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Axios
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
"Love Is Blind" debuts Denver season Oct. 1
Netflix on Thursday announced the long-awaited premiere date for the Denver-set season of its hit reality show " Love Is Blind." Why it matters: It's the first time the wild dating experiment — where singles get engaged without seeing each other — unfolds in Colorado. The latest: The new season, hosted by Nick and Vanesa Lachey, debuts Oct. 1 and will feature 12 episodes, per Netflix. How it works: Contestants mingle inside "pods" separated by a frosted glass wall. If sparks fly, they get engaged — and only then meet in person. Couples then move in together, plan a wedding, and must decide when their wedding day arrives whether to tie the knot or walk away. What we're watching: Whether Denver's dating pool can prove love really is blind. Flashback: Axios Denver first reported the show was filming locally in March 2024, when cast and crew members were spotted at the restaurant Linger in the LoHi neighborhood.
India Today
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
‘Metro... In Dino' review: Love feels a tad dated in Anurag Basu's multi-city saga
Seventeen years after he tugged heartstrings with Life in a... Metro, Anurag Basu and Pritam are back navigating love in the big city, or should we say cities. The stories this time shift between Bengaluru, New Delhi and Calcutta. For Metro... In Dino, Basu adopts a less-seen, interesting narrative device to lure viewers into the world: characters introducing themselves by way of sing-song dialogue Sara Ali Khan's Chumki professing she's confused and unsure; there's Konkona SenSharma's Kajol discussing her insipid marital life; there's Anupam Kher, playing a widower, opening up about losing his loved ones in an accident; there's Ali Fazal's aspiring singer sharing his there's Pritam, Papon and Raghav Chaitanya, the travelling troubadours in the backdrop. Offering a peek into a character's current state of mind and establishing their world, the first half breezes here include SenSharma and Pankaj Tripathi as the couple who have fallen into a boring routine, which leads to the husband seeking companionship on a dating app, Linger. The fun begins when she catches on to his infidelity and signs up on the service to lure him into a virtual relationship with a woman named Maya (which translates to illusion, get it?). It's the track that most lends itself to laughs as both play the game of deception for different purposes—one to seek an escape, the other to impart a lesson. And it enables Basu to look at the fleeting nature of love in the digital age. Tripathi and SenSharma are just the right fit for the odd couple whose repartee keeps things the extreme end is the story of Fatima Sana Shaikh and Fazal, a newly married couple whose relationship faces hiccups as one flourishes professionally while the other struggles. Long distance only makes things college buddy (Aditya Roy Kapur) uses the rather extreme label of 'toxic love' to summarise their relationship, but this is, in fact, a story which touches on life after settling with your loved one—the hardships, the anxiety, the uncertainty. Confronting it can kill many a relationship, so it's a pity that Basu struggles to fit this sombre take on love amidst the of that comes via Chumki (Khan) and Parth (Roy Kapur), who have their meet-cute moment after a wasted Chumki ends up in the wrong apartment and finds herself with a travel blogger-theatre actor and coach in Roy Kapur. He's commitment phobic or a 'phattu manchild' in Chumki's words; she's engaged to be married to her about the two adds up, but this is the token opposites attract, mysterious love track that has carried many a romcoms. While it starts out with promise, it soon becomes a tedious affair to see the pair dilly-dally, only to have the most contrived what-the-hell unsurprising then that Metro... In Dino is struck by the curse of the second half. Neena Gupta and Kher, as college sweethearts who reconnect during a reunion, is a plot full of promise but gets turned into a farce with little emotional takeaway. The art of reconciliation and forgiveness becomes an exasperating exercise as characters chase and wait for the epiphany to some gyaan on relationship sprinkled in, which reads like an entry out of a Chicken Soup book. 'Shaadi kuch sikhae ya na sikhae, acting karna sikha deti hai (Marriage teaches feigning),' says one character while another talks of the need of adjustment. Another talks of the significance of falling in love with the same person again and again to make it the ensuing half-baked conflict, Basu shows some of his characters live life vicariously albeit fleetingly. But to serve what purpose is the question? In the quest to pack in Pritam's voluminous output, Metro... In Dino turns into a protracted saga whose conclusion is long foreseeable. It doesn't help that logic too has taken a trip, much like many of the characters do. Love certainly has evolved since the first Metro, but in Metro... In Dino, it surprisingly seems to India Today Magazine- EndsTrending Reel
Indian Express
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Metro In Dino movie review: Sara Ali Khan plays a Kareena Kapoor-coded character in Anurag Basu's annoying and exhilarating film
