Aakhri Sach (25 Aug - 22 Sep 2023)

Genre: Crime Mystery Thriller

Channel: Disney+ Hotstar

Language: Hindi

Season: 1

No. of Episodes: 6

Running Time: 31-50 minutes

Writer: Saurav Dey

Director: Robbie Grewal

Cast: Tamannaah Bhatia, Abhishek Banerjee, Shivin Narang, Sanjiv Chopra

One fine morning, all the 11 members of Rajawat family are found hanging dead with no sign of struggle, except for the old mother who is found dead near her bed with signs of struggle!!

Tamannaah Bhatia plays the diligent Inspector Anya Swaroop who solves this multiple layered extremely confusing heart wrenching case, while fighting her personal mental trauma.

The series is little spooky but quite well enacted and presented.

It keeps you hooked and wondering till the end.

Do watch it.

Jaane Jaan (21 Sep 2023)

 

Genre: Crime Thriller Drama

Channel: Netflix

Language: Hindi

Duration: 139 minutes

Writer: Sujoy Ghosh, Raj Vasant, Keigo Higashino

Director: Sujoy Ghosh

Cast: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Vijay Varma, Saurabh Sachdeva, Naisha Khanna, Karma Takapa, Lin Laishram

Introduction: 

Jaane Jaan is an adroit adaptation of Keigo Higashino's crime novel The Devotion of Suspect X (2005).

Plot:

Settled in the scenic and silent hill town Kalimpong, Maya D' Souza (Kareena Kapoor Khan) is a single mother and a hands-on cafe owner.

Around 14 years back she ran off from the clutches of her sinful & abusive husband and cop Ajit Mhatre (Saurabh Sachdeva) who has somehow located her whereabouts and intimidates her by visiting both her cafe and home.

In the past, Ajit - the perennial money monger had manipulated his wife to be a pole dancer and now wishes to do the same to his new found daughter Tara (Naisha Khanna)!

This leads to fierce protest from Maya. One thing leads to another and Ajit gets killed by Maya with some help from their daughter!!

Naren or Teacher (Jaideep Ahlawat), Maya's next door neighbour is a maths genius and school teacher who silently admires her since her arrival in their building!

He offers to help her get rid of the dead body and instructs her on preventive actions so that Ajit's murder is never traced back to her.

However, arrival of charming and dedicated Inspector Karan Anand (Vijay Varma) from Mumbai, changes everything.

Though he visited Kalimpong searching Ajit for an in-house police matter, he eventually gets embroiled into solving his murder and his prime suspect is the deceased's estranged wife Maya!!

Karan and Naren happen to be FTII graduates and friends from the same batch and are well aware of each other's grey matter and modus operandi.

A cat and mouse game ensues, wherein Karan uses his charm and grit to connect murder clues to Maya, while Naren uses his sharp mind and logic to mislead him on a different path!

See the movie to see who ultimately wins and how.

Analysis:

The movie has enough twists to keep it interesting, but it's kind of disjointed as a complete product, so the required adrenalin rush is missing.

All the lead artists and side artists have performed quite well, but Jaideep Ahlawat has simply surpassed himself and introduced an altogether new style of silent acting with occasional mischievous glint. He comes across as a sharp brained gentle giant!

It's heart warming to see Kareena Kapoor Khan experimenting with method acting and non-glamorous role, which she manages with aplomb, though at times her ire seems over acting and the required chemistry between the mother-daughter duo is missing.

Relatively better sense of empathy can be sensed between Naren and one of his students who constantly challenges him for a coin trick game!

However, with enough close-up shots, Kareena brings ample star power and beauty to the movie. 

She is a dream to watch when she sings the classic title track in a karaoke bar.

Vijay Varma has cakewalked his role with easy charm and smile. His character lacks depth, but that is not his doing.

Conclusion:

Jaane Jaan is an intelligent thriller with good acting and tight screenplay. It's engaging but don't expect any edge-of-the-seat moment.

Do watch it and ponder how the entire storyline could have been depicted better!!

Avinash Tiwary Is Reigning Supreme In Both Sep 2023 Crime Thriller Web Series!!! 🙂

The first one is Bambai Meri Jaan (14 Sep 2023) on Amazon Prime Video and the second one is Kaala (15 Sep 2023) on Disney+ Hotstar.

Playing the chief protagonist in both the web series, he effectively portrays the role of a dreaded gangster in the first one and a committed Intelligence Bureau official in the latter.

