The show stars Tahir Raj Bhasin and Shweta Tripathi Sharma, and has been directed by Sidharth Sengupta. Touted to be a psychological drama, it features themes including power, love, crime, and desire.
After Life Season 3 - 14 January
After Life is a British black comedy-drama streaming television series created, written, produced, and directed by Ricky Gervais, who is also the star. It premiered on 8 March, 2019 on Netflix. The second season premiered on 24 April, 2020. On 6 May, 2020, Netflix and Gervais reached a new multi-project deal, which included the renewal of the series for a third and final season.
Too Hot to Handle Season 3 - 19 January
January 2022 will see the return of Netflix’s most popular reality TV series, Too Hot to Handle. Returning for its third season, a brand new group of contestants will have to keep their hands off each other in order to win $100,000.
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window - 28 January
A parody of suburban horror films, Kristen Bell watches her life go by from the inside of her home, before developing a crush on her neighbour across the street. That is, until she witnesses a murder (or so she thinks).
Amazon Prime Video
Harry Potter Reunion Special - 1 January
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is a retrospective special that will tell fans how Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone, to anyone across the pond) came to enchant viewers across the globe.
Gehraiyaan - 25 January
Shakun Batra’s much-awaited directorial venture Gehraiyaan stars Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, and Dhairya Karwa in lead roles, along with Naseeruddin Shah and Rajat Kapoor in pivotal roles.
Ice Age The Adventures of Buck Wild - 28 January
Ice Age is back! The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild continues the hilarious escapades of everyone’s favourite prehistoric mammals. Desperate for some distance from their older sister Ellie, the thrill-seeking possum brothers Crash and Eddie set out to find a place of their own, but quickly find themselves trapped in a massive cave underground. They are rescued by the one-eyed, adventure-loving, dinosaur-hunting weasel, Buck Wild, and together they must face the unruly dinosaurs who inhabit the Lost World.
ZEE5
Kaun Banegi Shikharwati - 7 January
The series, touted as full of "drama and laughter," stars Naseeruddin Shah, Lara Dutta, Soha Ali Khan, Anya Singh, Kritika Kamra, Cyrus Sahukar, Raghubir Yadav, and Varun Thakur in pivotal roles. Kaun Banegi Shikharwati is a dramedy based on the life of the Royal King (Naseeruddin Shah) and his dysfunctional family. The almost three-minute-long trailer gives a glimpse of all the madness one can expect in the series.
Sutliyan - TBA
Dubbed as a slice-of-life family drama, laced with deep-seated emotional turmoil, lighthearted humour, and sibling camaraderie, the show will feature actors Ayesha Raza, Shiv Pandit, Vivaan Shah, and Plabita Borthakur.
The story of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha director Shree Narayan Singh's digital debut is about a family where the adult children return to their family home in Bhopal, the city where they grew up, weeks before Diwali.
Voot Select
Humble Politiciann Nograj - 6 January
Danish Sait's Humble Politician Nograj, which was released in 2018, became a superhit venture. Cashing in on the success, the actor is now coming up with a web series of the same name.
Ranjish Hi Sahi - TBA
Starring Tahir Raj Bhasin, Amala Paul, and Amrita Puri, the show is a romantic drama on a '70s Bollywood filmmaker and an "eccentric" actress.
The Tragedy of Macbeth is based on the play by William Shakespeare, and written for the screen and directed by Joel Coen. The film stars Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, and Brendan Gleeson. The producers are Coen, McDormand, and Robert Graf. The film features casting by Ellen Chenoweth, music by Carter Burwell, costumes by Mary Zophres, editing by Lucian Johnston and Reginald Jaynes, production design by Stefan Dechant, and cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel.
Disney+ Hotstar
Anbarivu - 7 January
Anbarivu is a Tamil drama movie, directed by Aswin Raam. The cast of Anbarivu includes Hip-hop Tamizha Adhi, Kashmira Pardeshi. Anbu and Arivu are twins separated at birth, while Anbu is raised in the village by his grandfather played by Napolean, Arivu is an NRI living with his father (Sai Kumar). They both discover each other and decide to switch places to bring their family together. And they also have a villain in the form of actor Vidaarth, who has donned an aged getup for the first time in this film.
Human - 14 January
The medical thriller series has been directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah along with Mozez Singh. Starring Shefali Shah and Kirti Kulhari, the concept of the Hotstar Special revolves around drug trials on humans. Furthermore, the thriller will throw light on how the trials are conducted and who are the people involved in it.
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2021 has set the stage for power-packed performances – From unconventional topics to spine-chilling mysteries, the year witnessed some of the finest stories of all time. The coming year won’t be any less. Take a look at what the actors have to say about their 2022 plans:
Kartik Aaryan
2020 and 2021 have taught us that health and family are the two most important things in our lives. It taught me to stay happy and appreciate every single thing and enjoy every single moment of my life. Dhamaka happened in these two years for me, and it became another turning point in my career. From 2022 I expect it to be a bit more considerate towards us. I want to work hard and do a lot more projects and I wish to make my parents proud of me.
Nushrratt Bharuccha
"OTT has really been a game-changer for the Indian cinema, in these unprecedented times. This year, I feel utterly blessed to have my work reach out to the audiences, in the comfort of their homes. Thanks to OTT platforms, both my films, Ajeeb Daastaans and Chhorii were able to reach and cater to a wider audience, even when the theatres were shut. Chhorii was a responsible film, which was made to impact the viewers. I'm excited and looking forward to 2022, as the entire year is going to be super packed with work and brand commitments. I'm stoked to see how the year will pan out, in terms of work, as I will be juggling between multiple shooting schedules of varied films."
“I’m feeling very enthusiastic about 2022 because 2021 for me has been all about emerging from the lockdown and going straight into shooting 3 projects that I’m very passionate about, all of which will release next year! Amongst these are Freddy, U Turn, and one more that I can’t talk about yet. Along with that, there are new projects that I will be shooting for. I now feel that I’m in a good space and I’m looking forward to 2022 because it’s going to be a year full of releases, visibility, and growth! Feels like a dream that’s inching closer and closer to reality!”
Fatima Sana Shaikh
“It feels surreal when your hard work reaches the right audience at the right time and strikes the right chord. I'm really glad I could make an impact in the minds of the audiences with my character Lipakshi, in an ensemble film like Ajeeb Daastaans, which released on an OTT platform. Looking forward to a better 2022 and more films.”
"This past year has been just so fulfilling in terms of work, even though exhausting at times, it was amazing to be on completely different sets in various cities and shooting with such talented people like Alia (Bhatt), Sonakshi (Sinha), Gulshan (Devaiah), Sumit Saxena, Reema Kagti, everyone is just so fun to work with. A special highlight for me was the nomination for Best Actor in a comedy role, after such an overwhelming release of Ok Computer because it was my first outing in a genre like that and I’m glad people enjoyed watching Saajan Kundu so much. That is why I am even more excited for 2022 as the audience will get to see a lot more new stuff from me that I have been working on this year and I hope they will give me as much love as they have always given to me."
“2021 was a great year for me specifically because I got to be on screen with different characters, and different formats. From playing a shopkeeper in love with a mannequin to the overconfident sultan to the feisty lawyer in Rashmi Rocket… I’m happy that I got to do such varied parts. It has helped me in my journey as an actor and I’m learning something new every day on set. Looking forward to 2022 as I have some big releases both in cinemas and OTT platforms.”
