Malcolm & Marie is streaming on Netflix. (Photo: Netflix)During the first month of the year, OTT platforms gave the audience varied content. From Tandav to The White Tiger, there was something for all in the world of streaming platforms.
In the first week of February, streaming platforms have welcomed us with Amazon Prime Video’s Bliss, Netflix’s Malcolm & Marie, ZEE5’s Lahore Confidential, AltBalaji and ZEE5’s LSD (Love Scandal & Doctors) and the digital release of Ravi Teja’s Krack on Aha.
Krack was one of the first big films to release in theatres after the lockdown restrictions were relaxed. The Ravi Teja-starrer brought back cine-goers in hordes, and the success of the film was seen as a positive sign for the film industry. Also starring Shruti Haasan, the film is now streaming on Aha.
Hollywood film Malcolm & Marie is also streaming on Netflix. Starring Zendaya and John David Washington, the trailer describes this film as ‘not a love story’ but ‘a story of love’. The film was shot during the pandemic and has been shot completely in black and white. The Hollywood Reporter’s review of the film read, “Washington holds his own throughout but it’s MVP Zendaya who carries the movie, revealing as much in Marie’s loaded silences as she does in her words.”
Amazon Prime Video original film Bliss, starring Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson, is out. The psychological drama has the two characters jumping between their reality and a simulation, so much so that they even can’t tell the difference between the two anymore. Hayek’s character seems to have designed the multiple alternate realities and Wilson’s character seems like her test subject, but there’s more to this than meets the eye.
Mrs. America is a Hulu miniseries created by Desperate Housewives and Mad Men alum Dahvi Waller. Starring Cate Blanchett in the lead, the series is set in the 1970s 'United States and is about the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment or ERA by second-wave feminists.
The Dark Knight is widely considered to be the best superhero movie ever made, though it has little common with the superhero movies being made today. Its ‘superhero’ was just a costumed and well-muscled rich guy – a man without any superhuman abilities.
Written and directed by Jennifer Fox, The Tale is based on her own experiences of child sexual abuse. This is no sanitised version of events. This is harsh reality laid bare - unsparing, unstinting.
In 7500, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as the co-pilot of a flight that is hijacked by terrorists. Most of the film is just the main character trying to stop terrorists from taking control of the flight, and this means not allowing them to enter the cockpit, whatever the cost.
Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-winning feature The Shape of Water twists the traditional beauty-and-the-beast story and in the process tells a story that is gorgeous both visually and musically.
12 Years a Slave is Steve McQueen’s heart-wrenching adaptation of a memoir of a black slave Solomon Northup. Chiwetel Ejiofor essayed the lead role in the film which also starred Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong’o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, and Alfre Woodard. The film was a brutal depiction of slavery and is a hard movie to watch.
Brightburn is a truly terrifying superhero (or supervillain?) horror film. It is an inversion of Superman’s lore. Just like Clarke Kent, Brandon Breyer came from outer space and fell in a Kansas farm. And just like Clarke, he found loving parents. But instead of being a kind, thoughtful individual, he submits before his darker proclivities and goes on a murder spree.
Go Goa Gone, a quirky zombie-comedy directed by Raj & DK, stars Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu, Vir Das and Anand Tiwari. It revolves around a rave party where all the guests turn into zombies.
The Kid Who Would Be King is about a school kid who has nothing special about him. His fortunes change, however, when he pulls King Arthur’s famous sword Excalibur from the stone it is buried in. According to the Arthur stories, only the true king can draw the sword and wield it. The film is an enjoyable adventure for kids and adults alike.
A sitcom about a bunch of police officers in a New York precinct, Brooklyn Nine-Nine is continuously funny. The performances are great, and the uniquely written characters never let you get bored.
A prequel of the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, Bates Motel tells the story of Normal Bates from when he was a kid. The acting is superb, both by Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates and Vera Farmiga as his mother Norma Bates. There is uneasy, almost incestuous tension between the duo and that is the biggest strength of this show. Sometimes scary and sometimes creepy, Bates Motel is a worthy prequel.
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.
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 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.
Starring Sanjay Dutt in the lead role, Torbaaz is now streaming on Netflix. The film follows Dutt’s character as he tries to form a cricket team at a refugee camp with vulnerable children. He is fighting against the terrorism nexus who wants to recruit children. The film also stars Rahul Dev and Nargis Fakhri.
Set in China during the Han dynasty, Mulan, which is the live-action remake of animated original follows Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei), a rebellious young woman who disguises herself as a man and enlists in the Imperial Army to fight off the Huns, invaders from the north, so that her ailing father would not have to go as part of conscription.
Based on Vikram Seth’s novel of the same name, this Mira Nair miniseries is streaming on Netflix. The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta shared in her review, “The series may seem a bit too explanatory in some places, but when there is so much fear about looking at the present and the way things are imploding, Nair’s clear-eyed, unambiguous stance in recreating an older India, where things were difficult, but where there was still the possibility of friendship and amity between Hindus and Muslims, makes her A Suitable Boy worth your time.”
A romantic anthology series that dramatises the real-life love stories from the New York Times’ column of the same name, Modern Love explores love in all its forms.
If you are a fan of cricket, then Amazon Prime Video web series Inside Edge is for you. It chronicles the murky side of cricket. The story revolves around Zarina Malik, an actor played by Richa Chadda, who co-owns a cricket team, Mumbai Mavericks, in the Power Play League (PPL). She is put on the spot when the co-owner of her team goes bankrupt. Apart from Chadha, Vivek Oberoi, Tanuj Virwani, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Angad Bedi and Aamir Bashir play important roles in the web series.
In case you haven’t watched it yet, catch Scam 1992 on Sony LIV. It follows the story of Harshad Mehta, who was involved in the biggest Securities scam at the time. Directed by Hansal Mehta, the show stars Pratik Gandhi in the main role.