Miss India is streaming on Netflix. (Photo: Netflix)Theatres in many parts of the country have been opened, but it is going to take some time before moviegoers can start crowding theatres. Until things go back to normal, streaming services remain the primary source of entertainment for many Indians.
Miss India is one of the recent streaming releases. The film, a Telugu drama, features Keerthy Suresh in the lead role. Helmed by Y Narendranath, the film revolves around a determined young woman Samyuktha who believes she is born to be a business tycoon. Jagapathi Babu, Naveen Chandra, Rajendra Prasad, Naresh, Bhanushree Mehra, Sumanth S, Poojitha Ponnada, Kamal Kamaraju and Nadhiya play significant roles in the movie.
The Indian Express film critic Shubhra Gupta gave the film only one-and-a-half stars. She wrote, “There’s a nice idea in here, but gets squandered in the treatment. A tea-loving girl, armed with the easiest-earned MBA degree from a San Francisco college without seemingly having attended a single class, wants to spread the benefits of Indian chai amongst coffee-loving Americans. To which end she has a series of run-ins with various men, all of whom either want to strong-arm her into submission, or sweep her away into their loving arms. She’s having none of it, of course.”
The Undoing, HBO’s psychological thriller TV series, is also one of the recent additions to streaming services. It stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in lead roles. The series, based on the 2014 novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz, has Kidman and Grant playing the role of a wealthy Manhattan couple, the Frasers, who live with their young son. While Kidman’s character Grace Fraser is a therapist, Grant’s Jonathan Fraser is an oncologist. Grace is perfectly happy with her husband and child until the gruesome murder of an acquaintance throws her life into disarray.
This Martin Scorsese directorial is about the rise and fall of mobster Henry Hill (a real figure) and stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta. The film is easily one of the best Scorsese films if not the best.
The One and Only Ivan revolves around a silverback gorilla (the titular Ivan) who performs for his human master Mack (Bryan Cranston) in a mini-circus inside a mall. A gentle soul whose preoccupations include hanging out with other captive animals and a stray dog that sneaks into the cages once in a while, Ivan, the headliner of the circus, nevertheless has to look fierce and deadly in front of the audience. Because that is how humans imagine gorillas are, which in turn justifies all sorts of cruelties meted out to these animals.
Set in the early ’50s, Lootera tells the story of Varun (Ranveer Singh) and Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha). Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, the period drama is based on author O Henry’s 1907 short story The Last Leaf. The strength of the film lies in its spellbinding cinematography, superb performances and its soulful music.
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.
Set in 1980s' England, the followup of Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, chronicles the tale of inhabitants of Bly Manor, the titular creepy house in English countryside. Like apparently all big houses in horror fiction, Bly Manor is haunted as well. Henry Thomas, Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Kate Siegel return from the original series.
Based on Manu Joseph’s novel of the same name, Sudhir Mishra’s adaptation of Serious Men is a bitingly sharp, satirical look at Aspirational India.
Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm is funnier than 2006’s Borat. For the entirety of its run-time, it serves up gag after gag right until the last frame. Now, Borat 2 is no Wodehousian comedy. There is nothing classy about the humour here. There are one too many jokes about genitals, for instance. Cohen’s humour in the film is in bad taste. But most of the jokes are genuinely smart and loaded with subtle political and social commentary.
A Series of Unfortunate Events is based on the book series of the same name by Daniel Handler who uses his pen name Lemony Snicket to write the books. The story follows three Baudelaire children – a baby girl, a boy and his elder sister. The children have a fortune to their name, but a certain Count Olaf (played with a patent delight by Neil Patrick Harris) would like the fortune to himself. He will kill the children if that is what it took. The devilish Count is assisted by even nastier minions.
An endearing family drama, This is Us weaves a charming tale of a dysfunctional family. A beautiful show where characters seem to have a life of their own instead of being controlled by the strings in the hands of the creators. The show does have its dark moments, but its essence is that of love and family.
In the second season of The Mandalorian, the titular Din Djarin or Mando (Pedro Pascal) continues on his quest to reunite The Child with his kind. He is pointed towards a remote town in Tatooine, where we meet Timothy Olyphant’s Marshal who is protecting the town under the guise and armour of a Mandalorian.
Miss India is a Telugu-language drama film directed by Narendra Nath and starring Keerthy Suresh. Dani Sanchez-Lopez and Sujith Vaassudev have cranked the camera while S Thaman composed the music for the film. Rajendra Prasad, Jagapathi Babu and others also star.