Priyadarshan directorial Anamika is streaming on ZEE5. The weekend is here and it’s time to catch up on all the new web series and movies which were released during the week.
This week, ZEE5 released two movies, Pradeep Sarkar directorial Arranged Marriage and Priyadarshan’s Anamika. Arranged Marriage features actors Ali Fazal, Patralekhaa, and Omkar Kapoor in the lead roles. It explores the relationship between families involved in a marriage. Anamika follows the story of a woman who finds love outside her marriage. It stars Aditya Seal, Pooja Kumar, and Harsh Chhaya.
Also, Vikrant Massey and Shweta Tripathi Sharma starrer Cargo started streaming on Netflix. Disney Plus Hotstar presented the second season of its hit web series Hostages. Amazon Prime Video released its original web series titled Wakaalat From Home. It features Sumeet Vyas, Nidhi Singh, Kubbra Sait and Gopal Datt in the lead roles.
In her review of Hostages season two, The Indian Express’ Ektaa Malik wrote, “Predictable to the T, season 2 is at least eight episodes too long. The suffering lasts for full 12 episodes with a runtime of 40-minutes each. Made with the idea of being a slow burn, the show gives one a headache instead, which by the tenth episode morphed into a full-blown migraine.”
She added, “Hostages has a cast encompassing good actors from almost three decades — right from Kanwaljit Singh, Shweta Prasad Basu, Ronit Bose Roy, Dino Morea, Shibani Dandekar, Amit Sial, Dalip Tahil and Divya Dutta. But getting the right people is only half the work done, the actors need something to work with. The script and the writing lets them all down.”
So, if you don’t know what to watch today, we are here with some binge-watch recommendations that will surely keep you hooked. Scroll through this blog and find out what you can watch on ZEE5, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, SonyLIV, Voot Select, Disney Plus Hotstar, MX Player and other OTT platforms.
Based on an intriguing what-if premise, The Man in the High Castle is an alternate reality TV show. In this world, the Axis powers won and the United States was carved up between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Common Americans live under two foreign, oppressive regimes and they are resigned to their fate... until the people come across another reality -- our reality -- according to which things could be better.
This one is among the weirder and eccentric shows. Frodo of Lord of the Rings movies, Elijah Wood, plays an everyman whose life is turned into a veritable whirlwind by a flamboyantly British "holistic" detective; holistic because he believes everything in the universe to be interconnected. And indeed, he has a seemingly preternatural ability. The feel of the show is like from one of the more strange comic-books from the 80s came to life. The story is loosely based on the writings of the great Douglas Adams.
The classic Doordarshan TV series based on RK Narayan's charming small-town based stories still holds up well. Relive your childhood (if you watched Malgudi Days as a child, that is) with this series.
This HBO miniseries is executively produced by two giants of American cinema, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who bring their experience of Saving Private Ryan to Band of Brothers, which is an exquisite and sensitive portrayal of a company of soldiers.
Directed by Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind is inspired by the life of genius mathematician and Nobel prize winner, John Nash. Nash accepts secret work in cryptography (code-breaking), but in doing so, his personal life and mental well-being take a nightmarish turn. His work on game theory in mathematics proved to be a game-changer, but his genius was overshadowed by schizophrenia. A Beautiful Mind went on to win four Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Chernobyl, a miniseries based on the nuclear disaster of the same name, is scarier than any horror story in existence, precisely because it did happen in the past and a similar event can happen in future. Human incompetence, after all, has no limits.
Avrodh: The Siege Within, streaming on SonyLIV, recounts the planning that went into the Indian government’s decision to avenge the killing of 19 soldiers at an Army base camp in Uri with surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads across Line of Control (LoC). Though the plot of the nine-episode web series is similar to 2019’s National Award-winning film Uri: The Surgical Strike, it is starkly different in its treatment. Unlike many military dramas, Avrodh is not marred by jingoistic dialogues or scenes. Helmed by Raj Acharya, the series starred Darshan Kumaar, Amit Sadh, Neeraj Kabi, Madhurima Tuli, Vikram Gokhale, Pavail Gulati and Anil George.