“Nobody knows what’s next with the COVID cases rising. I am worried but on a personal level pandemic has taught me the art of balancing and I’ve found that it’s okay to do things for myself without the involvement of my husband, or child, or anyone else. I just want to do films, series as I enjoy acting. Hush Hush and Kaun Banegi Shikharwati will be out in 2022 and I am excited for that.”
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KL Rahul has been appointed India's ODI captain for the upcoming series against South Africa in the absence of newly-appointed full-time skipper Rohit Sharma, the All-India Senior Selection Committee announced on Friday.
Rohit who is also not part of the ongoing Test series due to a hamstring injury has failed to recover, the BCCI said. Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah has been appointed the vice-captain for the ODI team.
All-rounder Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja were also not selected as they were not fit while senior pacer Mohammed Shami, who is in the team for the ongoing Test series, was rested.
"Rohit is not fit, he is in rehab. We never wanted to take chance with him,' BCCI chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma said.
"We are looking to groom KL Rahul. He has proved his leadership qualities. KL is the best one who can handle the side."
India and South Africa will be playing three ODI matches starting January 19.
India squad: KL Rahul (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj
India's emphatic 113-run victory over South Africa in the first Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Thursday added another glittering chapter in Virat Kohli's fairytale run as a Test captain. This year, India have beaten Australia in Australia, England in England and have put the best foot forward to achieve their maiden series victory on South African soil.
India's enviable success on overseas tours gave rise to the debate whether they are currently the best side in the world. Reacting on the same, former South African pacer Morne Morkel said India are by far the best side as far as Test cricket is concerned.
"They (Team India) are by far the best team in the world today," Morkel said during Star Sports' post-match show. The former South African pacer added that India have worked hard to support their team and that they can go and compete away from home.
Morkel, who has played a lot of cricket against India, said the biggest plus-point of the Kohli-led side is their bowling unit which can take 20 wickets on any track.
"The clear game plan that the bowlers can take 20 wickets; so enjoy this moment," Morne stated, adding that it was a special feat to be part of. He also commented that "India are definitely leading the way" for him.
The likes of Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah played a key role in helping India bowl South Africa out for 197 and 194 in the first Test. This was only the third time when the Proteas were bowled under 200 in both innings of a Test match on home soil.
India's win in Centurion was special in more ways than one. This was their first victory at the venue, which has been a fortress for the hosts. India's stunning victory also ended South Africa's seven-match winning streak at the SuperSport Park.
India and South Africa will meet again at the Wanderers in Johannesburg in the second Test on 3 January where the visitors would look to seal their historic series win.
Former Indian bowler Javagal Srinath has praised Jasprit Bumrah for his recent performances, calling him a “Top class bowler in world cricket" and said that he would put him "on top of the pack" of all the Indian pacers he had worked with or seen.
Srinath told Indian Express that watching Bumrah bowl is a “real pleasure”, adding that he has done well enough to be included in any hall of fame. The former pacer also added that Bumrah’s ability to change his bowling according to the pitch and perform like he has been playing there for years, makes him stand out.
“In the West Indies, he looks like a West Indian bowler, in South Africa, he operates like a South African. Same in Australia or England," said Srinath. He said that Bumrah makes it look like he is "a home bowler" due to the minor changes he makes in the angles of release, lines and lengths in bowling, depending on the country he is playing in.
The former pacer’s comments came after India’s victory against South Africa at the Centurion. Bumrah’s spell on Day 4 of first India vs South Africa Test helped turn the game in India’s favour and won him much appreciation from cricketing legends.
After his dismissal of Rassie van der Dussen in the match, the 28-year-old became the fastest Indian bowler to complete 100 Test wickets overseas. Bumrah has picked up 106 wickets in 25 Tests till date. Since he made his Test debut in 2018, he has picked up wickets at an average of 22.33 and a strike rate of 50.56.
He has also taken six 5-wicket hauls in his Test career till date and a Test hat-trick as well.
India’s recent victory at the Centurion makes it the first time the team has won a Test match at the venue. South Africa has lost only thrice in the 27 matches they have played there.
Director Nadirshah struck gold at the box-office with the comedies Amar Akbar Anthony and Kattappanayile Rithwik Roshan in the past decade. Love them or hate them, the one thing you could not accuse them of being is hollow. His new film though is running on empty.
Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan (Keshu Is The Lord of this House) stars Dileep – who appears to have changed the spelling of his name to Dilieep, going by this film’s credits – and Urvashi. Both are known for their comedic talents. Here they play Keshu and Rathnamma, a bickering married couple living with their two children and the man’s mother (Valsala Menon) in urban Kerala.
Keshu is an eccentric old fellow who runs a driving school. Early on we are introduced to his sisters and brothers-in-law who are as wary of him as he is of them. They are not excessively fond of each other either, but bond over their demand that the family property should be partitioned. One thing leads to another and the entire extended family takes off on a rather long road trip.
If you are in the mood for some light fun, Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan initially holds out some promise and offers a few laughs, not the least of them coming from Keshu’s absent-mindedness when he is lost in a phone conversation. The script by Sajeev Pazhoor is, however, unable to build on its ideas or successfully sustain Keshu’s strange habits as a motif through the rest of the proceedings.
It is hard to believe that this film is written by the same person who wrote Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, but well, c’est la vie.
Packed though the cast is with actors who are capable of being incredibly funny (Jaffer Idukki is among the supporting players), Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan gets progressively duller with each passing minute, until the crux of the storyline rolls around with a twist about 45 minutes into its running time. For 45 whole minutes until then, hardly anything happens on screen.
The fact that the film is stretched should come as no surprise considering that a warning sign was issued even before the opening credits when almost three minutes were wasted on showing a red sports car racing down city streets with the identity of the driver undisclosed.
(Spoiler alert) That’s three entire minutes of nothingness, after which the occupant of the vehicle is revealed to be Dileep – playing himself, not as Keshu with false teeth and a gray wig on his bald head. The star announces the credits through a conversation with a traffic policeman and finally addresses us, the audience, directly. Breaking the fourth wall can be a powerful cinematic device, but here the moment leads into such ordinariness that in retrospect it feels like it was slapped on as an afterthought because Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan has little else to offer. (Spoiler alert ends)
Songs are stuck into the narrative without much thought given to their placement.
In one scene, Keshu lifts up a woman’s skirt at a clothing store without realising that it is on a real person and not a clothing rack. His character is not written as a creep, nor does the actor play him that way, so we’re actually expected to buy into his supposed absent-mindedness. Yeah, that’s meant to be funny.
Nadirshah’s problematic attitude to women was evident in his last film, the highly offensive Mera Naam Shaji. In Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan what we get is not a running thread of contempt as much as episodes of antagonism and distrust that are, for the record, a refrain in many male-star-led commercial Malayalam films: the notion that women are intrinsically traitorous creatures who will, inevitably, ditch a man they supposedly love when a more commercially viable option comes along. In this case, an entire song is devoted to an ex-girlfriend’s treachery.
Another equally alarming element in such films surfaces in this one too: I lost count of the number of times in Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan a man raises his hand threatening to hit a woman as if it is the most normal thing in the world.
These instances of trivialisation of women and violence towards them are casually inserted into a film that, ironically, features the protagonist demanding that his mother be treated with respect by the family. That double standard apart, the over-arching issue with Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan is its declining momentum from the very first scene.
Some fine artistes are completely wasted here, the most disgraceful waste being that of Kerala State Award winning actor Swasika Vijay who not only has almost nothing to do apart from being leered at by her brother-in-law (Kalabhavan Shajohn); at 33, she is cast as the sister of Keshu played by 54-year-old Dileep, which I suppose pales in comparison with One earlier this year in which 24-year-old Nimisha Sajayan played the sister of a politician played by the then nearly 70-year-old. Oh well.
