Member Reviews

In January 2022, the Netflix series Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein introduced us to an unusual drama. The show, set in a small town, revolved around Vikrant (Tahir Raj Bhasin), who uncomfortably finds himself to be the object of affection for a gangster politician’s daughter Purva (Aanchal Singh). Instead of marrying his college sweetheart Shikha (Shweta Tripathi), he finds himself tied by matrimony to someone he doesn’t love. Sidharth Sengupta’s series took Vikrant to his limit as he found himself hiring a hitman to get rid of Purva. Now, nearly three years later, the series returns to pick up where it left off.

Comedies that mock America’s inexplicable obsession with true crime and especially podcasts are on the rise. The new season of Peacock’s Based on a True Story, starring Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina, brings back their suburban couple, Ava and Nathan Bartlett, who thought unmasking a serial killer would make them famous. By the end of Season 2, the duo become more infamous thanks to their curiosity about a new copycat serial killer. The comedy is still funny and insightful even as it takes its time to surprise the characters and audience with new twists.

Set in a small, quiet American town where nothing really happens and everyone knows everyone, Greedy People is a feature film told from many perspectives. Starring Himesh Patel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Lily James, the crime comedy quickly moves from laughs to backstabbing, some quite literal in this crazy narrative. While the story simply must be seen to be believed, the actors’ performances sell the absurdity of the fast changing plot.

The prequel series, Dune: Prophecy, opens with an interesting quote that lays the foundation for its narrative ahead. It states, “Victory is celebrated in the light, but won in the darkness.” The HBO show is set around 10,000 years before the existence of Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides from Dune; a powerful organisation called the Sisterhood aims to guide humanity to its correct path. Easier said than done.

For Tarantino, it’s the foot shot. For Rohit Shetty, it’s the drone shot. And for Neeraj Pandey, it’s the walking-talking shot: unbroken over-the-shoulder and full-frontal shots of self-serious men striding in and out of spaces, between rooms and corridors, between people and objects. Cops walk. Robbers walk. Waiters walk. Dogs walk. Thoughts walk. The air walks. No cinematographer finishes a schedule unfit. Basically, walking equals narrative momentum. Pandey is a master at making it look like something is always happening even when nothing is — but not in a good way.

सिनेमा की दुनिया में हाइस्‍ट यानी चोरी-डकैती पर बुनी चोर-पुलिस वाली कहानी फिल्मकारों के पसंदीदा विषयों में रही है। इस विषय पर ‘द इटैलियन जॉब’, ‘ओशन सीरीज’, ‘नाऊ यू सी मी’ से लेकर आइकॉनिक ‘मनी हाइस्ट’ जैसी विदेशी फिल्में और वेब सीरीज बन चुकी हैं। देश में भी ‘ज्वेल थीफ’, ‘आंखें’ (2002) और ‘धूम फ्रेंचाइजी’ जैसी यादगार फिल्में बनी हैं। अब इसी विषय पर डायरेक्टर नीरज पांडे अपनी नई फिल्म ‘सिकंदर का मुकद्दर’ लेकर आए हैं। नीरज खुद इससे पहले पुलिस को चकमा देकर रुपये उड़ा लेने वालों की टीम पर फिल्म ‘स्पेशल 26’ बना चुके हैं।

Over the years, actor-director RJ Balaji established himself as a creator with a defined vision. As an actor, he explores different genres, and despite his limitations, Balaji pushes the boundaries with the scripts he chooses. Director Sidharth Vishwanath’s Sorgavaasal is one such film that highlights the 1999 riots and presents a gripping prison-break drama. Parthiban (RJ Balaji), hailing from a lower-economic background, runs a food cart. Shanmugam (Param), an IAS officer who frequents Parthiban’s food cart, helps him secure a loan to open a hotel in his locality. However, Shanmugam’s untimely death and circumstantial evidence send Parthiban to jail.

Three women, monsoon and a severe city. If Payal Kapadia’s iridescent All We Imagine as Light was a novel, there would be dried flowers stuck between its pages. Since it is a film, the intangible feeling is imbued with visual tactility. It is present in the way Prabha (Kani Kusruti), a middle-aged woman, holds a totem of cold technology within the warmth of her embrace. It is embossed on the face of Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), a woman in the middle of a crisis, as she listens to a fiery political speech about reclaiming what is hers. And it drips from the text messages a young Anu (Divya Prabha) sends to her lover: “I am sending you kisses through the clouds so that when it rains my kisses touch your lips.” Kapadia’s film is suffused with such ache that if you extend your hand you can touch it.

In denial initially, this traumatic health crisis, numbs the pain of everything else in comparison including a broken marriage and financial downfall. What follows is countless hospital visits and an unpredictable future which tests the relationship Arjun shares with his daughter Reya.

Mumbai has not only been one of the most featured cities in Indian films but it is also explored as a subject over the decades. Many a times, the dark underbelly of the city is brought to light. Filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s worldwide acclaimed feature film debut All We Imagine As Light (Malayalam along with some usage of Hindi and Marathi) also shows the bitter side of Mumbai. But it, for a change, doesn’t feature the criminal side of the city in any way.