Suspense thriller Sookshmadarshini marks Nazriya’s return to Mollywood after a hiatus of four long years. Directed by MC Jithin and starring Basil Joseph as the male protagonist, the movie hit the big screens yesterday. Sookshmadarshini received glorious reviews from critics and is off to a good start at the box office.

In Kerala this Nazriya Nazim starrer collected in the vicinity of Rs. 1.6 crores gross, which can be termed as a promising start. The occupancies picked up in the evening and night shows once the reports started coming in. Even though the film had a limited release in the USA, it raked in over $30K on the opening day. The showcasing is expected to increase in this territory from today. Globally, the movie earned approximately Rs. 4 crores gross.

Riding on the terrific word of mouth, Sookshmardarshini commenced its day two with a bang. The movie is now selling around 7K tickets per hour on the BMS portal. Said to be made on a shoestring budget, the film has a high chance of emerging as a blockbuster. Sooskhmadarshini will have a solid weekend, but its performance on the first Monday will give us an idea about the final numbers.

Sookshmadarshini is bankrolled by cinematographers Shyju Khalid and Sameer Tahir, along with AV Anoop. The movie also stars Deepak Parambol, Sidharth Bharathan, Merin Philip, Akhila Bhargavan, Pooja Mohanraj, and others in pivotal roles. Christo Xavier composed the tunes.

For a third time, lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs urged a judge Friday to grant the hip-hop mogul $50 million bail, this time saying he should be placed in home confinement in a three-bedroom New York City apartment on the Upper East Side with 24-hour surveillance.

Federal prosecutors, however, said Combs violated the rules in a federal lockup and “cannot be trusted” outside with contacting witnesses. They also alleged that he was a “danger to others.”

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian delayed a decision until next week.

Combs’ legal team told the judge that it was proposing conditions “far more restrictive” than Combs faces in jail, including limiting phone calls to only his attorneys, prohibiting visitors other than a handful of lawyers and named family members, and requiring 24-hour security by an independent firm with a bar on contacting witnesses or potential witnesses. Previously, the defense had proposed Combs’ Miami mansion for home detention, but the judge rejected that Friday because it has a dock and access to the water.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He and associates are accused of luring female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship, and using force, threats, coercion and drugs to get them to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes in what Combs referred to as “freak-offs.” He has been in federal detention for more than 60 days since his arrest.

Federal prosecutors reiterated their opposition to Combs being granted bail, alleging that he attempted to tamper with witnesses and influence potential jurors.

Prosecutors said that in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where he is being held, Combs had flouted rules regarding communications and phones and was orchestrating contact with witnesses to buy himself out of the case with false testimony. The prosecutor said he was a “danger to others” who only needs to reach one juror.

The judge asked prosecutors to address why Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries was able to get $10-million bail on an indictment for sex trafficking and prostitution business but not Combs.

Combs’s lawyers noted that Jeffries allegedly paid for dozens of men to travel within the United States and internationally to meet him and his co-defendants to engage in commercial sex acts. Jeffries is also accused of using a security company to surveil and intimidate witnesses who threatened to expose his misconduct, yet the government agreed to his home detention.

Federal prosecutors, however, argued in court and a two-page letter to the judge that the cases are materially different for multiple reasons. While Jeffries is accused of using force, fraud, and coercion to engage men in non-consensual sex, he is not facing the additional racketeering, firearms and violence-related charges that Combs is.

Combs is charged with leading an enterprise with a persistent pattern of racketeering activity from 2008 to 2024 that included Combs and his co-conspirators engaging in kidnapping, arson, and forced labor.

Combs’ alleged criminal conduct, a prosecutor told the judge, was more similar to high-profile sex-crime cases where defendants were kept in custody, as with NXIVM leader Keith Raniere, Larry Ray and R. Kelly.

Combs’ lawyers also argued that the government distorted the now-infamous security video of Combs assaulting then-girlfriend Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles. A prosecutor said they used the version that was first shown on CNN because they didn’t want Combs or his attorneys to be able to identify the source of the video and retaliate.

The judge gave prosecutors and Combs’ attorneys until Monday to submit information about Combs’ communications from jail — a recent sticking point in the case — before he makes a bail decision.

There comes a moment in every animal lover’s life where we’re watching a movie with a cat in it, or a dog, or an [insert animal here], and we’re overwhelmed by one singular thought: “I swear to god, if anything happens to this creature, I will never watch a movie again.”

It’s an empty threat — probably — but in the moment nothing could be more sincere. Animals have a way of cutting through our emotional defenses. They can be jerks (my cats are literally punching each other right now) but they don’t screw each other over for money. They don’t pass legislation to deny people access to public bathrooms. In the movies, a human being is able to lose our sympathy completely, to the point that something bad happening to them feels like karmic justice. But a cat doesn’t deserve any of that crap. Ever. Ever.