If you are looking to watch something light-hearted and fun, Ayan Mukerji directorial Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Aditya Roy Kapur, Kalki Koechlin, Evelyn Sharma and late actor Farooq Sheikh, is the perfect pick. The film, with its elements of friendship and romance, is a coming-of-age love story.
The Sopranos is said to be the greatest television series of all time. It was this show that really made HBO the place of prestige television that it is today. It is safe to say that without this David Chase creation, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and other such iconic shows would not exist. Based in New Jersey, The Sopranos revolved around a fictional Italian-American mobster Tony Sopranos, played by late James Gandolfini.
Jersey is an inspirational film about an out-of-work 36-year-old man, played by Nani, who after facing a lot of backlash decides to prove his worth by doing the only thing he knows - playing cricket.
This shot-at-home web series is headlined by an ensemble cast including actors Sanjay Kapoor, Arjun Mathur, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Rukhsar Rehman, Lubna Salim, Indraneil Sengupta, and Dibyendu Bhattacharya. The story revolves around the Gujral family whose life turns into a nightmare after Sahil Gujral, played by Arjun Mathur, goes missing. While initially he is said to have died from coronavirus, later it seems there’s more to his death than what meets the eyes. Sahil’s sister (Shweta Tripathi Sharma) and father (Sanjay Kapoor) make efforts to find out about the mysterious death in the family.
An Amazon Original, Lore is based on a podcast of the same name. Every episode of the show tells the origins of a horror story and although it is more of a documentary than drama, it is a slickly produced show that is engaging enough for a binge. You might want to check out the podcast as well. It is sublime.
The happy household of Dalmatians Pongo and Perdy is in a state of chaos when their new-born pups are missing along with a boodle of other Dalmatians from the London area. This fable of a hundred adorable dogs is something that you should definitely watch.
The Pakistani show Churails centres around four women who come from different walks of life – lawyer, wedding planner, boxer and ex-convict, who band together to form a detective agency to spy on cheating husbands. Their idea is an instant hit, and more women join their team until they hit a roadblock.
The Indian Express' Ektaa Malik wrote about Atkan Chatkan in her review, "Atkan Chatkan, a phrase in Hindi, which is often used for alliteration purposes, is supposed to lend a zesty, youthful vibe. The film is neither zestful nor happy. Contrived sequences, like that of the privileged kids feeling resentful towards the gifted poor ones is very eighties, and does nothing but makes one wonder if the director was stuck in a time warp. The kids are a delight to watch, even if they have to regurgitate dialogues that don’t belong to this decade."
Starring Nikitin Dheer and Kranti Prakash Jha in the lead roles, this series is set in the 1980s. The politics, the illegal businesses and the crime ring operated by two gangsters lend Raktanchal a Mirzapur vibe. Also, like Mirzapur, this series too is set in the Purvanchal area of Uttar Pradesh.
Aditi Rao Hydari, Dev Mohan and Jayasurya starrer Sufiyum Sujatayum is a Malayalam language film directed by Naranipuzha Shanavas. The Indian Express film critic Shubhra Gupta gave the film two stars. She wrote, "There was potential here. In the way the third party to this romance, the Dubai-based Raveendran (Jayasurya) is unwillingly thrust into the mix, and his uneasy relationship with Sujatha. In the way the head of the sufi sect calls out the pig-headedness of the girl’s father, saying ‘religion is a personal thing’ when the former issues a threat. ‘Don’t start a love jihad’, he says."
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s film, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon, Pankaj Tripathi, Seema Pahwa and Rajkummar Rao, has a love triangle at the centre of its narrative, but its localised treatment set it apart from other romantic comedies.
Abhay Deol, Pankaj Kapur and Piyush Mishra star in the edge-of-the-seat thriller JL50. The basic premise of the web series revolves around an aeroplane which went missing 35 years ago in Kolkata and crashed a week ago.
V, starring Nani and Sudheer Babu in the lead roles, is written and directed by Mohan Krishna Indraganti. Indianexpress.com's Manoj Kumar R wrote in his review, "V is a much-needed relief for film buffs who are on the lookout for fresh entertainment. V is not the popcorn movie that we deserve but the one we need right now."