Member Reviews

When Keerthy Suresh’s teaser and trailer for Raghuthatha were released on social media, they generated a positive buzz around the film. The intriguingly cut trailer suggested that the film would address Hindi imposition in Tamil Nadu. Additionally, Kayavizhi’s (Keerthy Suresh) attempt to challenge patriarchy with her bold and upfront attitude piqued everyone’s interest. Did Suman Kumar manage to weave a successful story around these two sensitive topics? Let’s find out! Kayal (Keerthy Suresh) and her grandfather (MS Bhaskar) protest against Hindi imposition and are responsible for shutting down the Hindi organisation Ekta Sabha in their village, Valluvanpettai. She is a feminist who slams everyone who says, “ponna adaka odukama iru” (Be coy and obedient like a woman). One day, her grandfather’s cancer diagnosis and his three wishes push her towards marriage, which she has never been interested in.

Neighbour duo Lolita (Debchandrima Singha Roy) and Shekhar (Gourav Chakrabarty) have unending claim on each other. Despite a marriage in haste, they parted ways because of Shekhar’s prejudices and Lolita’s pride. In Parineeta, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s classic takes a makeover in Aditi Roy’s series on Hoichoi.

What sort of a spy movie is Sudhanshu Saria’s Ulajh? It begins as a Raazi (2018) in pantsuits: patriotic female protagonist, driven by loyalty and legacy, enlists to serve her country on foreign turf. Indo-Pak diplomatic relations, as fraught and fragile as they were in 1971, inform the narrative stakes. Both films hail from Junglee Pictures, and the editor, in each case, is Nitin Baid. If that weren’t enough, the new film even has a song with ‘watan’ in its title — plastered, ineffectually, over the opening credits and thereby fast forgotten.

Gyaarah Gyaarah, out on ZEE5 and adapted from the Korean series Signal, is a time-warping thriller of the dour, soulless kind. Tumbling across timelines, director Umesh Bist always makes sure to hold his audience’s hand. Bland letters appear on screen to indicate the precise date, year, location. Lest we lose our bearings, the pop-culture references are even more plain: Dil for 1990, Kapoor & Sons for 2016. This is a fairly unimaginative way to summon a period, to evoke a mood. It’s unlike the scene in Back to the Future where Doc in the 1950s exclaims to Marty, who’s traveled back from the 80s, “Ronald Reagan! The actor?! Then who’s vice president? Jerry Lewis?”

औरों में कहां दम था जो आज के दौर में भागती-दौड़ती, चटकीली-चमकीली फिल्में परोस रहे बॉलीवुड में ऐसी ठहराव ली हुई, सिंपल-सी प्रेम-कहानी बना सके। सो, यह ज़िम्मा उठाया नीरज पांडेय ने। उन्हीं नीरज पांडेय ने जो ‘ए वैडनसडे’, ‘स्पेशल 26’, ‘बेबी’, ‘अय्यारी’ जैसी फिल्में और ‘स्पेशल ऑप्स’ जैसी वेब-सीरिज़ दे चुके हैं। लेकिन हुआ क्या? कड़ाही पनीर बनाने वाले हाथों को खिचड़ी बनाने का शौक चर्राए तो ज़रूरी नहीं कि उनसे स्वादिष्ट खिचड़ी बन ही जाए। कृष्णा पिछले 22-23 साल से जेल में है। बरसों पहले वह और वसु एक-दूसरे से प्यार करते थे। एक हादसा हुआ और कृष्णा को जेल जाना पड़ा। इधर वह जेल से निकलना नहीं चाहता और उधर वसु उस पल का इंतज़ार कर रही है जब वह जेल से निकलेगा। वसु के पति को भी कृष्णा का इंतज़ार है। वह उस हादसे की रात का सच जानना चाहता है। कृष्णा आता है, वसु से मिलता है, उसके पति से भी मिलता है और उसी रात उन दोनों से दूर भी चला जाता है। कहानी बुरी नहीं है। लेकिन कागज़ पर लिखी अच्छी कहानी भी पर्दे पर तभी अच्छी लगती है जब उसे दमदार तरीके से फैलाया और फिल्माया गया हो। यह फिल्म ‘औरों में कहां दम था’ इसी हादसे का शिकार हुई है। दो लाइनों में सोची गई कहानी को दो पन्नों में फैलाते-फैलाते ही नीरज पांडेय ने न जाने कितने समझौते कर लिए होंगे। फिर यह फिल्म तो सवा दो घंटे से भी ऊपर है जिसे बनाते हुए निर्देशक नीरज पांडेय ने जो समझौते किए, वे भी इसे देखते हुए साफ महसूस होते हैं।

‘South Queen’ Trisha Krishnan forayed into OTT with the Telugu web series, ‘Brinda’, directed by Surya Manoj Vangala. While the web series started premiering on SonyLIV on August 2, there have been low-key promotions for whatever reason. At a time when there are many web series on multiple platforms, ‘Brinda’ stands apart. This is truly one of the web shows that deserves more promotion. Brinda (Trisha Krishnan) is a newly appointed sub-inspector, who is moody and hardly gets treated as equals at the police station. She goes to work, struggles to sleep and is quite smart. When her superiors, including Sarathi (Ravindra Vijay), want to close a murder case as suicide, she smartly points out that it’s a murder. This smart work lands her in trouble as her boss always tries to put her in place because she’s a woman. But Brinda is someone who will not take it with a pinch of salt. She teaches him a lesson.

Around halfway of the second episode of the latest season of The Test, drama erupts. English batter Jonny Bairstow ducks a bouncer, the ball goes to the keeper and the batter walks out of the crease. Pretty much a normal thing that happens during a Test match, you’d think. But there’s tense music in the background, almost like you know something is going to happen.