Vikrant Massey as Prem in ‘Sector 36’
| Photo Credit: Netflix

This is a gloomy week to be watching Hindi movies. The quality of the individual films may vary, but their subject matters are uniformly bleak. Out in cinemas is The Buckingham Murders, about the disappearance of a young boy in a UK town. Closer home, in Sector 36, Vikrant Massey is Prem, a strange name for the psychopathic butcher he plays. Beyond these two titles and the everyday onslaught of horrifying news, your only oasis of hope is Berlin, a moody, claustrophobic spy thriller set in the 90s. Car chases and explosions are scant, but at least no minors, as far as I can tell, are sadistically slaughtered in Atul Sabharwal’s film.

While it is not made explicit, Sector 36, directed by debutant Aditya Nimbalkar and written by Bodhayan Roychaudhury, takes inspiration from the 2006 Noida serial murders, famously known as the Nithari killings. Heavily sensationalised at the time, the case squirmed with accusations of organ trafficking, cannibalism and necrophilia. The two accused — a wealthy businessman and his domestic help — were put on death row for rape and murder, but, in 2023, the Allahabad High Court acquitted them, citing a lack of sound evidence and slating the investigating agencies for a shoddy probe.

It’s perhaps the contentious nature of the story that compelled Netflix to lend it a fictional slant. Several children and young women have been disappearing from Rajiv Colony, a vast, populous slum of migrants in Delhi. Since the victims hail from impoverished backgrounds, the cops are accustomed to turning a blind eye, including Ram Charan Pandey (Deepak Dobriyal), a Newton-worshipping sub-inspector who bows to the “system”. However, when his own daughter, Vedu, is nearly abducted by Prem (in a Ravana mask), Ram springs into action. His change of heart feels sudden and convenient — this, though, might be the point, underlining an Indian attitude to take command when calamity brushes close.

At once vague, violent and exploitative, Sector 36 offers no convincing analysis of the murders. The makers, it seems, parsed every strand of an incredibly murky investigation, then agreed to keep all possibilities open. Their reading of urban inequality and the plight of destitute children is to basically shrug and say, ‘Nobody cares’. Fatally for a crime thriller, this is a film of non-specifics. The scenes featuring Prem, alone in a large house, are an assortment of serial killer cliché. His slimy employer, Bassi, played by Akash Khurana, is a perverse transport baron who shuffles around in monogrammed housecoats. Weaker still are the digs at Delhi’s corrupt police apparatus: IPS, one character jokes, now stands for ‘In Politician’s Service’.

Saurabh Goswami was co-cinematographer on Pataal Lok (2021), which explains the slick dark look and mythology-fuelled imagery. ‘Man Kyun Behka’ wafts from old cassette players, a better sonic choice than the plinks and plonks of the background score. The mid-2000s are lightly conjured: A version of Kaun Banega Crorepati holds the nation in thrall, and, in one shot, we catch sight of a Nokia 6600, the precursor to an iPhone for most Indians back then.

There are flickers of campiness in Massey’s performance — he peers through the grills of a giant gate, baiting and taunting his enemy — that are diminished by Nimbalkar’s over-sincere telling. In one pivotal scene, Prem records his confession before Ram, in gratuitous detail, yet the exchange lacks the unsettling wickedness of Nawazuddin Siddiqui toying with Vicky Kaushal in Raman Raghav 2.0. A boring Deepak Dobriyal performance is a rarity, so in one sense, and in one sense only, Sector 36 is an event. It’s somewhat true-crime, and a lot of false notes.

Sector 36 is currently streaming on Netflix

Remakes are odious, but Speak No Evil, while thoroughly unneeded and unasked for, is an Americanized remake of a 2022 thriller from Denmark that services its original material well, thanks mostly to a sprawling, contradictory and totally galvanizing centerpiece performance by James McAvoy. He’s the fine Scottish actor best known for his outstanding work in The Last King of Scotland and Atonement, not to mention his memorable Cyrano de Bergerac on the New York stage. In Speak No Evil, McAvoy plays the villain, over the top and all over the place, and he has such a blast doing it that you can’t take your eyes off him for a minute.

Despite some updates by writer-director James Watkins and a lot of savage violence to make it more palatable for an American movie audience, the plot begins in basically the same way as it did two years ago: Louise and Ben Dalton (Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy) are an American couple living in London with their daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler), who meet a friendly British family during a getaway in Italy. Paddy (McAvoy), his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their mute son Ant (terrific young newcomer Dan Hough) are all so charming that the Daltons accept an invitation to visit them for a weekend at their rambling farm in the British countryside. Things begin oddly.

