Mulan is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. (Photo: Disney)The pandemic is far from over, and even though producers are willing to release their movies in theatres, not everyone feels safe to step out after staying months locked inside their homes. OTT platforms continue to save the day by churning out quality content. While the long-awaited live-action remake of Mulan has finally premiered on Disney Plus Hotstar, cinephiles are also excited to watch the David Fincher directorial Mank on Netflix.
Another OTT feature that seems to have an interesting premise is the ZEE5 film Darbaan, featuring Sharad Kelkar and Sharib Hashmi. Talking about Darbaan, Sharad told indianexpress.com, “Darbaan is a story about relationships, love and sacrifice. Honestly, I had been waiting for such a film. Also, Bipin has written the film so well that it was easy to perform it. Also, the music of the film is so melodious that it is the USP of the film.”
The standard yet thrilling zombie apocalypse series has a woman being separated from her daughter. She goes on a journey to find her, determined to be reunited come hell or high water.
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.
This film is about Adam Sandler’s Hubie Dubois. A town dunce who is an object of ridicule for pretty much everybody in Salem, he owns and runs a deli. But the job he is really passionate about is to roam around the town on Halloween night and make sure nobody is harmed, and everybody plays it safe and the etiquette is followed.
Steven Knight’s excellent British war drama is quite the piece of modern cinematic achievement. Set post World War II, the series follows the Peaky Blinders gang that is led by Thomas Shelby — a ruthless war hero turned mafia leader. You can watch it on Netflix.
Based on the books written by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander boasts of an engaging storyline, credible performances and excellent camera work. The story moves in multiple timelines, but it all starts when a married nurse of World War II gets transported to 1743’s Scotland. The series is currently streaming on Netflix.
An inspiring and emotional sports documentary, Free Solo had won several accolades post its release. It centres around the climber Alex Honnold and documents his journey uphill as he undertakes a mountain of a task. The movie had won the Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.
Abhishek Chaubey’s dacoit drama Sonchiriya is one of the most underrated films of 2019. Set in the 1970s, the film is packed with some hard-hitting dialogues and noteworthy performances from Ranvir Shorey, Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar and Manoj Bajpayee.
1922 is a decent watch for horror fans. The themes of the film – guilt and ‘every murderer gets his comeuppance’ (epitomised by a character in the line “In the end, we all get caught”) – are as old as time. It unsettles more than it scares and seeks to be a slow-burner.
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.
This film was all about repairing the supposed damage that the previous entry in the sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi, did. Essentially, it tried to please the fanboys and turned out to be so messy that it did not please anybody. However, as a send off it is pretty good and if you are a fan, it will make you emotional and teary-eyed.
They Shall Not Grow Old is a World War II documentary directed by Peter Jackson. It is an extraordinary experience, which has rightly earned plaudits around the world. Jackson, best known for directing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has used modern post-production techniques, both visual and sound, including new voice-acting, and colourisation to bring alive World War II in all its terrible glory.
Aligarh is an important film that handles a sensitive matter masterfully. Manoj Bajpayee delivers an absolutely storming performance as a homosexual professor who is persecuted just because of his sexual orientation. Bajpayee’s work is complemented quite well by Rajkumar Rao as an enthusiastic real-life young journalist Deepu Sebastian (who incidentally worked at the Indian Express then).
Based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s stories, which also inspired a hugely popular series of open-world RPG video-games, the world of the witcher resembles Westeros (from Game of Thrones) in many ways. For one, it is a gritty, dirty world full of violence, sex, and so on. For another, there is no clear division of good or bad like in most fantasy tales. However, The Witcher boasts of a lot of magic and fantastical creatures, which George RR Martin’s novels shied away from. The hero itself, Geralt of Rivia, is a mutated human with superhuman abilities. Game of Thrones in comparison had magic, but only on the periphery, at least in the first few seasons.
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.
Fun for children, and a decent way to pass time for adults, Alvin and the Chipmunks is one of the better family movies.
A low budget film that tells the story of screenwriter Emily V Gordon and her husband and comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who have also written the story together. This is a no-holds-barred story that does not gloss over anything a relationship is - messy, sometimes infuriating and perplexing, but beautiful and worth it nonetheless.
This animated adventure revolves around a misunderstood and ostracised ogre who gets inundated by fairy tale creatures and goes on a quest to get back the quiet he had in his swamp. There are three sequels, and they are pretty good too.
Starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, this Netflix show helped India become a global force in the web series space. While the first season drew in viewers who praised all aspects of the show, the second season attracted some criticism. It is yet to be known if the show will come back for a third season since the second season ended on a cliffhanger.
A science fiction drama TV anthology series, Tales from the Loop is a gripping, superbly shot and well-written piece of entertainment that will delight everyone, but specifically those who liked HBO's Westworld and FX's recent series Devs.
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.
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. Read more
The Last Kingdom gives some interesting insights on Alfred the Great, the man who first envisioned the idea of England as a single entity as opposed to a conglomerate of disparate kingdoms like Mercia and Wessex. The story is told through the eyes of a nobleman's son who is kidnapped by the Danes invading England.