The thing about Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan though is that it is neither consistently loud nor consistently soft. Even its crudeness comes only in flashes. It’s neither here nor there, it’s all over the place yet nowhere. In short, it’s meh.
Rating: 1.5 (out of 5 stars)
Keshu Ee Veedinte Nathan is streaming on Disney+Hotstar.
Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial
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I was seven or eight when I was first invited to a Harry Potter-themed birthday party. Over the years, I have attended several. People in my school were obsessed with Harry Potter. The cool kids had HP-merch: pencil boxes, wands, t-shirts. We stood in line early in the morning at Oxford Bookstores for the first copies of the books we had pre-ordered, and we watched the movies as soon as they released (my school even organized a screening ofGoblet of Firefor us in a theatre, the week it released). We were the Harry Potter generation.
As we grew up and read more, learnt about the world and about ourselves, we realized just how problematic the Harry Potter universe really was and how problematic JK Rowling's politics had grown to be. It was one of our first attempts at understanding concepts like art vs. artist and "the death of the author". We grappled with holding on to the stories and characters that felt like home, even when we had to objectively distance ourselves from other parts of the series and the author. It wasn't easy. It made me feel like I hadreallygrown up with the books.
This is why fans received the news of the 20th Anniversary Reunion Special for HBO Max as much with excitement and joy as with skepticism. "Does Jo (Rowling) make an appearance?" was a common question fans asked each other. (Spoiler alert: they use footage of earlier interviews with her).
How do we feel about going back to Hogwarts, or about seeing actors many of us had loved (and had massive crushes on) back on the sets, now as adults?
The thing is, Harry Potter meant so much to so many people that it's difficult for it not to become personal.
And to be fair, there were many moments where the nostalgia was overpowering. It does remind you of watching the movies for the first time or reading that scene where your favourite character dies. You feel that twinge of age when you see these adult actors- so articulate and graceful and, dare I say it, old? It's almost like the main cast is re-discovering the movies with us, and that's poignant and beautiful.
I especially liked Daniel Radcliffe's conversations with director Chris Columbus, Gary Oldman, and Helena Bonham Carter. These conversations brought out a level of comfort that was great to see and also a relationship that had previously been adult-child but now had progressed to two adults, two professionals in the same industry. The dynamics they portrayed were fabulous. Radcliffe and Oldman talk about the "Shrieking Shack" scene and the fact that Alan Rickman knew the ending though the rest of them didn't. My other favourite was when Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) spoke gushingly about his on-screen son, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), even going on to add that "Draco was the real hero." Only Lucius Malfoy would think that!
The problem, though, is a major part of the details mentioned in the show are already available in the public domain- there's only so many times you can hear Alfonso Cuaron say that he asked the kids to write about their characters and Emma Watson wrote 12 pages and Rupert Grint didn't submit the assignment. Ok, we get it: they are Ron and Hermione! Also, it's full of actual scenes from the movies, which might add to the nostalgia element but mostly just makes the special unnecessarily long. There's also a section devoted to cast members who have passed away- which, of course, has to be there, but it's done so performatively that it appears more cringe than sincere. Same with the ending: I feel that somewhere in the middle of shooting the special, they just lost any innocence or honesty that they started with, and it just became performative and indulgent.
The idea of home and family comes up a lot in the reunion, as it did in the original series too. "We're family," the cast keeps telling each other, to a point where it just gets annoying. In fact, Columbus even says that it was his attempt during the first two movies that everyone should feel like they're a part of a family. "I wanted everyone to feel like they're home," he says.
It's interesting to me because so many people talk about the Harry Potter-universe as home- fanart, fanfiction sites, even friends. The idea of Harry Potter being akin to a home that you come back to, which is always there to welcome you- keeps coming up. And I think just like with home and family, as you grow older, you see the flaws and the terrible political stances and just the cringe photo albums, but you still look forward to visiting home at least for the weekend. (Only for the weekend?) Because how do you dismiss the fact that you grew up there and it's an invaluable part of your life? The reunion is much like that.
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts will premiere on Amazon Prime Video India on 1 January, 2022 at 2:30 PM.
Shreemayee Das is a writer and a stand-up comedian. She writes mostly on cinema and culture. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter @weepli.
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Allu Arjun’s Pushpa: The Rise continues its performance at the box office. The Hindi version of the film is inching its way towards the Rs 50 crore mark, as per the latest figures by trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
The film earned Rs 2.75 crore on 27 December, followed by Rs 2.50 crore and 2.40 crore on 28 and 29 December, respectively. It collected Rs 2.24 crore on 30 December, as per the updated figures.
#Pushpa shows its stamina in Week 2… Trends very well over the weekend *and* weekdays… [Week 2] Fri 2.31 cr, Sat 3.75 cr, Sun 4.25 cr, Mon 2.75 cr, Tue 2.50 cr, Wed 2.40 cr, Thu 2.24 cr. Total: ₹ 47.09 cr. #India biz. #PushpaHindi screen count higher in Week 3… Next tweet… pic.twitter.com/pSId5gNlzd
According to Adarsh, the film has earned Rs 26.89 crore in its first week and Rs 20.20 crore in its second week to take its box office collections to Rs 47.09 crore. The Hindi version of Pushpa will also increase its screen count in its third week, taking it to 1,600 screens. The movie had released in 1,401 screens on 17 December.
Pushpa: The Rise has earned over Rs 230 crore to date, taking into account all language versions of the film. Pushpa's dream run at the box office has brought joy to cinema-goers and theatre owners. The Allu Arjun starrer has performed well despite stiff competition from Marvel’s latest outing Spider-Man: No Way Home and Kabir’s Khan sports drama 83. The film has performed exceptionally well, taking into account factors such as 50 percent occupancy in theatres and the spread of the Omicron variant.
The postponement of Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey and the less than expected performance of 83 at the box office might give the period drama film a further boost.
The Sukumar directorial venture, which also stars Fahadh Faasil, Dhananjay, Sunil, Anasuya Bharadwaj, and Rashmika Mandanna in pivotal roles, was released in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam earlier this month. Pushpa: The Rise sees Allu Arjun play the titular character, who gets involved in smuggling red sandalwood. The makers have already announced the sequel, Pushpa: The Rule, and confirmed that it will hit cinemas next December.
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In the first glimpse, the makers of the movie show Deverakonda’s journey from being a ‘chaiwaala’ in Mumbai to becoming a professional boxer. The movie is said to be a sports film about a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, who eventually competes in the United States.
As the teaser clip opens, it shows an announcer standing in a ring introducing the actor as a ‘boy from India, slumdog from Mumbai and the chaiwaala, Liger.’ Throughout the video, snippets of Liger’s struggle from making ends meet to fighting in the streets of Mumbai leading to his epic fight in the boxing ring is shown. In some of the snippets, ace actor Ronit Roy’s character is captured while Ananya Panday is missing.
Taking to his social media handle, film producer Karan Johar shared the first glimpse on Instagram. “Presenting the #LigerFirstGlimpse - packed with action & thrill. This is just the beginning, we'll see you in cinemas on 25th August, 2022! #Liger #VaatLagaDenge,” he wrote.
Liger is directed by Puri Jagannadh who made his directorial debut with the highly successful Telugu film Badri. It starred actors Renu Desai, Pawan Kalyan and Ameesha Patel. Meanwhile, Liger is backed by actor-turned-producer Charmmekaur.