Louise and Ben can’t hide their marital problems. Their daughter Agnes is almost 13 but still emotionally attached to a stuffed rabbit. Ben is an unemployed lawyer who feels emasculated by his inability to get a job in England. Paddy knows Ciara is a vegetarian but insists on feeding her a goose for dinner. Ciara pretends to perform oral sex on Paddy under the table. Louise is at first aghast by their role-playing, then annoyed when they lecture Agnes on how to behave publicly. Tensions turn to horror when Agnes and Ant, forced to share a bedroom, become intimate friends and the little boy confides in the little girl that the Daltons are not his parents at all, but two fiends who killed his real family, kidnapped him and cut out his tongue with a pair of scissors so he could never tell anyone the truth.

Why don’t they just leave? They try. Horrified, the Americans plan to escape in the middle of the night and save Ant in the process, but somebody always does something stupid in horror flicks like this, so they all foolishly return to fetch Agnes’ stuffed rabbit. From here on, Speak No Evil loses its claim to reality and goes berserk in an assault on the senses that defies credibility and collapses in carnage. It’s all rather far-fetched and silly. The thrills are contrived but effective enough to make your hair stand on end. I had a good time watching it, against my better judgment. And I especially applaud the relentless one-man show that is James McAvoy, from start to finish. He’s mesmerizing.

What were my expectations going into Transformers: One? Whatever they were, it doesn’t really matter, because the movie blew away any and all ideas of what I thought it would be. This is a return to Transformers, thousands of years before we meet Optimus Prime on Earth. This time, most of the Autobots and Decepticons don’t even know each other yet. Optimus is Orion Pax, Megatron is D-16, Bumblebee is B-127. Enemies are still friends, the world hasn’t changed from constant war. Transformers One stars different voice actors than the normal Transformers films as well, Chris Hemsworth voices Optimus, Brian Tyree Henry voices Megatron, Scarlett Johansson voices Elita, Keegan-Michael Key voices Bee, Jon Hamm voices Sentinel Prime, and Laurence Fishburne voices Alpha Trion.

This is the first animated Transformers movie to hit theaters in 38 years since the original 1986 Transformers: The Movie. It’s really a tale of two excellent halves though. The first half shows the budding friendship between Orion and D-16. They’re trying to rise up the ranks of life on Cybertron, including entering a race that’s only for bots with a spark. They hold their own, but just miss out, enraging their superior officer in the process. This sends them down to the lowest levels of Cybertron where they meet Bee. As they hatch a plan to escape, they meet up with Elita, and unravel a conspiracy from the very top of society. It’s quite the stark difference from the sort of happy-go-lucky beginnings of the film. From there, the shape of both Optimus Prime and Megatron as characters forms into who we know today.

As it goes on, Transformers One shows itself to be a much more adult, thought-provoking film than it lets on. There are issues of class disparities, who should be leaders, how people are affected by stress, and how friendships can change over time. Combine that with the fact that it’s just a great movie for kids to watch, the screening I saw, the kids in the audience were going nuts for every moment. We don’t get enough great kids content these days, but Transformers One will satisfy the youngest and the oldest of fans.

With new voice actors taking over classic roles, the question comes up of how they stack up to previous voice actors. The most important is Chris Hemsworth. He already has an immediately recognizable voice. However, as the movie goes on, he resembles Peter Cullen’s timeless performance as Optimus. There are small changes throughout, but by the end, I was in awe. Same thing with Bryan Tyree Henry and Megatron. He’s sparky, upbeat, and somewhat higher pitched at the start of the film. By the end of it, it’s gravely, deeper, and just all around more menacing.

Those two combined with Keegan-Michael Key and Scarlett Johansson are excellent. Bee is the throughline for most of the comedy in the film and it just works hearing Keegan-Michael Key as Bee. He’s hilarious and upbeat, even when the film gets to its darkest moments. Fishburne might not be in the film for very long, but his performance is absolutely must-watch.

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The third act of Transformers One is one of the most technically beautiful and thrilling animated sequences in recent memory. From when they return to Cybertron from the outskirts to the end of the film is a thrill ride. It might be presented as a bit of a kids movie, but make no mistake, Transformers One is just as entertaining for adults. The humor, the action, the animation, it all adds up to one of, if not, the best Transformers movies ever. You get interesting looks at how the characters we know and love became who they are. Seeing Optimus and Megatron as friends and then turning into enemies is heartbreaking. Watching Orion Pax turn into one of the cinema’s greatest heroes is a sight to behold.

Transformers One is a spectacular showcase for animation. It’s stunning in technical aspects, but also provides an excellent Transformers story.

Transformers One releases in theaters on September 20th.

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