Hindi
Banjo…Out of sync
MUMBAI: Banjo is a musical love story of a young man with a mastery over the stringed instrument. The banjo is said to have its origin in Africa. The instrument is seen to be more popular during festivals in India.
Riteish Deshmukh is shown in the movie to be excelling in playing banjo and leads a group of friends who play music as a hobby as well as to make some extra money besides their regular jobs. He has three partners, each specializing in playing an instrument. Riteish works for a local corporator collecting haftas (extortion) for him.
The demand for the musical group is seasonal, but there are a number of such banjo groups. The competition is stiff. However, the rivalry between two such groups is severe, which often leads to fist fights. On one such Ganesh festival, Riteish and his band come up with a number which becomes instantly popular with the local folk.
Sitting far away in New York, Nargis Fakhri hears the number which catches her attention. Nargis is preparing to participate in a music show and has been scouting for talent. She thinks she found the group she has been looking for. She arrives in India and lands up right near his house.
Banjo playing is not considered a glorious art and, though appointed as a guide to show her around the settlement and help her search, he does not disclose his identity to Nargis. While he helps her, he also falls in love with her.
Nargis goes on auditioning group after group, only to be disappointed. She is finally ready to give up and decides to go back. Riteish is heartbroken. He wants to drown his sadness in music, and asks his friends to play though they have just returned from a gig and are tired. Nargis catches the sound from afar and realizes who he was. So close yet so far. Nargis is still sent back in disappointment, for, the group members have parted ways. Riteish has been framed in the murder of the corporator and sent to jail. The happy ending is certain but not so soon.
Banjo moves on predictable lines of an underdog whose dreams are in the process of being realized as well as the usual underdog falling in love with the first girl showing concern. While the story or scripting don’t inspire much, the main drawback is the lack of good music that is mandatory for a musical. While the songs are good for gully dances due to the heavy beats played to Maharashtrian taste, the Bappa song being the mainstay, the only sober number worth humming is Rahemokaram.
The cinematography is good. Riteish performs well and Nargis tries. The supporting actors make sincere efforts.
Banjo could have been made for Marathi audience where the industry is thriving presently. Going for pan-India market has not helped as the opening is poor and so are the prospects.
Producers: Krishika Lulla
Director: Ravi Jadhav
Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Nargis Fakri, Mohan Kapoor.
Dil Sala Sanki…God save your soul!
Another film about UP bahubalis and their love story! Dil Sala Sanki is a love triangle based in the city of Jhansi.
Jimmy Shergill is playing the local don in Jhansi. He has inherited the reign from his foster father who wished for Jimmy to share it with his adopted son. But, Jimmy would have nothing of that sort. He kills both, the other heir as well as his father. He wishes to rule alone.
While the rest of the city is scared of Jimmy and his goons, he has a fan in Yogesh Kumar, the son of a local barber, Avtar Gill, who wants to follow in the footsteps of Jimmy. Yogesh goes around beating up people and expects to be feared for his acts.
Yogesh takes up small assignments like settling disputes. On one such case, he is asked to get vacated a house occupied by goons as the landlord’s new tenant, Shakti Kapoor, a school teacher, has rented it out. True to the tradition of goon stories, Yogesh falls in love with Shakti’s daughter, played by Madalsa Sharma. He starts with the usual routine followed by all filmy lovelorn goons: stalk.
It is raining and Manalsa is shown as going berserk dancing on a lonely road. Jimmy happens to pass by, sees her, and falls in love too although he has a loving wife at home, played by Harshita Bhatt. Being a bahubali who is not answerable to anybody, he simply kills Harshita.
Jimmy soon realizes that his protégée, Yogesh, also loves Madlasa. The fight to finish begins.
Dil Sala Sanki is a routine, humdrum love story lacking imagination or the grammar of filmmaking. The casting is curious as the hero, Yogesh Kumar, has zero acting skills or screen presence. Jimmy has a limited role. Madalsa is okay. Rest of the aspects merit no mention.