Along with Vijay and Ananya, the film also features actor and boxer Mike Tyson, who will play a pivotal role. According to reports, the whole team and crew members had shot with the boxer in the US earlier this year. They had even shared BTS pictures on social media.
The much-awaited movie is set to hit the theatres in August 2022 and will also release in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages.
Vijay shot to fame after his Telugu film Pelli Choopulu broke records in 2016. Later, he starred in a string of movies that also grabbed attention and increased his fan following.
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As 2021 is coming to an end, everyone is looking forward to welcoming the New Year with pomp and zeal. The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is, however, forcing people to alter their plans for New Year Eve at the last minute.
With several states in India imposing strict restrictions and night curfews to curb the spread of the virus, people are considering celebrating the occasion within the comfort of the four walls.
If you don’t have any plans for New Year’s eve, here are some movies and web series to binge-watch. Grab a bucket of popcorn and watch these amazing movies at home.
Emily in Paris 2
This Golden Globe-nominated series is worth watching. Emily in Paris narrates the story of a woman (Emily) from Chicago who gets sent to Paris to be in charge of social media for a luxury brand company. The series is created by Darren Star and is available on Netflix.
Atrangi Re
Atrangi Re is available on Disney+Hot Star. The movie narrates the story of Vishnu, a Tamilian man and how he meets a girl from Bihar and then they fall in love. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Dhanush (Vishnu), and Sara Ali Khan in pivotal roles.
Aarya 2
Aarya 2 is an official remake of the Dutch crime drama 'Penoza'. It stars Sushmita Sen as 'Aarya'. Aarya 2 is available on Disney+ Hotstar.
Decoupled
Decoupled stars R. Madhavan and Surveen Chawla. The story revolves around the couple and how they juggle their impending divorce with the absurdities and annoyances of life in their affluent world. You can watch Decoupled on Netflix.
Minnal Murali
It is a Malayalam superhero film that narrates the tale of two ordinary men who gain superhuman abilities after being struck by lightning. You can find the movie on Netflix. In the film, one person becomes a superhero and the other turns into a villain. The movie is worth watching and primarily meant for the native Malayalam audience. However, you can also enjoy the film with subtitles.
Kurup
This year Malayalam cinema industry emerged as a true force of entertainment. Kurup is another Malayalam thriller that you can add to your watch list. The movie is based on the life of wanted criminal Sukumara Kurup. It features Dulquer Salmaan in the lead role along with Sobhita Dhulipala, Indrajith Sukumaran, Shine Tom Chacko, and Sunny Wayne in supporting roles. The movie is available on Netflix.
Aranyak
Raveena Tandon in the lead role in Aranyak. She plays the character of Kasturi Dogra, a policewoman. If you like crime drama, then this is the web series for you. It is available on Netflix.
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This is one of the greatest cinematic experiences of all time. After spending 10 precious hours of my life on Barry Jenkins’s certifiable masterpiece, I am rendered numbed and speechless. I can only say this for those who have yet not seen this monumental classic: go for it immediately, your life and your understanding of human suffering will be profoundly enriched. Set in the 19th century in the thick of slavery in the plantations of Southern USA, The Underground Railroad is the story of a very young very determined girl named Cora (Thuso Mbedu) and her repeated resilient attempts to escape slavery. I don’t know how much Cora suffered within herself. But her physical torture is beyond endurance for us.
Some of the episodes came with a warning about graphic violence. Still, nothing, absolutely nothing prepared me for the savagery of the violence perpetrated on the black people. God, it seems, is busy elsewhere. In case you have forgotten how cruel humankind can be to the weak, The Underground Railroad is a rude reminder. A savage nudge to the power games that continue to commandeer relationships between the rulers and the subjects, the latter now known in democratic countries as the electorate. Call them by any name, Cora for that matter. The urge to suppress subjugation and disempower the underprivileged is not a thing of the past. This is what makes Cora’s brave run a true hero’s tale.
We are all running from those who misuse power to show us our place. There is a sequence in Chapter 1 where a runaway slave is brought back chained to a scaffold and burnt alive as the white guests watch as though at an entertainment parlour. By now you must have guessed this series is not for the weak-hearted. Many times I was seriously tempted to give up watching the sheer brutality on screen. But The Underground Railway won’t let you go. Barry Jenkins whose study of black homosexuality in Moonlight won him the Oscar for best picture heaps the horrors unvarnished. But here’s the thing: the violence is not done for effect.
When Cora is whipped mercilessly every whiplash falls on all of civilization, back white brown yellow….The shame of Cora’s violation is for keeps and all. All of the civilization would bear the scars of her wounds until civilization exists. The railroad refers to the actualization of an imaginary network of underground Black relief that existed for runaway slaves. Here the railroad becomes a reality. As Cora flees from one town to another her story acquires the immediacy of a parable told in the language of newspaper headlines. As she runs we pray. But there is no escape from the darkness.
Till the end, Cora remains a persecuted hounded fugitive. Glimmers of love and hope (her companion Caesar, played with superb poignancy by Aaron Pierre, when she first from flees captivity, her haunted companion Jasper played with bleeding despondency by Calvin Leon Smith as she is apprehended the first time, her last chance at love and companionship when she meets Royal played by William Jackson Harper at a Black commune) are firmly snuffed out. Be warned. The heroine in The Underground Railroad gets no justice or redemption. For that, you will have to wait for lesser cinematic experiences, the ones that offer false hope. Barry Jenkins has no solace or salvation to offer his heroine. Cora’s hunter, the slave catcher is a far more powerful character than Cora. You won’t be able to take your eyes off Joel Edgerton as the slave catcher or for that matter young black Chase W Dillon as Edgerton’s trusted boy-Friday. These two represent red-hot evil. They remind us that good only triumphs in the fictional world.
The Underground Railroad is a work of ceaseless wonder. It brings Colson Whitehead’s novel to shimmering life, creating images that are from the book and yet far beyond. Pain, suffering, trauma, and nervous anxiety are its guiding forces. But the presentation is macabrely magical. You can’t take your eyes off Cora’s suffering. This work of art legitimizes suffering as the predominant elixir for artistic excellence.
Mare Of Easttown (Disney-Hotstar):
Mare Of Easttown is that rare series that sucks you so deep into the life of the characters you feel their conduct is your responsibility. At one point in the storytelling, a young father walks towards his infant baby’s cradle. He has lately gotten to know that he is not the baby’s biological father. As the young man trundled to the cradle I held my breath. What was he going to do? When he picks up the baby and cradles it, I heaved a sigh so loud my neighbours must have woken up. The young man with genetic issues is played by a little-known actor named Jack Mulhern, who is the conflicted father of Erin’s baby. Erin, played by Cailee Spaeny, is murdered in the first episode. Another girl is already missing for a year when the series opens. It’s all a bit of a mess that is simmering right under the tranquil surface of Easttown. Director Craig Zobel and his writer Brad Inglesby keep a tight leash on the proceedings, loosening their group somewhat to let in the vibration of rumours and scandals that small-town folks often indulge in when boredom strikes (which is quite often). Some of these ….shall we call them titillating transgressions… are monstrously funny, though we are hardly given a chance to stop and giggle. Strangely the two most amusing moments in the 7-hour spree of excellence both have to do with a minor character, a senior citizen Glenn Carroll (played by Patrick McDade).
In the second episode, his wife Betty calls our detective heroine Mare to investigate a pervert’s misdemeanor. The perv has painted abreast on the wall outside the Carrolls’ home and captioned it ‘Betty’s Breast’. Husband pacifies her, ‘Why are you upset? It(the breast sketch) doesn’t even look like yours.’Later, much later, when Betty dies(the actress Phyllis Somerville who played Betty passed away) the husband makes a big announcement after the funeral confessing he had an affair with Mare’s zany mom Helen(Jean Smart, brilliant brilliant!). Mare dies laughing on hearing this confession of her mother’s little adventure.