The Imagineering Story is about Walt Disney Imagineering, a little known design and development centre of The Walt Disney Company, which creates Disney theme parks and attractions around the world.
Set three decades after the Evil Dead movies, this comedy-horror series has Bruce Campbell reprising the role of Ash Campbell. Sam Raimi, who directed the first three Evil Dead movies, has developed Ash vs Evil Dead.
Netflix’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Victorian-era Gothic horror novel was a surprisingly clever, well-performed piece of entertainment. While it was a considerable departure from the source material, it remains an interpretation that Stoker himself probably would have been proud of.
An underrated show of the time when the Palace of Versailles was being built, and the court was being moved from Paris to Versailles. The show offers insight into the politics of the time and how kings dealt threats, internal and external.
The classic Doordarshan TV series based on RK Narayan's charming small-town based stories still holds up well. Relive your childhood with this series.
Watch Masaba Gupta and Neena Gupta play their fictional selves in a web series inspired by their lives. The series follows the mother-daughter duo as they navigate their life through their competitive careers while also balancing their personal life.
Bhaag Beanie Bhaag follows Beanie Bhatnagar (Swara Bhasker), who steps away from her supposed ‘perfect life’ to become a stand-up comedian.
Also Read | Bhaag Beanie Bhaag is a very charming show: Swara Bhasker
In Margarita with a Straw, Kalki Koechlin’s character is a teenage girl who is not afraid to express her sexual urges and finds herself enjoying getting intimate with both men and women.
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.
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.
This Anya Taylor-Joy starrer Netflix miniseries is based on a novel by Walter Tevis and has the actor as Beth Harmon, a fictitious chess prodigy from 1950s. The series is receiving rave reviews, and has scored 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Based on Vikram Seth’s novel of the same name, this Mira Nair miniseries is now 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.”
Based on JK Rowling's crime books, this series follows Afghan War vet and private investigator Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin as they solve mysteries. In case you are not aware, Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym of JK Rowling.
Set in Kashmir in the 1990s, Haider tackled many sensitive matters pretty deftly without being too judgmental. It was another triumphant entry in Vishal Bhardwaj’s glorious line of Shakespeare adaptations set in Indian context (Maqbool and Omkara drew inspiration from Macbeth and Othello respectively) and was based on one of the most famous works by the Bard: Hamlet. With a taut storyline, strong performances particularly by Shahid Kapoor as the titular character, Haider was relentlessly absorbing.
HBO's miniseries The Third Day is an effective mystery that rises above its premise's trappings largely due to Jude Law's superlative performance, capable direction and cinematography.
BV Nandini Reddy's Oh! Baby is a Telugu fantasy comedy film starring Samantha Akkineni and Naga Shaurya. It is a remake of the 2019 Korean film Miss Granny, in which a 70 year old woman turns into her 24 year old version.
Alankrita Shrivastava directorial Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare is now streaming on Netflix. It follows the journey of two unapologetic sisters (played by Konkona Sen Sharma and Bhumi Pednekar) who are out to find love and freedom.
A psychological thriller series from Ryan Murphy and Evan Romansky, Sarah Paulson starrer Ratched is now streaming on Netflix. It is the origin story of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's main antagonist Nurse Ratched (played by Paulson).
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.
The animated series follows a mad but brilliant scientist Rick Sanchez and his naive, impressionable grandson Morty Smith's adventures across faraway galaxies, planets, parallel worlds, different realities and so on. Rick and Morty boasts some of the most intelligent writing in the medium currently, with jokes that are easy to miss if the attention wavers even a little. And before you have managed to wrap your head around it, the show has already moved ahead.
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.
A Malayalam romantic drama, this Muhammad Musthafa directorial star Anna Ben, Sreenath Bhasi, and Roshan Mathew in lead roles. The story kicks off with a phone call romance between an autorickshaw driver and a village girl, who have never met in real life.
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.
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher and written by his late father Jack Fincher, Mank is a biopic of the alcoholic but talented screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz (also known as Mank), who co-wrote the screenplay of Hollywood classic Citizen Kane. Apart from the trials and tribulations that Mank faced while penning the script, the film will also touch upon the alleged conflicts and clash of ideas that he and filmmaker Orson Welles had regarding Citizen Kane. The movie features Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Arliss Howard, Tom Pelphrey, Sam Troughton, Ferdinand Kingsley, Tuppence Middleton, Tom Burke and Charles Dance.
This film revolves around Bell's neophyte Fairy Godmother Eleanor in a world where fairies have gone out of fashion and kids do not believe in godmothers anymore due to modern gadgets.
Starring Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgard, Stan Sebastian, The Devil All The Time is now streaming on Netflix. "The Devil All The Time is an alternate universe where Spider-Man, Batman and the Winter Soldier have all converged. And they are all battling — not a common enemy, or even each other — but the darkness within," read The Indian Express' review of the film.
Starring Mouni Roy, Purab Kohli, Kulraj Randhawa and Sagar Arya, London Confidential is set against the backdrop of Indo-China tensions as the two countries are on the brink of war with each other. Mouni and Purab seem to paly RAW agents who are risking everything to protect their country. There is also the threat of an unknown virus but the key to solving the mystery here is a missing RAW agent.
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.