Hindi
Old-fashioned in story and treatment
MUMBAI: Zindagi Tere Naam, almost a decade old film, has finally been released. Its release just helps close the chapter and forget about it since even if it is a 10-year-old project, it is at least 30 year-old in its story and treatment.
 |
Producer: Shree Sai Pictures. |
Zindagi Na MIlegi Dobara tells you the story of passionate romance between a young girl from Chandigarh on a holiday at the picturesque Dalhousie and a local lad who, along with his father, Sharat Saxena, cuts trees from nearby woods and makes violins. Their love blooms till the usual hurdle in the form of her rich father, Dalip Tahil, and a stiff upper lip, society conscious mother, Supriya Karnik, find out about it.
The girl, Priyanka Mehta, is instantly whisked away to Chandigarh and away from the boy, Aseem Ali Khan. Attempts to communicate are foiled which makes Mehta conclude that Ali has forgotten her; she is ready to close his chapter, marry and move on. However, her wish to meet Ali once before tying the knot clears her misgivings and rekindles her feelings for him.
This is the story being read out to Ranjeeta by Mithun Chakraborty; it turns out that this is really the story of Mithun Chakrabporty and Ranjeeta, their own youth and romance but Ranjeeta suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and remembers things only in momentous flashes. Reading out the story is Mithun’s attempts at reviving her memory. The theme is similar to Ajay Devgn- Kajol starrer U Me Aur Hum (2008).
The love story as well as director Ashuu Trikha’s treatment is old-fashioned; the two new faces, Priyanka Mehta and Aseen Ali, with no supporting cast as such are taxing on the viewer. Priyanka Mehta is not a heroine material, lacking on all fronts while Aseem Ali is just passable. Mithun Chakrabory is effective while Ranjeeta, Dalip Tahil and Supriya Karnik fill the bill. Sharat Saxena is good as usual. Cinematography is eye-pleasing. Editing is slack. Musically the film does have a couple of good numbers.
Chaurahen has no appeal
 |
Chaurahen tells three stories of people at the crossroads of their life. The stories alternate between each other in three cities, Mumbai, Kolkata and Koch: One of Soha Ali Khan and Ankur Khanna, the other about Victor Bannerjee- Roopa Ganguly- Kiera Chaplin and the third one of Karthik Kumar.
The stories are more a personal kind with no identification to be found by those watching cinema for entertainment. There is nothing positive about these stories as all three have the characters dealing with some sadness in life. The one about Soha Ali Khan and Ankur Khanna is weird while the only one with some lifelike features is about Kartheek who, while dealing with the death of his brother in the war, is grappling with his conscious; his family insists he choose a wife for himself, he has a lover, a man named Sam, back in Vienna where he is based now.
While the stories hold no appeal, direction is indulgent making this 88-minute film seem unending.
Performance by Kartheek Kumar, Victor Bannerjee, Roopa Ganguly and Soha Ali Khan are good, in that order.
There is nothing commercial about Chaurahen.
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.