This is a series where the minor characters are major assets. Every person I met in the series is a living entity in my mind. None more so than Mare…the film’s towering protagonist with a permanent limp and an indelible scowl. Mare never smiles, and it’s not because young girls are missing or murdered. Her backstory is a litany of concurrent tragedies piled on one after another including a son who killed himself. And now Mare is fighting a bitter battle with her grandson’s biological mother for custody. Mare also has a daughter (Angourie Rice) who is lesbian. But I don’t think the daughter’s sexual preference figures in Mare’s list of problems. I don’t think I saw Mare smile even once except when her detective partner Colin (Evan Peters) asks her out for a date. Another prospective date (GuyPearce) asks Mare if anyone has ever done anything for her. Mare looks a little surprised by the question as if she never thought about it. Kate Winslet’s Mare is no mere creation by chance. A lot of thought has gone into playing the character.
This is a performance that will be discussed at acting schools for generations to come. Evan Peters, by the way, is so wonderful as Mare’s sleeping partner (no pun intended) that I wanted Mare to be kinder to him. But then she is not even kind to herself. Of course, Kate Winslet makes this series the milestone that it is. But others have also contributed in equal measures in giving it the tone and texture of a relentlessly absorbing murder mystery where the blood never spills over and tears never get a chance to dry.
Modern Love (Amazon Prime):
The second-most stupid comment I’ve read on this modern-day bouquet of takes on that thing called love, is ….the 8 stories are uneven in quality. The most stupid comment: Season 1 is better than Season 2. Firstly, of course, the stories are uneven in quality. These are not rotis being rolled out in a kitchen, they are different stories about different facets of love, hence you may like one better than the other depending on which way your cookie crumbled when your heart rumbled and fumbled. And of course, the first season is always better. It’s known as nostalgia. Modern Love Season 2 is every bit as kaleidoscopic and stirring as Season 1 with some great acting in all the stories, barring one. It is a mere coincidence that the first story On a Serpentine Road, With the Top Down(yes every story has a quirky title) about a middle-aged woman’s grieving abiding attachment to her 35-year old convertible car is helmed by Minnie Driver. She drives not only the precious convertible but also the story forward with a performance so naked in its emotional truthfulness that I could feel her hurt all through. This is a film about letting go…or rather, not letting go of your memories and how wrong people are in saying that time heals the pain of bereavement.
Minnie Driver shows us a path of hesitant salvation in the dark tunnel of bereavement. Don Wycherley and Tom Burke as her present and past husband are also very convincing. The only other story of this ambrosial anthology about mortality is the last film A Second Embrace, with Hearts and Eyes Open in which the brilliant Sophie Okonedo plays a single mother of two lovely little daughters who finds herself drawn close to her estranged husband(Tobias Menzies) after she is diagnosed to be terminally ill. The story of a broken body and a broken marriage healing simultaneously is well worth telling. And Okonedo is incredibly believable in her role. The breathlessness of first love, albeit between two young girls Katie and Alexa, is amply captured in the story Am I...? Maybe This Quiz Will Tell Me. The first flush of love, the verbal exchanges overrunning one another, the sheer madness of rampageous hormones are all there. Above all, there is the captivating Lulu Wilson as Katie. She is a prized find. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. While the lesbian story worked for me, the gay story How Do You Remember Me left me cold. It’s all about a painful reunion on a busy New York sidewalk on a sunny afternoon between two men who had a one-night stand.
The characters are phony, the two main actors Marquiz Rodrigues and Zane Pais behave like models in a condom commercial, and the style of storytelling is unnecessarily complicated. When you have only half an hour to have your say, you don’t fool around with the form and content. You tell it….errr…straight, even if it is a gay love story. Only one story Strangers On A (Dublin) Train refers to the pandemic. Two charismatic stars Kit Harington and Lucy Boynton play Michael and Paula who meet-cute on a train. While they get to know each other during the journey, a co-passenger sings a cute meet-cute song on the guitar just to pre-empt our cynicism. By the end of the journey, you expect phone numbers to be exchanged. Instead, Michael does a When Harry Met Sally, and the two decide to meet at the station two weeks later. But God, the pandemic, and the scriptwriter (in that order) have other plans. The story never had me as invested as Minnie Driver and Sophia Okenodo’s stories.
Harington and Boynton look like strangers on a train rather than potential lovers right till the end. Watch out for Miranda Richardson as Paula’s mother in this Irish gaffe. I preferred The Night Girl Finds A Day Boy about a mismatched couple --she sleeps during the daytime, he sleeps like most people during the night—who try to find a common ground to keep their mutual feelings afloat. The fact that Gbenga Akinnagbe and Zoe Chao look like an incompatible couple helps furnish a hefty hormonal value to an otherwise lighthearted story. An Indian actress Aparna Nancherla plays the heroine’s best friend. That also helped keep my interest alive in this story. The outright no-no for me was A Life Plan for Two, Followed By One, and the dumbest of the engaging octave In the Waiting Room of Estranged Spouses. A Life Plan for Two, Followed By One is about two annoying kids who grow up into two super-annoying young adults played by Dominique Flashback and Isaac Powell who can’t make up their minds whether they want to be friends or lovers. How about a coin toss? In the Waiting Room of Estranged Spouses, a war veteran falls in love with the wife of the man the war veteran’s wife is seeing. This is Yash Chopra’s Silsila made sillier by Garret Hedlund’s eye-rolling performance. Modern Love Season 2 has its slippery moments. But it overrides the iffy interludes. Because you see, in the end, love conquers all.
Maid (Netflix):
From Frame 1, I was hooked to this true-life story of a single mother who takes up the job of a house-help for a livelihood. It’s a tough life. And this admirable series doesn’t make it look easy for our heroine Alex (Margaret Qualley). It is not easy to escape an abusive marriage especially when your partner doesn’t beat you up and there are no surface injuries to flash in the courtroom. The first and second episodes which are the best reminded me of that extraordinary 2018 Irish film Rosie where Sarah Greene was outstanding as a mother of a homeless family. Maid captures the same immediacy and panic, at least at the start as Alex leaves her “emotionally abusive” boyfriend with their 2-year daughter in the middle of the night. I held my breath to know where she, and the series, would go from here. Then the urgency level begins to drop. Homelessness begins to seem like an excuse to pitchfork some of the most …how shall I put it—believably unbelievable characters I’ve seen. These are people who are sometimes kind and sometimes inconsiderate, like all of us. And yet they are not the people I’d want to meet or even get to know.
They are unreliable even to themselves. Alex’s mother (played by the redoubtable Andie McDowell who incidentally is ‘Alex’ Margaret Qualley’s real-life mom) is an impressively irresponsible gypsy who doesn’t have time for her daughter. Alex’s father(Billy Burke) is kinder, more caring and he eventually gives Alex and her little girl Maddy(the adorable Rylea Nevaeh Whittet) a home. But then the writer Molly Smith Metzler decides to transform Daddy into a closet abuser from the past, a shift in tone that is not just unconvincing but a sexist slur only to make the mother’s irresponsible behaviour seem….ummm….morally acceptable. And how far can we trust Alex’s judgment of her father’s conduct from 20 years ago?
