Indian cinema had never had it so exciting with newer talent and experimental filmmaking adding depth to the space. Add to this the number of movie discovery platforms on the world wide web, the times have gotten really exciting for a cinema buff.
In November last year, I’d happened to review ‘The Review Monk’ (TRM), a site that aggregates film critic reviews for Indian movies and also serves as a platform for discover, and sharing for fans of Indian cinema.
Impressed with the functionalities of the platform, and being a bit of a movie buff myself, we had got in touch with the founders – Rohith Ravindranath and Ruhi Sinha, to know about their story and the future road map for TRM.
“Developing a mobile app that integrates simplicity and usability is one of our priorities,” shared Rohit on the road ahead. I had since looked forward to the ‘The Review Monk mobile app’ and it has been launched finally this June and available on Google Play.
With an average rating of 4.8 and reviews like ‘neat app’, ‘intuitive navigation’ and ‘good quality’ app, I decided to give it a try.
The app is sure neat. The home screen gives a quick preview of all the currently running movies, upcoming and top rated movies in one place. You can watch the trailers by tapping on them right away.
The list icon displays the stuff you can do on the app. For any rating or adding a review for a movie, you need to sign into the app. At present, it provides a Facebook and a Google Plus sign in option, unlike the web platform that also provides for an email sign up.
As seen in the screenshot, the now playing, upcoming and top rated movies can be seen in neat little snippets with just the required details like rating, cast, release date and running time. The top rated movie on TRM is “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ with a rating of 7.6. You can also discover new movies in the upcoming list or check out movies based on genres.
The main page for a movie is interesting. It provides all the dope on the movie – the critic rating, audience rating, and you can also read all the critic and audience reviews of the movie at the bottom.
Under ‘Celebrities’, you can read through your favourite actors and their best films. I liked the critics featured on the home page and was happy to read through all of Raja Sen’s movie reviews. You can also check out popular critics like Rajeev Masand, Anupama Chopra, Khalid Mohammed, Mihir Fadnavis and more.
The ‘Articles’ section from the web also makes it to the app in neat snippets. Clicking any article link takes you to the site, which isn’t mobile optimized for now.
Is it neat and simple to use?
With the new Android app of TRM, you can do pretty much everything you did on the TRM website. The app has attempted to encapsulate the web version, while maintaining a fine balance between design and usability. It isn’t crowded and quite pleasing to the eye. To provide so much information on a little screen and do it neatly, is quite a challenge.
Besides, having a mobile app adds to user convenience and being available as a valuable resource for their weekly dose of cinema entertainment. I prefer having this app just a tap away, than accessing the web version.
For all movie buffs and serious followers of the art, we’d recommend you to install the new TRM mobile app and get started with it right away.