It stands to reason that Metro In Dino will have thematic similarities with its spiritual predecessor Life… In A Metro: warring couples, predatory bosses, commitment-phobic men, confused women, straying and returning, sacrifice and recompense. It also has straight-up reprises. Konkona Sen Sharma, whose pairing with Irrfan was one of the highlights of the original, is the only one from the previous cast making a return, with Pankaj Tripathi standing in for the late, great actor; and the three-member band, led by Pritam, is strewn all over the film, like it was in the earlier iteration. In the interim– eighteen years is a long time—so much has changed. Those clunky cell-phones, which a couple of characters used in the earlier film, have changed to the sleek oblongs everyone carries these days, with laptops, tablets, and an overuse of every other device that promises connection, but provides only disconnection. You don't need an empty flat with a key, the idea borrowed from Billy Wilder's classic The Apartment, to plan an assignation; you can just create a profile on a dating app and get right down to sexting, even if you choose to call it Linger, rather than Tinder. But the one thing, if you go by Anurag Basu's characters, that hasn't changed are humans and their frailties and egos which come in the way of true connection. Pankaj and Konkona, as Monty (I still haven't got over that name; who would ever have thought of Irrfan as a still-a-virgin-at-nearly-forty, unable to hide sexual neediness but wistful with it?) and Kajol, are weathering the sort of boredom that besets most married couples who behave like old socks, rather than sparkly stockings. Kajol's younger sister Chumki (Sara Ali Khan) is trying hard to be a compliant girlfriend in preparation to be a good wife to a guy who wears his suspicions on his sleeve, when not shrugging his shoulders, a personality tic that she doesn't notice until it is pointed out to her by travel vlogger Parth (Aditya Roy Kapoor) in a meet-not-so-cute moment. Kajol and Chumki's mother Shivani (Neena Gupta), who gave up her dreams of becoming an actor when she married the girls' dictatorial dad (Saswata Chatterjee) is given a chance to relive her youth during a college reunion, where she runs into old flame Parimal (Anupam Kher). Another strand is fronted by Shruti (Fatima Sana) and husband Akash (Ali Fazal) whose double-income-no-kids corporate grind is threatened by her sudden pregnancy and his deep-seated desire to become a musician. Termination is an option; unhappiness and resentment is a resultant outcome. What I really enjoyed in the film were the nimble writerly leaps and the people speaking to each other as people do, in sentences which feel as if they are coming from the character's lives, rather than rehearsed dialogues on the page. Yes, there is the occasional floweriness, but that's just Basu leaning into his bent for amping up the mundane. The plot moves swiftly along for the most part, and this time around, there are four metros jostling for attention– Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore– as well as Goa and Shimla. As the architect of edifices full of messy emotions and registering graphs of hurt and happiness, Basu retains his old touch, and I found myself smiling in the dark, especially in the first half. His style, a mix of the real and hyper-real, always teetering close to making us roll our eyes, outlining even as it underlines, makes for a very specific kind of film, stuffed with fleeting moments of delight when the camera catches characters off-guard, as they go about doing things in a naturalistic manner, before careering off into another exaggerated curve. Things do slacken post-interval; a couple of crucial situations repeat themselves, and the film strains to fill its nearly three hour length. One of the biggest surprises of 'Life.. was Irrfan as the self-proclaimed jackass but very likeable Monty, who gives full play to the character's foolishness ; here, Pankaj Tripathi is allowed to get into full-on burlesque-mode– I think I caught a flash of him hurriedly kissing a female toe– and hot and bothered in rumpled-sheet situations. Can anyone beat Irrfan on all those scores? Not really. But is Pankaj a hoot in some of his scenes, and Konkona is as good as it gets ? Yes, and yes. I did find a few threads not working in tandem, especially the one revolving around a young teenager's prolonged wondering if she likes 'girls or boys'. Quite a contemporary touch, but heavy-handed, and meandering. There's also the one involving Anupam Kher's widowed daughter-in-law (Darshana Bainik) and his laboured attempts at giving her her 'jaa apni zindagi jee le' moment, in which he asks for and gets Neena Gupta's willing help: that portion feels both outdated and outlandish. A few characters in this large ensemble do not get enough play: in a truly great film, even walk-ons have flash, even if they were always meant to be on the sidelines. You also wish, just like in the original, that Pritam and co would be heard less, and seen even lesser: yes, we know that the lilting soundtrack they create functions as a leitmotif-commentator-character, and Papon's voice is dreamy, but after a point you want less, not more. Aditya Roy Kapoor makes you miss Basu's original muse Ranbir Kapoor, who patented