In 2025, Indian movie theaters welcomed audiences back after the disruptions of the pandemic. However, the excitement seems to have shifted. While Hollywood blockbusters like F1, Jurassic World: Rebirth, and Superman filled seats and sparked conversation, many Bollywood releases failed to make

Bollywood’s love affair with the gangster genre has officially reached saturation point—and Maalik is the latest, and possibly most fatigued, offering in this long line of glorified underworld sagas. There seems to be no dearth of filmmakers eager to romanticize crime lords, drug syndicates, and political thugs, repackaging the same morally bankrupt narrative under