Directed by Shujaat Saudagar, Bambai Meri Jaan is a 10 episodes web series with 30-50 minutes running time. 

It depicts the life span of Dara Kadri (Avinash Tiwary), the D Company founder, from his childhood days till he leaves for Dubai to escape his arrest warrant by Mumbai Police. 

Ismail Kadri (Kay Kay Menon), an honest and devout Mumbai cop turned gangster Haji's (Saurabh Sachdeva) accomplice turned spiritual recluse, plays his father and narrator of the series. 

Kay Kay has a crucial role and he has played it brilliantly, mostly with stoic silence and one liners. His acting in the series is beautifully layered and perhaps the best of his acting career!!

The web series has multiple important characters and all have been casted wonderfully and enacted effectively. In fact their combined acting prowess has surpassed the storyline and script!

The entire series is embedded with Mumbaiya expletives and at one point the blood and gore becomes too much to handle.

Overall, the series is familiar, engaging, entertaining and well edited with top class production design.

Directed by Bejoy Nambiar, Kaala is an 8 episodes web series with 45 minutes running time.

It delves deep into the not much familiar territory of reverse-hawala carried out by billionaire Naman Arya (Taher Shabbir) and  meticulously investigated by IB officer Ritwik Mukherjee (Avinash Tiwary) and his team and eventually officials from other government organizations, like - CBI, BSF and State Police.

Rohan Vinod Mehra well plays Subhendu Mukherjee aka Adinath Bagchi aka Ritwik's father and BSF officer turned revenge seeker and eventually the secret informer of his son!

Jitin Gulati as Balwant Singh is the surprise package of the series and completely mesmerizes with his layered acting as and how his persona undergoes major transformations in the series!

Here again, the casting is impressive (read Hiten Tejwani, Mita Vashisht, Shakti Kapoor etc.) and almost everyone has performed well.

The expectant blood and gore is present, but it's designed on familiar grounds and always in control.

Unusual but deep father-son relationships form the crux of both the web series.

While both of them travel the deep, dark alleys of underworld, thankfully both the series are intelligently infused with small patches of comic relief and mild romance.

You will enjoy binge watching them both!! 

Haddi (7 Sep 2023)

 

Genre: Crime Drama

Channel: ZEE5 

Duration: 134 minutes

Writer: Adamya Bhalla, Akshat Ajay Sharma

Director: Akshat Ajay Sharma

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Anurag Kashyap, Saurabh Sachdeva, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Ila Arun, Vipin Sharma

Till almost a decade and a half back, whatever representation of gay characters I saw in a Hindi movie was always comical and kind of ridiculous.

While everyone around guffawed at their scenes, I was always confused and not really comfortable because -

a. not much info was available on the subject.

b. I have always believed that all forms of existence have a serious and compassionate side. No one can be born to be just laughed at!

Fortunately, sometime around 2009, I watched Sean Penn starrer Milk on a movie channel on Tata Sky, wherein he brilliantly portrayed Harvey Milk, the groundbreaking gay politician. 

Later on, he also won an Oscar for Milk.

Merely watching his performance rested so many of my queries and I wondered when will Hindi movies produce something like this.

To everyone's surprise, it was the spate of the concerned webseries that attacked the Indian celluloid with full gutso around 2016, thanks to the absence of vigilant censor on the OTT platform.

They showed and continue to show much more direct, detailed and logical content encompassing the lives of LGBTQIA+ community. However, very few of them are Indian productions.

Haddi is one such rare Indian OTT movie that dares to go deep into the life and emotions of a transgender women, played amazingly by Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

As and when required, he appears a weak & tender woman or an indifferent passerby or a cold blooded killing machine!!

He has handled all his scenes with adroit and poise.

However, the problem lies with the storyline which is based on underworld activity, revenge and retribution, which makes the movie quite grotesque to watch and confuses the identity of transgender people.

The movie does not provide any sort of distinction between transgenders, cross-dressers and others.

In short, the movie lacks the depth & layering required to handle such an unexplored subject amidst such a complex violent setting.