So a film like “Flow” is about as harrowing as filmmaking gets, especially if you like cats. Or dogs. Or secretarybirds. Or lemurs. Or capybaras. The movie puts all these little guys in peril very quickly and never lets up. Even the quietest moments of “Flow” are tainted by existential threat. It’s suspenseful and pensive and painful in a way few films strive for, and fewer still achieve.

“Flow,” directed by Gints Zilbalodis (“Away”), tells the story of a cat who lives in the woods in a long-abandoned house. A pack of dogs, all domesticated breeds, roams these woods as well, chasing our little guy down because — well, they’re dogs. One day, all of a sudden, with almost no warning, a tidal wave crashes through the trees, and the danger won’t stop there. The water level is slowly rising, every second, until all the land starts to disappear under the rippling surface.

The only salvation is a small wooden sailboat. The cat leaps into it along with a lemur and a capybara, and they float aimlessly, foodlessly, atop the trees, over mountains, through the last sky-scraping vestiges of human civilization. The dogs come back, and the golden retriever — being a golden retriever — makes friends with everybody. A secretarybird takes pity on them and brings fish, and may even be able to protect them from other airborne predators. Whatever these animals’ differences may have been, even though they’re naturally predators and prey, even they can recognize that in the face of climate change the only way to survive is by working together. Humanity, much to our ongoing shame, would apparently never.

It’s not a subtle message, and any movie that relies entirely on placing animals in peril isn’t subtle either. Gints Zilbalodis doesn’t merely earn our sympathy with these creatures, he practically takes it from us at gunpoint. To be perfectly frank, “Flow” is in many ways a cinematic cheap shot. Sure, it’ll knock the wind out of you, but it’s not like we had any choice. Animals are cute. Animals in danger are an emotional nuclear strike.

Of course, nobody ever said movies have to be subtle. At least, nobody credible. But “Flow” does find subtlety in its little moments, as opposed to its big messages. The major plot points — daring rescues, unexpected alliances, spiritual moments that defy any literal interpretation — are heavy-handed, yet effective. The scenes of a cat, despite its harrowing circumstances, reduced to kittenhood by the allure of bopping a lemur’s swishing tail? Now that’s relatable. That’s life going on, whether we realize it or not.

So where are the humans in “Flow?” Long gone by the time the movie begins, apparently. “Flow” floats through the remains of our society, empty towers to infinity, monuments reduced to aquatic tombs. Our conspicuous absence is depressing, but then again, if it weren’t for us, or at least whoever built the boat these animals are clinging to, there would be no hope for any animal’s salvation. Except of course for the fish. They seem to be having a field day. If they could speak you’d probably hear one of them yell “I’m king of the world!’ before getting munched on by, apparently, the world’s very last cat.

“Flow” is animated in a style that suggests that Gints Zilbalodis plays, and loves, a lot of video games. The simplistic character designs, the bright lighting, the environments filled with tall structures in the distance to keep us oriented. The nature of the world is revealed in action and detail. Its immensity is contrasted with the smallness of the characters, highlighting a breathtaking sense of scale.

“Flow” uses platforming and puzzle-solving elements to push its story forward, and before long you might get a little impatient and wonder when we’re finally going to be allowed to play. We can’t, of course, because in this story humanity is dead. The story is in so many ways about persevering in the face of overwhelming helplessness. We may never get that “Shadow of the Colossus” movie Hollywood kept threatening to make for so long, but “Flow” understood many of the storytelling lessons that particular classic had to teach us.

Zilbalodis’s film makes a powerful double feature with this year’s “The Wild Robot,” which also tells a tale of a harrowing future in which animals have to set aside their instincts and band together to survive. Both films evoke religious imagery, although “The Wild Robot” is very much The New Testament and “Flow” is basically “Noah’s Skiff.” On the surface it may be tempting to suggest that “The Wild Robot,” being the Hollywood studio version, is the less subtle of the two, but that film has complex philosophical conversations that “Flow” can only hint at, and the commitment “Flow” has to imperiling small animals amidst a climate change allegory is anything but understated. The two films make similar points in incredibly different ways; both do a beautiful job of it.

Getting back to my earlier threat that if anything happens to the cat I’ll never watch a movie again — I can’t say everything turns out OK. Because it kind of can’t, and that’s the point. The animals in “Flow” aren’t in control of their circumstances, and it’ll be a miracle if anything — except of course for (most of) the fish — survives this aquatic apocalypse. And if they do, who knows for how long? Then again “Flow” is itself a bit of a miracle, so maybe there’s hope. If not for us, then at least for the innocent creatures who have to live in the crappy world we’ve made for them.

So if anything does happen to this cat, or this dog, or this secretarybird, or this lemur, or this capybara … we have only ourselves to blame.