Speaking of irresponsible behaviour, try this: Alex after cleaning up a rich BLACK lady’s mansion(please note the in-your-face irony of a white heroine serving as domestic help to a black boss) invites a shy date chosen on an app, to visit her at the mansion whose owner Alex pretends to be. The entire episode rings deeply hollow and completely out of character with Alex’s normal upright self-righteous conduct. On the plus side, in the way Alex’s bonding with her baby girl is chalked out, Maid is suffused with a slender but sturdy warmth. Significantly the child’s father Sean (neatly played by Nick Robinson) is not demonized in the plot. Sean and Alex may not get along. But when it comes to their baby girl they are one. Maid left me with a feeling of curious ambivalence. There is much to be admired in this very successful series, especially Margaret Qualley (remember her from the hard-hitting HBO series The Leftovers) who brings an eerie calm to Alex’s shattered life. I also liked the guy (Raymond Ablack) who secretly loves her and wants to help her. When he offers to lend her a car that he claims is “just lying around” Alex is quick on the uptake. You just can’t trust any man in a series that wants to prove a woman is better off on her own.
The Wheel Of Time (Amazon Prime):
This long-awaited peregrination into the heart and soul of a nostalgic nation, a civilization that exists only in the exacerbated imagination of those who believe in the magic of the universe, is a beast of a feast. Stunning to look at, the series spreading sensuously into eight looming episodes, proves a slog for those of us who do not believe in fairies, elfins, goblins, and dragons, and who think rewarding binge-watching means feasting on The Maid or, nearer home, The Family Man. The forest is full of mysteries. But what exactly does it hide?
The Wheel Of Time transports us into a world where wondrous images coalesce into brutal intimations of mortality. It’s all to do with Aes Sedai, a cult permitting entry to women only that uses magic to save the universe from perilous creatures. Moirrain, played by the ineluctably persuasive Rosamund Pike, is the cheerleader of Aes Desai who must escort four young people, Mat, Egwene, Rand, and Perrin…three boys and a girl…across the universe. The perilous beauty of the forests and mountainsides which carry our young ….shall we call them tomorrow’s hope…onwards into a fantastical future, form a stunning backdrop to what is essentially a grandma’s take, spruced up with heavy doses of seminal philosophy and mythology. There are passages where we are lectured on the beauty of the universe and why it is imperative to not desecrate Nature’s beauty. Some of this psycho-babble is pretty incomprehensible. But hats off to the fetching cast for keeping the proceedings perpetually pungent, perky, and impassioned. It’s not easy to enter into this crypto-magical world. The four young actors who play Moiraine’s quartet of mentors are so into it, they almost seem to be products of the times when forests were flush with monsters and mystique. Mat (Barney Harris), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Rand (Josha Stradowski), and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) come across as cogently created nomadic characters who are as timeless as they are time-bound.
Then there is Rosamund Pike at the heart of the panoramic plot, feeding on the fiesta of fabulous visions even while trying to preserve her character’s core individuality from being submerged in the towering landscape. Pike is a dependable ally in the series’ epic excursion. But even she can’t escape the unintended hilarity of some of the scenes, like the one where her platonic travel-mate (Daniel Hanney) gets into a hot tub with her and cribs, “It could have been warmer”.One could say the same about the series.
The Wheel Of Time, for all its timeless visual beauty, suffers from a certain coldness around its heart. Often the discourse is too lengthy and one feels like telling the director to just carry on with the action and stop gabbing over goblins and discoursing over dragons.
Succession, Season 3 (HBO):
Ever since Succession began beaming on HBO in 2018 it has taken the world by storm. The murderous antics of the Roy family are unmistakably galvanic. The Roys mean business. Their brusque brutality in their self-serving world is a delightful antidote to all that we have heard seen and experience in our familiar family zone. The Roys are very Mughal in their determination to usurp the throne even if it amounts to a blizzard of blood spill. Miraculously no one gets killed, although we hear a lot of talk of power-slaying. Season 3 is more murderously Machiavellian than the other two seasons. It starts with the Roy son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) publicly taking down his all-powerful father Logan Roy (Brian Cox) from the business empire’s leadership. The series is handsomely mounted. The family is shown to be lavish in their lifestyle as well as their usurping aspirations. For a large part, the new season is about Logan’s heirs, besides Kendal, younger son Roman (Kieran Culkin), and daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) trying to grab power. Their serpentine maneuvers are not at all shocking to us. We know enough about the power games that go on in business families to know that this family will stop at nothing to gain power. Admirably the plot is restrained about the limits of avarice.
Every character no matter how unscrupulously avaricious retains a certain core of humanism. And that to me is the series’ redemptive defining core. That apart, the series is directed with a lot of long shots and handheld cameras capturing the sweaty anxiety of a family on the brink. What I sorely miss in this season is emotional equilibrium. The actors seem to have been told to bury their characters’ feelings in the rubble of opportunism. Some of the performances, such as Kieran Culkin as the youngest Roy heir, and Matthew Macfadyen (he reminds of the tainted but brilliant Kevin Spacey) as Shiv’s husband, are brazenly over-the-top, as though to remind us that the wages of sin are hyper-theatrical acting. The series in this season manages to maintain a controlled momentum right till the end. Succession in Season 3 justifies its existence even though most of the characters are hellbent on discrediting themselves, none more so than Brian Cox’s Logan who is a foul-mouthed ruthless reprehensible business tycoon. Quite the role model for the young generation of ambitious wannabe tycoons.
Scenes From A Marriage (HBO):
Is Jessica Chastain as good in the remake as Liv Ullman in the original? Hard to do. But Chastain has done it. She smashes the screen and jumps at you with a feral ferocity that we witness on screen only once in a while. Of course, Oscar Isaac (one of contemporary American cinema’s rising phenomenon) is also a revelation. But somehow this version of Scenes From A Marriage is owned by Chastain. As Mira, she is a volcano about to erupt. Tempestous, tactile, volatile.When she is on the screen (which is 90 percent of the playing time) we can’t take our eyes off her. What is Mira thinking when she tells her house-husband, Jonathan, out of the blue, that she is leaving, going away to Tel Aviv(of all the places!) with her new lover, whom until a few minutes earlier Jonathan knew nothing about? This devastating revelation comes in Episode 2 and that’s where the narrative kicks off (episode 1 is an aimless warm-up with an Indian actress Sunita Mani interviewing the couple on their marriage and the wife Mira pointlessly kissing a female friend in the bedroom at a dinner get-together) conferring on the collapsed marriage a kind of universality that will shake up every married couple, as it did when Bergman created a divorce cyclone 48 years ago.
Bergman’s Scenes From A Marriage had triggered off divorce spree in Sweden. I don’t see the remake making any difference to modern marriages. Contemporary couples need no impetus to separate. But they need to watch this highly illuminating take on the anatomy of a failed marriage to know how and why excessive verbal interaction can ruin a marriage. In an audacious volte-face from the original, it is the wife Mira who has an extra-marital affair. In the original, it’s the husband who crosses the boundary. This change in the marital dynamics makes a radical feminist difference to the narrative. Chastain has to guard against being demonized while Isaac must make sure he doesn’t look like a martyr. Both do a wonderful job of keeping their characters on a moral leash without stifling the crackling synergy that makes them so gloriously garrulous.
The series is not instantly likable. Neither Chastain nor Isaac plays their parts for empathy. I have yet to come across a more disagreeable couple on screen. Barring perhaps Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf. Unlike Dick and Liz, there is minimal physical violence between this couple. This is a couple that can’t live together, but can’t live apart either. They love one another. But they don’t like each other anymore. What do we do with Mira and Jonathan? Each episode begins with Jessica Chastain and Christopher Isaac walking towards the bustling set (masks and all) to assume the on-screen roles of Mira and Jonathan. I don’t know why we are reminded each time that this is, at the end of the day, a make-believe couple. What we see is far from a mock marriage. Frequently, I felt more an intruder than an audience to Mira and Jonathan’s crumbling marriage. It is an unsettling experience.