You can still watch Haddi for good attempt & toil, impactful make-up & styling and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Blind (7 Jul 2033)

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Channel: JioCinema

Director: Shome Makhija

Cast: Sonam Ahuja Kapoor, Purab Kohli, Vinay Pathak, Lillete Dubey, Shubham Saraf

Duration: 124 minutes

Plot:

Gia Singh (Sonam Kapoor Ahuja), a blind ex-cop escapes the clutches of The Driver (Purab Kohli), a sadistic kidnapper, tormentor & killer, by narrow margin and finally brings him to justice

A policeman (Vinay Pathak) and an eye witness (Shubham Saraf) help her in her endeavor.

Analysis:

- Sonam Kapoor Ahuja has good presence as a scrubbed clean, lean and tall protagonist. Her acting is mediocre.

- Purab Kohli has managed to scratch the surface of appearing & acting villainous. But still he has a long way to go.

- The movie is half baked leaving a lot to your imagination and ponder!!

You are left with questions like -

Exactly what past experiences made The Driver a psychopath kidnapper and killer? 

Exactly how does he tortures the kidnapped girls?

Why Gia Singh never shows any warmth or gratitude to the orphanage head (Lilette Dubey) who brought her up like a daughter and still cares like one?

Why Gia Singh is a bit too much sarcastic about God?

How a blind and jobless Gia Singh affords a big squeaky clean apartment and a dog?

When the setting is of Glasgow in UK, how come all the concerned characters are Indian - the victim, the villain, the witness and even the cop!!

Overall, it's an average movie.

City of Dreams Season 3 (26 May 2023)

Genre: Political Drama Crime Thriller 

Channel: Disney+ Hotstar

Language: Hindi

Season: 3

No. of Episodes: 9

Running Time: 39-50 minutes

Writer: Nagesh Kukunoor, Rohit Banawlikar

Director: Nagesh Kukunoor

Cast: Priya Bapat, Eijaz Khan, Atul Kulkarni, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Sushant Singh, Rannvijay Singha, Divya Seth, Sandeep Kulkarni, Flora Saini, Siddharth Chandekar, Adinath Kothare

Introduction:

Woven around the power struggle within the prime members of MJS, the leading political party of Maharashtra, their dark & dirty methods and conspiracies, along with their human side, plus the usual police and drug mafia fiasco, City of Dreams Season 3 is a compelling watch with obvious similarities with the real world personalities and happenings. 

Plot:

Before revealing the storyline of Season 3, let's do a quick recap of two preceeding seasons. 

Season 1 (May 2019) was about - assassination attempt on Mumbai’s political stalwart Ameya Rao Gaikwad 'Saheb' (Atul Kulkarni), the leader of MJS Party, which left him paralyzed; his dynamic daughter Poornima Gaikwad's (Priya Bapat) tough crusade to occupy the vacant seat even at the cost of assassinating her brother Ashish Gaikwad (Siddharth Chandekar) and 'Encounter' SI Wasim Khan's (Eijaz Khan) unofficial hunt for Ameya Rao's shooter and the concerned perpetrators. 

Towards the end of the season, Poornima manages to position herself as the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra!! 

Season 2 (Jul 2021) was a mish-mash of several events happening together in multiple character's lives.

Poornima took over as the CM and unleashed hell on Mehka Infra for poor construction and lost lives. She met Jagan Hejmadi 'Anna' (Sushant Singh) to rescue Purushottam (Sandeep Kulkarni), whose mystery woman (Flora Saini) was eventually revealed. She challenged Mahesh Arawle (Adinath Kothare) to a live debate and eventually met him in secrecy. Also, she prepared to inaugurate the Mumbai metro project. 

Ameya Rao came out of his convalescence and immediately started regrouping his people and working towards overthrowing Poornima. 

Towards the end of the season, Poornima's son Amit got killed in a bomb blast meant to disrupt her rally!!

Season 3 starts with Poornima being voluntarily MIA and incommunicado for three plus months on account of being unable to handle Amit's death. 

The interim CM and concerned Ameya Rao asks the reinstated Wasim to locate and bring her back, who finally tracks her in Bangkok in a dazed and self punishing mode, both mentally and physically. 

Wasim helps her to get on terms with her loss, give it the required closure albeit as much possible and gain back her normalcy. 

She returns back to Mumbai and with some initial difficulty, resumes back her CM duties.

Wasim thereafter joins the Drugs Task Force and starts making the concerned strategies and arrests there. 

Vibha (Divya Seth) the leader of the ruling party at the Centre wants to topple Ameya Rao Gaikwad and his legacy in Maharashtra for both her personal history with 'Saheb' and political ambition.

