Here is what you can watch on streaming platforms today.
Most of the world is still affected by the coronavirus outbreak. In India, as in many other countries, the infection cases are still rising, and it still does not look like theaters in the country are going to reopen anytime soon. A few theaters are now operating in some countries like the United States, and it appears Christopher Nolan’s big-budget espionage thriller and Disney’s live-action adaptation of animated classic Mulan may be delayed further. While Tenet is scheduled to be released on July 31, Mulan is set to hit theaters on July 24. A report in The Hollywood Reporter said that it is unlikely that Mulan will stick the landing due to the rising cases. Some experts say that we might not get into the ‘normal’ movie-going experience in 2020 at all. People are having to stay at home and amuse themselves up by watching web series, films and other content on streaming services.
As a result, the streaming business is booming across the world. In India, whether it be giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, or homegrown streaming services like ZEE5 or ALTBalaji, the OTT platforms are gaining new subscribers every day. We are witnessing the premieres of shows and movies that were produced before the pandemic hit and there may be a shortage of new content as well if things continue to go on like this. And even when the production starts, this form of entertainment may change for good due to the concerns over contracting infections and advice to maintain social distancing.
For the time being, though, we are getting new stuff every other day. There is still a wealth of movies and shows to watch on streaming services. But with such a huge amount of content available on the aforementioned services, there might be a little problem of parsing through all of it to find out what is worth watching. Here is where we come in.
The last time Manoj Bajpayee internalised a role as much was in 2017's Gali Guleiyan. Here he is even better, each crease in his worn face showing a man whose stoicism comes from hard experience, who has seen everything there is to see, and yet is capable of deep empathy. Bhonsle gives us an actor on the top of his game.
Read more | Bhonsle movie review: Manoj Bajpayee is in top form
Undone has been overlooked by many but this show is truly one of a kind. Touted as Amazon’s first original animated series, the show stands out for many reasons, but most notably, it’s breathtaking visuals. The animation, done by a process called Rotoscoping, is trippy and beautifully compliments the time-travelling story. Do not miss this.
Aaranya Kaandam shows the events of one single day in the lives of six characters. This action-thriller was the maiden directorial of Thiagarajan Kumararaja of Super Deluxe fame. The narration of the movie is not linear, and it tends to dip in and out of different stories. The combination of well-written characters and a brilliant screenplay results in a movie that keeps you hooked from start to end. And Jackie Shroff steals the show with his portrayal of the sleazy don, Singaperumal. The movie did not perform well at the box office upon its release, but achieved cult status over the years.
Rohit Shetty advanced his cop universe with Simmba. He presented Ranveer Singh as a loud and eccentric police officer. The film is a complete masala entertainer and full-on time pass.
The movie is based on an urban legend of a haunted residential area called Demonte Colony in the heart of Chennai. Named after a Portuguese merchant who settled there, Demonte Colony is said to house the spirit of his schizophrenic wife who committed suicide. In the movie, four friends decide to visit a haunted house in the colony and what follows makes the rest of the plot.
Based on Macbeth, the first of Bhardwaj’s acclaimed films, it featured Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri as greedy cops. Tabu’s Nimmi as the lonely mistress of don Abbaji (Pankaj Kapur) who seduces Maqbool (Irrfan Khan) into a web of murder, lust for power and greed, came as a revelation to the cine lovers. Irrfan Khan, as usual, displayed his expertise with his craft of acting. The film is counted among the best films of the Indian cinema.
Asur had a nail-biting plot that combined the mythological fiction and thriller genres. Here, a killer on the loose is leaving his signature behind after every murder. These hints are specifically aimed at a particular officer with whom he engages in a cat-and-mouse game.
The premise for the film, directed by Krishnadev Yagnik, is similar to Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar’s Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. A romantic comedy, the story is more Gujarat-centric and entertains even as it touches upon topics like sanitation and the class system.
Thrissur Pooram' is an action packed entertainer starring Jayasurya in the lead role. Jayasurya is Pullu Giri, a Thrissur based ex-gangster, who is leading a normal life with his family and friends. How he, along with his family and friends are dragged into a duel with present day and new age villains of Thrissur forms the plot of the film.
Released last year, Tune in for Love is a slow-burning Korean romantic-drama that traces the journey of the protagonists over a decade. Even though the pace is slow, the movie evokes a sense of nostalgia and also has a beautiful soundtrack. Fair warning: you are bound to shed some tears.
This Apple TV+ series was a slow burner, but as the series moved on, it got seriously addictive. With Chris Evans in the lead role, Defending Jacob is the story of a family whose world turns upside down after their teenage son is accused of murdering his classmate.
The 2013 anthology film, directed by Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar, celebrates 100 years of Hindi cinema. It showcases the influence of movies on our daily lives. Akhtar’s segment, Sheila Ki Jawaani, narrates the story of a 12-year-old kid who dreams of becoming a Bollywood dancer and worships a Katrina Kaif barbie. He takes inspiration from her fairy tale success story. But, his parents force him to take football training and leave dancing.
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Sushmita Sen and Arjun Rampal, Aankhen has a bank robbery at the centre of its plot. Vijay Singh Rajput (Amitabh Bachchan), a bank manager who was fired from his job, hires three visually impaired men and a teacher from a school for blind people to rob the bank for him. The film found many takers due to its crisp storytelling.
Starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, Little Fires Everywhere is a show about motherhood and the struggles that come with it. Based on the bestselling book by Celeste Ng, the show follows two mothers who are sometimes overwhelmed by the responsibilities that they have to fulfill. The secrets, the lies and everything that lies beneath their relationships with their children form the plot here. Watch it for Witherspoon and Washington.