AlRawabi School for Girls (Netflix):
This is one of the first series in Arabic on Netflix. Its popularity, dubbed as it was in multiple languages and beamed in numerous countries, took even its makers by surprise, catapulting as it did, the whole team to instant fame as the voices of the oppressed Middle East in 2021. Not all the fame that has come the series’ way is deserved. AlRawabi School for Girls suffers from huge lapses of moral rectitude and an enormous appetite for what I’d like to call girlie gossip. Much of the six episodes are devoted to the high school girls’ silly efforts to outdo themselves in a campus gang war. Parts of AlRawabi School for Girls are also extremely violent. These portions are what confers validity to the series beyond its pretty veneer. The plot centers on the ongoing rivalry between the show’s beautiful heroine Mariam(Andria Tayeh) and the campus bully Layan(Noor Taher). Layan is the worst version of a privileged lifestyle in a conservative society. She wears skirts and lipsticks openly and is not answerable for her wild behaviour to anyone
Mariam, on the other hand, though belonging to a seemingly liberal family where the entire family eats together, is shown to be more restrained in her bid to be a liberated evolving woman in a veiled society. Admirably or cautiously, the series creator Tima Shomali makes no references to the religious or cultural repression of an Islamic state. The girls are shown to have bright bouncy party-going lives. From the core group of young female actors (who do a neat job of projecting the series’ spirit of bridled bohemianism), only one is shown to wear a hijab to school.
That girl Ruqayya (well played by Salsabiela) suffers the worst blow when she is catfished by our heroine whose behaviour goes from victim to aggressor over the six sleek but shallow episodes, and not too convincingly. Initially, when Mariam is beaten up by Layan and her girl-gang of yes-women, the series promises to take on the scourge of bullying in the most sensible and sober tones. But then writers Tima Shomali, Shirin Kamal, and Islam Alshomali decide to take the easy route to global success. Instead of portraying repression in a closed society, the series takes on the glib tone of All The Boys I’ve Loved converted into To All The Girls I’ve Hated. Creator-director Tima Shomali seems to be unsure whether she wants to make a chick flick or something more serious and unflattering to the community and society where young women are still trying to find their bearings vis-Ã -vis the western hemisphere.
Given the oppressed social structure in which the characters are supposed to function, the uninterrupted flow of the fluffy-fiesta mood is not only distracting but also to a large extend a disservice to all the women in the Middle East who are trying to find their voices. As a series celebrating emancipatory womanhood AlRawabi School for Girls barely skims the surface of the confounding societal structure, settling for numbing affluence rather than digging deeper into the connection between bullying and patriarchal sanctions.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.
from Firstpost Bollywood Latest News https://ift.tt/3JHyEdh
There are a few actors whom we expect to shine in everything they do and they’ve managed to live up to our expectations in 2021. Here’s a look at the Mr & Ms. Marvels who went beyond expectations:
This is a miniature masterpiece with a central performance that is hard to put aside. Playing a Dalit lesbian Konkona’s performance adroitly avoids over-burdening the character’s personality. Among this segment from Netflix’s Ajeeb Daastans, many prominent virtues try this: Abha’s husband is no cad providing an alibi for her meandering heart. He is a caring man who even cooks for her. As she confides guiltily in her new friend Bharti Mandal, “Shiv bachche ki soch raha hai aur main ussey pyar bhi nahin karti.” Having someone love you is not reason enough to love that person back. Geeli Puchchi is filled with an aching passion and bridled wisdom. Director Neeraj Ghaywan has the ever-reliable Konkona Sen Sharma giving a magnificently layered performance as a Dalit, working woman in a factory whose job and respectability are threatened when a prettier, upper-caste fair-skinned all-feminine woman Abha (Aditi Rao) joins in. The unlikely friendship between the two women never reaches where we think it would. Ghaywan and his writers are constantly ahead of the audience, creating a kind of playful yet sinister and tragic dynamic between the two women from completely diverse backgrounds. Just when we think we have their relationship figured out, the narrative does a somersault that refuses to make the Dalit woman Bharati Mandal a martyr. Why should the underdog always remain buried under the heap of broken dreams? Geeli Puchchi (wet kisses) is so heads and shoulders above the other three segments that it seems like the centerpiece of the anthology (which it is) with the rest serving as space fillers. Neeraj Ghaywan whose only feature film Masaan so far is a class act on socio-economic discrimination goes deep into the theme in just over 30 minutes of playing time.
Entire Unrehearsed Cast Of Amazon Prime’s Cinema Bandi:
After I finished smiling and sobbing over this amazing work of pure genius, I wanted to ask debutante director Praveen Kandregula... Tumne filmmaking kahan se ‘Sica’? Indeed there is the artless charm of Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves in the way the characters seem unaware of the world outside their modest means. Look at Cinema Bandi as a long (really long) delayed sequel to Bicycle Thieves, as far away from its original habitat as humanly possible, from Italy to idlee, so to speak. This is debutant director Praveen Kandregula’s ‘Camera Thieves’, the quasi-sequel to Bicycle Thieves. As far as simple, lucid, warm, funny, tender, and gentle as screenplays go, this one is just what the Covid doctors prescribed. It will induce all the aforementioned feelings in you, and then some more. More than Vittorio de Sica, this is the world of R K Narayan’s Malgudi Days where everyone of every age is inured am frozen in infinite innocence. There is not a mean bone in any inhabitant of the soporific village of Gollopalli, not even that tall long-haired guy who tries initially to be mean and scheming with our camera-stealing heroes who want to make their film. But meanness is not in the DNA of this wonderful ode of innocence. So let me introduce you to Veera and Gana, honest righteous hardworking auto-driver and a photographer in a village where the most interesting meeting point is a run-down kerchief-sized barbar’s shop run by a pasty-faced young man who wants to be Mahesh Babu (played by Rag Mayur).
He has already christened himself Maridesh Babu. And he is Veera and Gana’s leading man. The heroine is a bit problematic. Veera and Gana first settle on a young school girl Divya (Trishara). But she lets them down our burgeoning filmmakers in ways that I don’t want to reveal. She is replaced midway by a feisty vegetable-seller Manga played by Uma Yaluvalli Gopalappa in a role that any right-thinking actress (that eliminates nearly everyone in Bollywood) would give her left arm to play. Manga is so entertaining there could be a film just about her. Or about the auto-driver Veera’s quietly supportive wife (played by Sirivennela Yanamandhala), At first, she balks at her husband’s wild scheme to use a sophisticated camera left behind in his auto, to make a film. Gradually she supports him, unconditionally, wordlessly. Nearly every character, big or small, changes by the end of the film. So do the audience. When was the time we saw a film so stripped of artifice and posturing, so simple heartfelt, and disarming? The writing is sharp and clear, the direction by the debut Praveen Kandregula makes no detours into humbug. The narrative cares deeply for these unassuming diligent characters.
Stripped of fakery Cinema Bandi is a back-to-basics film that will steal your heart and then melt it. It is a unique experience so charming and personable, you want these people to come back in your lives again. A word about the performances—every newcomer from the two leads (Vikas Vasishta and Sandeep Varanasi) to the little curly-haired boy Basha(Ram Charan) who teaches our amateur filmmaker a thing or two about continuity, is a superstar. Take a bow, team Cinema Bandi. Hope to see you very soon again.
