Janatha Garage

Koratala Siva's film brings together stars from two separate traditions: Mohanlal, the biggest name in Malayalam cinema, and N. T. Rama Rao Jr, a leading actor in Telugu cinema. Mohanlal plays Satyam, who protects his neighbourhood and dispenses justice within it, and NTR Jr plays Anand, an environmental engineering student who tries to stay away from violence and is drawn into it for exactly that reason. The film follows the classic Telugu template: the protective father figure, the heir, crowded fight sequences and songs. But the idea of the garage Satyam has built, a repair shop that doubles as the neighbourhood's courthouse, gives the film a mythology of its own. It opened on 1 September 2016. Against a budget of fifty crore it grossed around a hundred and thirty-four crore worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing Telugu film of 2016 and the year's fastest Telugu release to a hundred crore. It won six prizes at the Nandi Awards. Who it is for: viewers who want large-scale South Indian action drama and the meeting of two stars. Who it is not for: anyone seeking realism, or unused to a running time near three hours with song sequences between scenes.