the self-obsessed man-child character, but does well enough as the breezy, irresponsible fellow turning over a new leaf, Sara Ali Khan, playing a Kareena Kapoor-coded character, fares better here than she has in most of her previous films. She also gets a let-all-the angst-out-with-a-shout moment, taking you right back to a similar situation in the original. Watch | Konkona Sen Sharma on Metro… In Dino Ali Fazal and Fatima Sana Shaikh dance around relatable dilemmas– careers, aspirations, children– even though he comes off more hangdog than anything else, and she a bit too morose. And just like veterans Dharmendra and Nafisa in the earlier one, Anupam Kher and Neena Gupta show how it's done, rising above their improbable bits. But there's enough zest in the rest of it to keep us humming, and the film, even in its looseness and overly-stretchiness, thrumming. And what a relief, in these days of ham-fisted badly-made patriotic sagas and loud family melodramas, to find adult characters doing adult things, talking up desire and lust and love, even if you can see hints of conservativeness– characters getting into bed, but not going all the way– perhaps as a nod to these times which is bent upon taming all individual passion. This really should be a series, because life is unruly and ungainly, spilling over the edges, annoying and exhilarating, in equal measure, and when Metro In Dino is at its best, it catches all those beats: I just hope Basu will not take eighteen years to make his third. Metro.. In Dino movie cast: Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, Ali Fazal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Saswata Chatterjee, Darshana Bainik, Kush Jotwani, Rohan Gurbaxani Metro.. In Dino movie director: Anurag Basu Metro.. In Dino movie rating: Three stars
News18
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Metro In Dino Review: Anurag Basu Delivers Masterclass On Modern Love, Pritam's Music Adds To The Magic
It primarily revolves around the lives of four couples – Shibani and Parimal, Kajol and Monty, Shruti and Akash, and Chumki and Parth. Shibani isn't really stuck in an unhappy marriage, but often finds herself questioning why she has allowed life to rob her off of her identity and aspirations. So, when an opportunity arrives to attend a college reunion, she grabs it with both hands. There, she meets Parimal. The two were in love but Parimal lacked the courage to take it to the next step. Years later, they reminisce the old times and set out on a journey to help Parimal's widowed daughter-in-law find love and purpose again. Kajol and Monty have started to notice the little dents in their marriage. Even sex now happens following an appointment. Monty resorts to a dating app called Linger to bring back the spark in his sex life and when Kajol comes to know of it, she takes matters into her own hands and begins chatting with him using a catfish account. She catches him red-handed and decides to walk out of the marriage. Monty, realising his mistake, sets out to win her back. Shruti and Akash aren't your regular lovebirds. 'Shruti aur mujhe ek dusre se zyaada ek dusre ke pagalpan se ishq tha," states Akash. They get married and then Shruti gets pregnant. And that creates a dent in their relationship. Akash is now worried that he will have to put his dream of becoming a musician on hold and lead a regular, boring life as a corporate slave, much like his father. They decide to pursue a long-distance marriage but the thought of having a child draws Shruti to her colleague, a single father. Chumki and Parth, on the other hand, meet accidentally. She's already in a relationship, a safe one at that with no passion. Parth is a commitment-phobic playboy cum man child with no real job. Chumki, a self-proclaimed confused person, finds herself slowly drawn towards Parth but is left torn between him and her fiancé. Eventually, a friendship forms between her and Parth but much to her surprise, he announces one day that he's finally ready to get married and has already found a match. All these stories are interlinked and take place against Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore, and hence, these cities play key roles in the plotline. The film begins with an elaborate sequence that introduces each character, breaking the fourth wall with song dialogues. A true-blue musical indeed! For instance, Kajol while introducing herself sings, 'Jab life ki ho jaati hai batti gul, posts mere social media mein ho jaati utni hi colourful." And yes, it's Pritam magical compositions that truly elevate the screenplay. Unlike Life In A Metro where the Metro Band comprised him, Suhail Kaul and Fahruk Mahfuz Anam (James), Metro In Dino has him along with new additions – Papon and Raghav Chaitanya. And no points for guessing that the trio does appear onscreen to perform the songs as the scenes play out. What a nostalgic ride! Pritam's songs remain one of the biggest highlights of the film. The pre-interval block that encapsulates the falling action as the musical trio gives tunes to the characters' heartaches is an absolute delight, almost giving you a feel of watching a live concert. advetisement Even at 2 hours 42 minutes, there's hardly a moment where Metro In Dino loses pace. Anurag manages to hold your attention for close to three hours and to be able