Written by Musthafa, Kappela shines light on the paradoxical society in its true form. It is a simple observational piece of cinema, and it never attempts to help the audience to tell the good guy from the bad one. Starring Anna Ben, Sreenath Bhasi and Roshan Mathew in the lead roles, the movie comes highly recommended.
Also Read | South Stream: Anna Ben’s Kappela
High Time is a six episode dark comedy web-series streaming on YouTube channel Karvanda Nirmitee. The show stars Aashutosh Gokhale, Kshitish Date, Sainath Ganuwad, Shddjarth Mahashabde, Ketaki Narayan and Tanvi Kulkarni. It is a story about four friends who explore their lives and failures together, and yet promise for a better tomorrow which depends on strengthening their friendship and never giving up on each other.
The film is about hooking up and breaking up, yes, but what makes Krishna and his Leela, interesting in the way he goes about it. And, in the way the women in his life deal with it. Read thew review here.
This Netflix drama surely deserved more attention than it received. The story of a Latin American family that is trying to sustain in the restaurant business as they stay true to their roots was emotional and funny. The family is trying to chase their American dream, but at the same time, they choose not to let go of their roots.
Jojo Rabbit is a film about a young German boy (Roman Griffin), who finds out that his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. The film’s director Taika Waititi plays the boy’s imaginary friend Hitler whom he admires a lot. Jojo Rabbit won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The final season of the high school drama, based on Jay Asher’s 2007 novel of the same name, will see Liberty High School’s senior class preparing for graduation. But before they can say goodbye, the friends will have to get together one last time to keep a dangerous secret buried, and make heartbreaking choices that might change their lives forever.
Written by Shantanu Shrivastava and directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt, Rasbhari is a story set in the small town of Meerut. It tells the story of a young boy Nand (Ayushmaan Saxena) who falls in love with his English teacher, played by Swara Bhasker. The teenager soon discovers that his teacher has an alter-ego named Rasbhari who is a seductress. Also featuring Rashmi Agdekar, Pradyuman Singh, Neelu Kohli and Chitranjan Tripathi, the web series touches upon the issues of patriarchy and suppression of female sexuality.
There’s no way that you will not be impressed by the kids featured in Netflix’s latest documentary Spelling the Dream. Here, we see how the Indian Americans have dominated the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition for decades now, and their hold on the title is just getting stronger every year. Click here to read more.
The sophomore outing of this gripping series based on the eponymous podcast tells a new story set in the same world from the perspective of a new protagonist, Janelle Monáe’s Alex, who finds herself adrift on a boat in the middle of a lake, wholly unaware of her whereabouts, or even who she is. She begins retracing her steps to find out what happened to her.
This is a behind-the-scenes reality show following a crew on a cruise. The crew members deal with their differences, a huge amount of office politics and they do just everything that makes for cringe television.
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.
Adapted from Jawaharlal Nehru’s The Discovery of India, this Shyam Benegal show delves deep into India’s rich and disturbing past. It features a variety of actors, including the likes of Om Puri, Pallavi Joshi, Piyush Mishra among others, playing historical characters. You can stream the series on YouTube.
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.
The beautifully shot Tales from the Loop is about a machine housed inside an underground facility that is purported to unlock the secrets of the universe. It apparently makes unlikely stuff — previously thought to be in the realm of science-fiction — possible.
The mini-series is just what its name suggests – there are three wives who have one husband. The polyamorous family raises kids together, and there’s also talk of another wife who might join their family. With every new revelation, this series just keeps getting absurd.
Pooja Mehra’s (Karisma Kapoor) happy family falls apart when her husband Prem (Salman Khan) falls in love with a supermodel Rupali (Sushmita Sen). Instead of being a damsel in distress, Pooja decides to bring her husband back with the help of Prem’s friend Lakhan (Anil Kapoor). Sushmita won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for the movie. The film, like any David Dhawan comedy, is a good pick to watch with your family.
Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, Dads is an Apple TV+ documentary that celebrates fatherhood. Making her directorial debut, this appears to be Bryce’s attempt at honouring her father, filmmaker Ron Howard.
Bulbbul is fashioned as a sharply relevant fable. It is a powerfully feminist, revisionist tale of a woman wronged, and it is told with economy, precision and feeling.
Also Read | Bulbbul movie review: A powerfully feminist, revisionist tale
This Anthony Mackie and Samuel L Jackson starrer is entertaining. For a film like this that tackles racism and racial discrimination, it is also quite uproariously funny.
7500 is a harrowing, unnerving dramatisation of a plane hijack starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The movie does a great job of making the viewer feel what Tobias (Gordon-Levitt’s co-pilot character) is going through. The restrictive cinematography works wonders for the story, heightening the already sky-high tension. Read the review here.
Written by Shantanu Shrivastava and directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt, Rasbhari, starring Swara Bhasker, is a story set in the small town of Meerut. It tells the story of a young boy Nand (Ayushmaan Saxena) who falls in love with his English teacher (Bhasker). The teenager soon discovers that his teacher has an alter-ego named Rasbhari who is a seductress. Also starring Rashmi Agdekar, Pradyuman Singh, Neelu Kohli and Chitranjan Tripathi, the web series explores issues like patriarchy and suppression of female sexuality.
The Ram Madhvani series landed on Disney+ Hotstar. Aarya had Sushmita Sen in the lead role as her character has to take over the ‘family business’ during a crisis. The show presented Sen in a never-seen-before avatar and hit the nail on the head with its presentation.