What to watch in UAE cinemas and OTT this weekend: Hanuman Ansh, Haiwaan and more

Cinemas are having a moment this week, with a genuinely wild spread of new releases landing between September 10–11, everything from a soccer survival thriller to a shark-infested bachelorette nightmare to a mouse detective sequel. Whatever mood you're in, there's something opening near you. Here's your cheat sheet.

For the sports and underdog crowd

Blue Lock (Japanese) kicks off the week with a premise that sounds more like a psychological thriller than a sports movie: 300 high school players are locked in a brutal facility, competing to become Japan's next great striker, with the losers banned from the national team for life. If you like your sports stories with teeth, this is it.

For the edge-of-your-seat crowd

Runner pairs Owen Wilson and Alan Ritchson (an unexpectedly great combo) for a race-against-the-clock thriller: a former soldier smuggling a life-saving medical delivery becomes cartel prey, with a child's life hanging in the balance.

Haiwaan brings Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan together in a Hindi-language thriller about a blind maintenance manager with uncanny instincts, framed for murder and racing to protect a young girl from a killer who's always one step ahead.

The Bay goes full survival-horror: two friends on a Thailand destination-wedding trip end up stranded on a sinking boat — inside a tiger shark sanctuary. Bachelorette trip gone very wrong.

Spider Island keeps things simple and menacing: a group of twenty-somethings on a sun-soaked getaway, and the tagline basically writes itself — what could go wrong?

For the history buffs

The Uprising stars Andrew Garfield and Jamie Bell in a plague-era 14th-century England epic, where a peasant accidentally sparks a rebellion against King Richard II and becomes an unlikely symbol of resistance. Prestige-drama energy, if that's your thing.

For family movie night

Cats in the Museum: Treasures of Egypt continues the beloved animated caper series, this time Maurice the mouse and his feline friends (now with two mischievous kittens in tow) are chasing new adventures two years after saving the Hermitage.

Hanuman Ansh is a Hindi devotional drama about a grieving boy searching for the divine, and finding it through a figure devoted to quiet acts of service and love.

For fans of regional cinema

Sardar 2 (Tamil) escalates the original's espionage story into full international-thriller territory, with the protagonist tackling higher-stakes and more sensitive, global threats.

Singh Vs Kaur 2 (Punjabi) is a sprawling tale of stolen investments, false accusations, and cross-border justice, as a martyred soldier's son chases down the truth behind a fish-farming scam that leads all the way to Canada.

America America 2 (Kannada) is the one for the romantics: a trip to Seattle forces its lead to reckon with her past, old feelings, and the tension between the life she has and the one she almost chose.

Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar (Malayalam) follows a woman who joins the police force after her husband's death — a premise with plenty of room for a compelling character study.

Aasha (Malayalam) leans into atmosphere: a psychological thriller shot against lush, green natural landscapes, promising visuals as gripping as its story.

On OTT

Crew Girl (September 10), Netflix

The eight-episode series is a high-stakes, soapy teen sports romance set in the elite world of East Coast rowing. Sixteen-year-old Teagan Tao was a rising star in single sculls rowing, but a humiliating family scandal — her father's financial fraud — capsizes her future, forcing her and her mother to start over in a small town at the prestigious Easton Prep. Once there, she's not just the outcast newcomer — she's stuck on land, since there's no girls' rowing team at Easton. Her way back onto the water is joining the school's dysfunctional boys' crew team as coxswain, which throws her into fierce rivalry and an unexpected love triangle.

The Revolutionaries (September 11)

Directed and created by Nikkhil Advani (Freedom at Midnight, Mumbai Diaries: 26/11, Rocket Boys), the series is inspired by Sanjeev Sanyal's non-fiction book Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won Its Freedom. Set mainly around 1912, decades after the 1857 revolt, it follows four young Indian revolutionaries — Rash Behari Bose, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Pratibha Lahiri and Bagha Jatin — who believe armed resistance is necessary to end British colonial rule. Working in secret, they build underground networks, plan attacks and prepare for a wider uprising against the British Raj, while the story also digs into the personal costs: friendships, betrayals, sacrifice.