Dil Sala Sanki has no prospects despite its limited exploitation at few screens in single show a day.
Producer: SK Pictures P Ltd.
Director: Sushi Kailash.
Cast: Yogesh Kumar, Madalsa Sharma, Jimmy Shergill, Shakti Kapoor, Avtar Gill.
Hindi
Jio Studios unveils AI-powered Krishna teaser at NAB Show 2026
Global first look of Krishna uses Galleri5 AI pipeline on Azure, Historyverse slate as Jio’s Dhurandhar crosses Rs 3,000cr worldwide.
MUMBAI: Krishna has just dropped a divine teaser and this time the gods are powered by silicon, not just scripture. Jio Studios and Collective Studios’ Historyverse stole the spotlight at the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas with the world’s first teaser for their upcoming theatrical feature Krishna, directed by Manu Anand. The big reveal happened during Microsoft’s keynote “Powering Intelligent Media, From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact,” where the film’s AI-native production pipeline took centre stage alongside Collective Artists Network’s in-house platform, Galleri5.
At the heart of this mythological spectacle lies a fresh cinematic workflow built by Galleri5 on Microsoft Azure’s advanced AI and cloud infrastructure. Forget bolting AI onto traditional VFX or animation, this is an end-to-end, production-grade system woven into every layer: world-building, character creation, shot design and final output. Yet the storytelling remains firmly director-led, emphasising emotional depth, stillness, music and performance rather than pure spectacle. The result? Large-format theatrical cinema rooted in Indian history and culture, but conceived in ways that were simply not possible before.
Collective Artists Network runs Galleri5 natively on Azure, leveraging Microsoft Foundry and cutting-edge AI tools to handle film, episodic and advertising workflows in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft highlighted Collective as a “Frontier” organisation successfully moving AI from pilot projects to real production-scale deployment in cinema. The technology is also on display at Microsoft’s NAB booth in the West Hall (Booth W1731).
Jio Studios (Media & Content Business, Reliance Industries), president Jyoti Deshpande said the project advances the studio’s mission to take Indian stories global with scale, ambition and authenticity, “With Krishna, we are embracing cutting-edge AI-led filmmaking while democratising these tools to make them more accessible, intuitive and cost-effective for storytellers everywhere.”
Collective Artists Network founder & group CEO Vijay Subramaniam added, “We’re using technology developed in India to carry our culture and history to audiences worldwide at a scale never seen before.”
Microsoft, vice president for telco media & entertainment, gaming Silvia Candiani noted that the media industry has reached an inflection point, “AI is no longer about experimentation but delivering real impact at production scale… By building AI-native creative systems on Microsoft Azure, Collective exemplifies how storytellers can unlock new formats, move faster and realise a true return on intelligence while keeping human creativity at the centre.”
Krishna forms part of Historyverse, Collective Studios’ ambitious slate of history and culture-driven IPs. The slate draws from iconic figures and traditions that shaped the Indian subcontinent, including stories inspired by Kali, Karna and Durga. It builds on the already-released Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh series, showing how ancient narratives can be reimagined for modern screens.
Jio Studios, India’s leading content studio and the media and content arm of Reliance Industries, continues its blockbuster run. The studio’s Dhurandhar franchise led by Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the first Indian film series to cross Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. It also delivered three consecutive years of India’s highest-grossing Hindi films: Stree 2 (2024), Dhurandhar (2025) and Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026). In just eight years, Jio Studios has assembled a library of over 160 films and series, with more than 60 titles winning over 500 awards. Other notable successes include Laapataa Ladies (India’s official Oscar entry 2025), Stree, Article 370, Shaitaan and Mrs.
The NAB unveiling marks another step in Jio Studios and Collective’s push to blend Indian storytelling talent with frontier technology proving that the future of cinema may well be both ancient in spirit and thoroughly modern in execution. For audiences who love epic tales with a fresh twist, Krishna promises to deliver divine drama, this time with a little help from the cloud.