to do that in a romantic drama is an achievement in itself. The comedy, the drama, the tension – Metro In Dino nails it all! The first half is terrific, extraordinary, making you laugh and think and shed a tear or two, all at once. The action drops a tad bit in the second half but that hardly impacts the narrative. And what's interesting and special is that the film is sprinkled with references from Life In A Metro. In a scene, the insouciant and happy-go-lucky Parth takes an upset and frustrated Chumki to Delhi's Ugrasen Ki Bawli and helps her shout her heart out to let it all out and this is followed by a heartfelt conversation between them. Remember the iconic Monty-Shruti scene from Life In A Metro? In fact, Kajol and Monty in this film appear to be an extension of Shruti and Monty from the first one. Anurag beautifully incorporates the themes of modern romance such as infidelity, confusion, commitment phobia, mid-life crisis, fading love, feminism and second chances with aplomb. advetisement To add to that, the performances are top notch. Neena Gupta and Anupam Kher deliver brilliant acts. Konkona Sensharma and Pankaj Tripathi will win you over with their impeccable comic timing – maybe Pankaj will even make you not miss Irrfan so much. Every time Monty tries to woo Kajol, your heart will feel heavy with love. Fatima Sana Shaikh and Ali Fazal are fantastic too. In fact, it's their storyline that stands out and the nuances and intricacies of their long-distance marriage and the push-and-pull is treated with a whole lot of maturity and sensitivity. Their chemistry is palpable and Fatima truly is a revelation.
The Age
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Glastonbury 2025: Lewis Capaldi's epic return, Aussie stars and the death of brat
Illusive masked performer Rajan Silva, performing as Glass Beams, presented a psychedelic set, while Sydney band Royel Otis belted out their hit covers of Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Murder on the Dancefloor and the Cranberries' Linger. Organisers and UK prime minister condemn IDF chant English punk duo Bob Vylan – who opened for Northern Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap – have been struck with widespread condemnation after leading their audience in a chant of 'death, death to the IDF' (Israel Defence Forces) during their set on Saturday. The set was broadcast live on the BBC, but later removed from streaming, with the chant being described as appalling by both festival organisers and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Organisers said 'we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.' Police are investigating the performance for any potential offences. Kneecap's set – which was almost cancelled after band member Mo Chara was charged last month with terrorism offences for displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert – proceeded with more than 30,000 people flocking to the stage and ticket holders being turned away. However, that was not broadcast by the BBC, which said it had made the decision due to the risk of impartiality guidelines being breached. Glastonbury 2025: By the numbers 1,200,000 – pints of beer stocked across more festival bars 210,000 – full capacity of the festival 4000 – toilets 3972 – performers 1000 – acres of festival grounds 120 – stages 35 – minutes to sell out the festival 0 – plastic bottles sold on site Charli XCX and the death of brat? Could the brat era finally be over? Charli XCX opened her set with the burning of the now iconic green curtain that heralded the start of each concert performed since her album hit the top of the charts more than a year ago. The set was not a total crowd pleaser, though, with many taking their criticism of the artist's use of autotune online. The singer took to X on Monday morning (AEST) to say: 'the idea that singing with deliberate autotune makes you a fraud or that not having a traditional band suddenly means you must not be a 'real artist' is like, the most boring take ever. yawn sorry just fell asleep'. Lewis Capaldi makes his triumphant return After a two-year hiatus from the stage, singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi returned to Glastonbury, performing a surprise set that was originally billed as a placeholder. At the 2023 edition of the festival, Capaldi – who has Tourette's syndrome – had difficulty finishing his set as he managed the tics that come with his condition. The Someone You Loved singer described his set as 'the worst kept f---ing secret' when he appeared at the Pyramid stage to a packed crowd, after unofficial-looking flyers appeared across the festival the day before his performance announcing it. 'Glastonbury, it's so good to be back. I'm not going to say much up here today because if I do, I think I'll probably start crying,' Capaldi said. Loading Lorde debuts album during secret set Another surprise turn came from New Zealand singer Lorde, whose fourth album Virgin was released last week. Appearing on the Woodsie stage on Friday – a day after posting an image of the stage to Instagram – the singer played the entirety of her new album to fans who had barely had a chance to listen to it. The singer thanked the audience for 'being here with us on the day that Virgin is born' as crowds were turned away from the overflowing field.
