this private ecclesiastical ritual.
‘The Royals’ review: All dressed up with nowhere to go

6 days ago | scroll.in | Udita Jhunjhunwala

The ‘Royal falls for commoner’ trope is not new. In the Netflix show The Royals, creators Rangita Pritish Nandy and Ishita Pritish Nandy take this idea and hand it over to writers who squeeze every drop out of the cliche. On paper, the idea of an heir to an aristocratic house in Rajasthan falling in love with a self-made CEO of a hospitality start-up could have been fun.
‘Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs’ review: Power struggle in the palace

1 week ago | livemint.com | Udita Jhunjhunwala

‘Kull’ uses soap opera tropes to tell a story of royal family intrigue An eight-episode game of thronesunfolds in the financially stretched palace of the royal Raisingghs of Bilkaner, a fictitious town in Rajasthan, in Kull: The Legacy of the Raisingghs (JioHotstar). Maharaj Chandra ‘Chandu’ Prasad Gulab Raisinggh (Rahul Vohra) is broke, apparently living with Alzheimer’s disease, but adamant that his opulent palace should not be put up for sale.
‘Thunderbolts*’ review: Marvel in rebuild mode

2 weeks ago | livemint.com | Udita Jhunjhunwala

The latest superhero offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be its most audacious. Thunderbolts* introduces a team of assassins and mercenaries who are all wrestling with troubled pasts. Though Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Winter Soldier, is the most familiar character, the film centres on Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), along with Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell)—a low-budget Captain America.
‘Phule’ review: Too much like textbook history

2 weeks ago | livemint.com | Udita Jhunjhunwala

Ananth Narayan Mahadevan's film tackles the lives of reformers Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule with too much reverence Writer-director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan bookends his 129-minute biopic on social reformers and educationists Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule with the events of 1897. Poona is devastated by the plague. Savitribai runs across parched land to bring an ailing child to a makeshift medical camp. Before the doctors can pronounce a prognosis, events move back in time to 1848.
‘Logout’ review: The fallout of digital dependence

3 weeks ago | livemint.com | Udita Jhunjhunwala

There are two sides to digital media influencer connections. The first is the connection created by these influencers—designed, manufactured, marketed, finessed, and posted on their socials. These are aimed at gaining likes, shares, and follows, all to increase the creator’s relevance and brand value. On the other side of the mobile device screen, someone else is consuming this content—often obsessively, even addictively.
HT Syndication: 'Logout' review: The fallout of digital dependence

3 weeks ago | htsyndication.com | Udita Jhunjhunwala

Posted On: 2025-04-19 Posted By: Udita Jhunjhunwala Health & Lifestyle Real Estate & Construction MINT New Delhi, April 19 -- There are two sides to digital media influencer connections. The first is the connection created by these influencers-designed, manufactured, marketed, finessed, and posted on their socials.
‘Khauf’ review: A relentlessly dark tale of human and demonic possession

3 weeks ago | scroll.in | Udita Jhunjhunwala

Something sinister is lurking in room 333 of the Pragati Working Woman Hostel – something so dark that it prevents four of the women from ever leaving the building. They haven’t been the same since Anu (Asheema Vardaan), the fifth member of their tight-knit group, moved out six months ago. Things get worse when an unsuspecting new arrival to Delhi moves into the cursed room.
‘Jaat’ review: Sorry tale of southbound Sunny

1 month ago | livemint.com | Udita Jhunjhunwala

Will Sunny Deol—or the makers of any film starring him—ever move past the overused ‘Yeh dhai kilo ka haath’ (this two and a half kilo hand) line of dialogue from the 1993 film Damini? Clearly not, because writer-director Gopichand Malineni revives it once again it as a front-bencher-pleasing proclamation in the Hindi language action drama Jaat, headlined by Deol.
‘Chhorii 2’ review: A well-crafted and performed scarefest about horrors old and new

1 month ago | scroll.in | Udita Jhunjhunwala

Both the Marathi horror film Lapachhapi (2017) and its Hindi remake Chhorii (2021) were directed by Vishal Furia. Furia returns with a sequel that picks up seven years after the earlier story. Chhorii 2 begins in the same sugarcane fields that were intrinsic to its predecessor, indicating that Sakshi’s connection with the village – where she had left her husband for dead – has not been entirely severed.