A star is virtually born in front of our eyes. Right away, let’s salute the super-acting powers of the two humble super-heroes who helm this engaging fable of the caped scaled-down crusaders. Tovino Thomas is the rising star of Malayalam cinema. See him as the confused reluctant endearing super-hero, and you’ll know why. However, it is Guru Somasundaram whose emotional responses to his character’s newly-acquired powers anchor the plot and irrigate its irrational hurl into an odd and uncharted orbit. Somasundaram’s look of gratitude and vindication when the woman he has loved all his life accepts his love is a textbook illustration of emotive empowerment. It’s a joyride from the first to the last, powered by a sense of logistic fantasy—if that makes any sense—whereby the obvious absurdities of a flying crusader are melted down to ground-level intrepidity born more of necessity than vanity.
You have seen him play the archetypal hero in Telugu potboilers. Now see him act. Sundeep Kishan, the only star in the actors’ ensemble giving a measured powerful performance as a low-caste (probably Dalit) man who has risen to the ranks of a police officer and must now pay a heavy price to his benefactor. Kishan is by far the most complex character of the anthology. Some stories in Kasada Thapara, like the one featuring Sundeep Kishan, seem to deserve a full-length feature treatment.
Vaisshnav Tej in Konda Polam:
This is one of the most accomplished Men versus Nature films I’ve seen in recent times with a stand-out performance by Vaisshnav Tej. After seeing him in Uppena I suspected that this is an actor whose eyes speak louder than words. Now I am sure. Vaisshnav Tej occupies centre stage in this Telugu film as a young man torn between his traditional heritage and worldly ambitions. Vaisshnav Tej belongs to an illustrious family of actors. Pawan Kalyan and Chiranjeevi are his Mama (maternal uncle). And his elder brother Sai Dharam Tej is also a popular actor in Telugu cinema. But that doesn’t mean he automatically wanted to be an actor. Far from it. During his younger days, he toyed with many career options but never acted. After the success of Uppena, he had to make sure people didn’t think of him as a fluke. They don’t. Not after Konda Polam.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.
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On 1 December, Netflix released Jane Campion’snew filmThe Power of the Dog, a Western psycho-sexual drama based on a 1960s novel by Thomas Savage. Impeccably shot, with Campion’s signature bleak beauty shining through in every frame, the film follows the fortunes of rancher brothers Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Jesse Plemons), after the latter marries an alcoholic widow named Rose (Kirsten Dunst), who has a young son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
During several crucial scenes in the movie, Campion interrogates and gradually chips away at certain masculine tropes associated with the Western genre. Phil, played to perfection by a red-hot Cumberbatch, represents the archetype of the endlessly rugged cowboy: a stoic hero undefeated by Man, God or Nature. George is the softer, kinder, more compassionate man who usually gets nothing but ridicule for his empathetic ways, most notably from Phil, who is openly scornful of his brother’s 'weakness.'
Perhaps it is fitting that 2021, a massive year for revisionist Westerns (The Harder They FallandOld Henry, most notably), ended withThe Power of the Dogand Clint Eastwood’sCry Macho, two clear-eyed, largely conventional explorations of the genre.Campion and Eastwood reminded audiences of the enduring appeal of a well-made Western: the clothes, the guns, the morality parables, the unyielding New Mexico sun (New Mexico is where a lot of Westerns continue to be shot).
It is Hollywood’s equivalent of a folk tale template, essentially. The so-called ‘wild west’ becomes a space of churning, where the best and worst of Man is revealed before the audience.
In my opinion, two Idris Elba starrers on Netflix did the most for the Western genre in 2021:Concrete Cowboy(released in April) andThe Harder They Fall(released in November). In the former, Elba plays a Harp, a tough but fair father to a troubled 15-year-old boy named Cole. The film is inspired by the real-life Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club in Philadelphia; several real-life members make cameo appearances in the film, talking about the problems faced by the Fletcher community. Two things immediately stand out aboutConcrete Cowboy— one, how the concept of ‘urban cowboys’ is used as a metaphor for the generation gap between Harp and Cole. And two, the strength of Elba’s performance as Harp, the urban cowboy who must teach his son how to be a good person (as opposed to being a particularly manly man).
IfConcrete Cowboywas the Western being ‘corrected’ by realist impulses,The Harder They Fallwas wish fulfilment revisionism at its finest. Although the story featured several real-life outlaws like Cherokee Bill (Lakeith Stanfield) and lawmen like Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo), the concept of an all-Black town in the 19thcentury American West was obviously fictional. Redwood, the town in question, was built from scratch by the production crew, a remarkable achievement. But then,The Harder They Fallis that kind of film, where every little touch, every stylistic flourish seems to pay off big time.
If you have watched the music video for ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X (featuring Billy Ray Cyrus), you will see that Nas makes several references to both old cowboy movie tropes (dressing in black, for one, like the villains in Sergio Leone movies), and more contemporary, ‘urban cowboy’ comparisons (“riding on my horse, ha/ you can whip your Porsche”). Narratively, the work done by the father-son bonds in Concrete Cowboy or even The Harder They Fall is similar to what Nas is doing with the ‘Old Town Road’ music video — it is carving out a space for Blackness within the cowboy canon. It is also drawing a straight line between the past and the present of Black cowboys, showing us the racist historiography behind some of the genre conventions.
As good as Elba and company were inThe Harder They Fall(Regina King, in particular), the definitive cowboy role of the year went to the superb Tim Blake Nelson, who played the titular role inOld Henry. Blake plays Henry McCarty, an embittered old farmer forced to confront his ultraviolent past after taking in a man on the run. Now, anybody with a passing interest in the Western genre knows that Henry McCarty is a very famous name indeed —it is the birth name of Billy the Kid (1859-1881), real-life outlaw and one of the most famous characters in the Western canon. Despite this handicap,Old Henryis a riveting watch because of Nelson’s electric performance, alternatively tragic and brutal in his expression. Nelson played a kind of polar opposite cowboy character in the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, an exuberant, devil-may-care sharpshooter with a song on his lips. As Henry McCarty/Billy the Kid, he proves that his Buster Scruggs style is backed up with solid steel.
As good as 2021 was for the Western, one cannot finish this assessment without addressing the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Alec Baldwin-produced-Western,Rust. Hutchins died after Baldwin accidentally fired a gun that was pointed towards her; the actor-producer claims that he was handed a ‘cold gun’ or a weapon only carrying blanks. Instead, the gun was carrying live rounds, and Hutchins died of her gunshot wounds (director Joel Souza was wounded). Ever since this incident, several actors have called for stricter gun control/oversight mechanisms on Hollywood sets, with some (like Dwayne Johnson and Chris Hemsworth) calling for all real-gun-usage to be stopped altogether.
Rustwas supposed to be a full-blooded Western, with plenty of gun violence and bloodshed onscreen; this is unlikely to change anytime soon. Producers and directors need to respect the safety concerns of their crews, something conspicuously absent on the sets ofRust. In fact, unionised crew members, who demanded better safety standards and other provisions, were summarily replaced by non-union professionals.
Attitudes like this one do the Western a great disservice, I feel. You can have all the gun-twirling scenes you want onscreen but Hollywood simply cannot afford to have any more accidents on set, lest the Western genre itself fall out of favour. Like Henry McCarty says in a scene fromOld Henry, ‘There are some shadows that ain’t never passing you over’.
Aditya Mani Jha is a Delhi-based independent writer and journalist, currently working on a book of essays on Indian comics and graphic novels.
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