Seven films that are our top picks this weekend

It isn’t easy to keep track of content added to streaming platforms week after week. So, we decided to list select titles that you can stream over the weekend without wasting time scrolling through the vast content library of OTT platforms.

From mystery thriller Dial 100, starring Manoj Bajpayee and Neena Gupta, to the anthology film Navarasa, featuring the likes of Suriya, Vijay Sethupathi, Arvind Swami, Siddharth, Prakash Raj, Revathy, Nithya Menen and Parvathy Thiruvothu among others, here is what you should be watching online this weekend. And, if you are willing to step out of your house, we recommend you watch James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and Promising Young Woman which are playing in select theatres.

The Suicide Squad

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad. (Photo: Warner Bros Films)

James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad released in India on Thursday. The film, starring Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney and Peter Capaldi among others, has received a positive response and rightfully so. It is an absolutely madcap delight, full of gore, black humour, deep characters, and lots of surprises. In her review, The Indian Express film critic Shalini Langer wrote, “The smartest sleight of hand about The Suicide Squad is that its politics packs a punch. James Gunn realises that the craziest thing aren’t the freaks fighting the battle on the screen, it is the government pulling the strings from behind, going forth into worlds it has no idea about.”

Read the full review of The Suicide Squad here 

Dial 100: ZEE5

Dial 100 is streaming on ZEE5.

Bollywood thriller Dial 100, written and directed by Rensil D’Silva, started streaming on ZEE5 on Friday. The movie has names like Manoj Bajpayee, Neena Gupta and Sakshi Tanwar attached to it. Even though Dial 100 has received a mixed response, one thing that you won’t miss in the film is the brilliant acting by Gupta and Bajpayee.

Navarasa

The nine-film anthology drama Navarasa features stories directed by Rathindran Prasad, Arvind Swami, Bejoy Nambiar, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Sarjun KM, Priyadarshan, Karthick Naren, Karthik Subbaraj and Vasanth.

For The Indian Express film critic Shubhra Gupta, only four out of the nine stories leave an impact, and “the rest are a blur”. In her review, she mentioned, “Here are the ones I really liked. The marvellous Revathy toplines a story (Bejoy Nambiar’s ‘Karuna’) about hurt and revenge, and her co-stars, Prakash Raj, Vijay Sethupathi and Sai Tamhankar give her full support. If you cause a life to be lost, whose fault is it? The person who wielded the weapon, or the person who led you down that path? Priyadarshan’s short (‘Summer of 92’) has the wonderful Nedumudi Venu playing a father-cum-teacher who has a hard-to-marry-off-daughter; a man (Yogi Babu) who comes back to his village with memories of both, and how it all ties together in a smelly, scatological funny heap. Oh, and there’s a dog in this one too. A woman bringing up a son and daughter and her hardscrabble life, which lead in unexpected directions, leaves an impact in Arvind Swamy’s ‘Roudhram’. And the dishy Siddharth and the lovely Parvathy dance a dangerous ‘pa de deux’ in a strange story (Rathindran R Prasad’s Inmai’) about human greed and djinns who turn up to make things right.”

Promising Young Woman

Carey Mulligan in a still from Promising Young Woman. (Photo: Focus Features)

Promising Young Woman hit select theatres on Friday. Starring Carey Mulligan in the lead role, the film marks the directorial debut of Emerald Fennell. In her review of the movie, The Indian Express film critic Shalini Langer wrote, “Promising Young Woman aspires to address some of the nightmares of being a woman, bluntly, funnily, but often, unevenly. Where it succeeds is in showing how the world looks so different from the perspective of the two genders: men who genuinely believe they are “gentlemen”, and women too easily dismissed as “easy”. But in its omission of the many layers in between, it feels unsatisfactory, shallow.”

Dasharatham: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube

A still from Dashratham starring Mohanlal. (Photo: Matinee Now/YouTube)

Did you enjoy watching Kriti Sanon and Pankaj Tripathi-starrer Mimi on Netflix? Or did you think the subject of surrogacy could have been treated better? Either way, we suggest you watch Mohanlal’s Dasharatham. When you start watching Dashratham, it might appear like any other melodrama, but the film eventually strikes a chord with a well-carved out story. It revolves around Annie (Rekha) who agrees to be a surrogate for Rajiv (Mohanlal) as she needs money for a critical surgery of her husband Chandradas (Murali). But when she gives birth to the baby, she refuses to let the baby go and wants to keep it, even if that leads to her separation from her husband.

“Dasharatham may have been made in 1989, but it is miles ahead of Mimi in terms of artistic merits. The film doesn’t force you to take sides. You find yourself in a situation similar to Annie, when she is forced to choose between her husband and son. You sympathise with every character and when the movie ends, you don’t feel bitter towards anyone,” noted Indianexpress.com’s Manoj Kumar R.

Little Miss Sunshine: Disney Plus Hotstar

The 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine revolves around the dysfunctional, quirky Hoover family, which is filled with all sorts of characters. A teenage son who reads Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence (Paul Dano), a little girl who wants to compete in a beauty pageant (Abigail Breslin), a drug addict grandfather (Alan Arkin), a smoking, hyper mother (Toni Colette) and a suicidal heartbroken Proust professor (Steve Carell). In her weekly column Hollywood Rewind, indianexpress.com’s Anvita Singh wrote about the film, “The rat race to win at something or the other is never ending. Life is one obstacle piled onto the next, until you get to the end of it. That is a rather morbid way of looking at things, but it is also realistic. However, life’s problems shouldn’t get in the way of enjoying and celebrating some of its ordinary and extraordinary moments. The Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris directorial is exactly about that.”

Boot Polish: ZEE5, ShemarooMe

Baby Naaz was honoured with a special award at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance. (Photo: Express Archives)

Want to watch a classic? Look no further. Check out Prakash Arora’s 1954 film Boot Polish, starring Rattan Kumar, Baby Naaz and David, which examines the condition of children who are born into poverty. Indianexpress.com’s Sampada Sharma called the film engaging in her weekly column Bollywood Rewind. She wrote, “Boot Polish is one of the most treasured films on Hindi cinema that examines how being born in poverty, when one has no control over their circumstances, can destroy their chances of having a fulfilling life. When the worries of the next meal won’t let one sleep in peace, how is one ever supposed to think about the future?”