The Queen's Gambit is now 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.
Fun for children, and a decent way to pass time for adults, Alvin and the Chipmunks is one of the better family movies.
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
Based on Robert Galbraith'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.
Based on an intriguing what-if premise, The Man in the High Castle is an alternate reality show. In this world, the Axis powers won and the United States was carved up between Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Common Americans live under two foreign, oppressive regimes and they are resigned to their fate... until the people come across another reality -- our reality -- according to which things could be better.
This FX series has everything in its favour - colourful characters, dark humour, varied settings (every season takes place in different places and times), and excellent writing. Cops face solo gangsters or gangsters with families and your sympathies are dragged all over the place. You think things like -- why did this charismatic rascal had to be a bad person, inherently? There is a character played by David Thewlis in the third reason who is the repelling-yet-compelling sort -- a perfect representation of the show as a whole.
Based on Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel, Stardust is directed by Matthew Vaughn. It stars two actors who later played comic-book superheroes - Charlie Cox (Daredevil) and Henry Cavill (Superman).
Julia Roberts stars in this psychologicla thriller based on the podcast of the same name created by Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg. Roberts plays the role of a social worker at a facility that apparently helps soldiers coming from war zones transition to the civilian life. Though, it is done by making the soldiers basically forget the bad stuff, creating a blank space in its place.
Bobby Cannavale, Stephan James, Shea Whigham also star in this tight, compelling thriller that needs to be watched to appreciate the superlative writing and performances.
Anurag Kashyap’s first release Black Friday is a riveting tale based on the 1993 bombings that shook Mumbai. Though the film was not a commercial success, it has gained a cult status over the years. Kashyap through his actors recreated the actual events as faithfully as possible. Kay Kay Menon, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vijay Maurya and Aditya Shrivastava among others gave spectacular performances in the film.
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.
Hugh Jackman’s final outing as Wolverine is one of the best superhero movies ever made. This is the Wolverine movie we needed and deserved. A no holds barred film filled with ample gore and eye-popping action, a compelling desolate setting, and marvellous work by Jackman and Patrick Stewart in their last hurrah, Logan is fantastic. A fitting swansong.
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.
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.
With Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne in the lead roles, this mini-series is set during the second-wave of feminism in the US where feminists like Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and many others were spearheading a revolution for women’s rights but to their shock, one of their biggest opposers came in the form of Phyllis Schlafly.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Also Read | Miss India review: Keerthy Suresh movie is as dull as ditchwater