Jagdish Gaurav (Sachin Pilgaonkar), the preceeding CM and right hand man of 'Saheb' offers his alliance to Vibha and provides her some secret information against the Gaikwads plus MLAs that he breaks from MJS, so as to cancel the part's majority in the Legislative Assembly and form a new alliance government in the state. 

Alongside, he carefully maintains the old loyalist and family man card with the Gaikwad duo with full subservience. 

Media mogul Adarsh (Rannvijay Singha) is on Vibha's side for brownie points with the Centre and uses his news segment on television to render a flurry of negative news against the Gaikwads, specially targeting Poornima's Bangkok escapade. 

Eventually, the father-daughter duo, Ameya Rao and Poornima unite to protect the Gaikwad legacy in the state politics.

Poornima handles all allegations and questions with strong logic, intelligence and oodles of confidence. 

Jagdish makes a good headway in breaking the party but Ameya Rao and Poornima along with other party loyalists are able to control the damage on time by striking political & financial deals with a couple of important party members, resulting their come back to MJS, along with many others. 

Towards the end of the season, three of the leading characters are dead!! 

Watch the series to find who and how. 

Analysis:

Season 3 is inarguably the best of all the 3 seasons of City of Dreams webseries, specially in scripting and direction. 

The series has a clear focus, good direction and all the five lead artists have performed exceedingly well. They are - Priya Bapat, Atul Kulkarni, Eijaz Khan, Sachin Pilgaonkar and Sushant Singh. 

Priya Bapat is actually the main protagonist here and shares amazing chemistry with both Atul Kulkarni and Eijaz Khan. She is clearly the discovery of the season on nationwide OTT platform. Her lady like gentle smile and demure body language alongwith her leader like steely gaze is quite impressive. 

Eijaz Khan has got the role of his life and he has ably dug his teeth deep into it. He looks, walks and talks like an encounter specialist with strong loyalty to the lady CM.

Atul Kulkarni has well morphed himself into a loving and proud father of the CM, with his calculations & networking side intact. He easily switches between both the body languages. It's a treat to watch him act. 

Sachin Pilgaonkar has well carried off the complex portrayal of a party changing conniving politician who wears a permanent loyal and indulging albeit deceitful smile (or smirk). Actually, it's quite refreshing to see him in such an avatar. 

Sushant Singh looks quite believable as the stoic and ruthless Anna of minimum words. He has the minimum dialogues and still he has made his mark. 

Divya Seth and Rannvijay Singha in their relatively smaller roles are also impressive.

All the other actors have also acted well. 

Production and costume designs are bang on. Editing is impressive. 

Conclusion:

Blurring the fine line between right and wrong, the movie is a heady cocktail of political conspiracies and turbulent relationships alongwith a drug mafia angle. 

It is beautifully written, wonderfully directed and excellently acted by the aforementioned five artists. 

Do watch it.

Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai (23 May 2023)

 

Genre: Courtroom-Drama

Channel: ZEE5

Language: Hindi

Duration: 132 minutes

Writer: Deepak Kingrani

Director: Apoorv Singh Karki

Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Surya Mohan Kulshrestha, Vipin Sharma, Adrija Sinha, Kaustav Sinha

Music: Sangeet-Siddharth Roy

Editing: Sumeet Kotian

Cinematography: Arjun Kukreti

Introduction:

Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai is a courtroom-drama pulled off effortlessly and effectively by Manoj Bajpayee, the lead artist. 

Plot:

Advocate P. C. Solanki (Manoj Bajpayee) fights a solitary battle for 5 years against an uber rich, influential and highly revered godman (Surya Mohan Kulshrestha), so as to get the rightful justice to minor Nu (Adrija Sinha) wronged (read violated) by him.

As the battle advances from Session Court to High Court and finally Supreme Court, goonism is in full play by the godman's son and team, who resort to intimidation and even killing of witnesses. 

They even try to intimidate and bribe Solanki with a mammoth amount of rupees twenty crore!!

But Solanki manages to stay above greed, intimidation & fear and remains unpurturbed on his path of justice till he gives the case an examplary closure. 

Analysis:

The movie scores high on multiple grounds. 

It has a powerful script with concise screenplay. Not a single frame is lost on unnecessary built up or cheap thrill. 

The direction is quite intelligent and thoughtful. 

Violation of a minor girl and any sort of vibration around relegion or relegious gurus are two of the most sensitive matters and both form the crux of the depicted investigations and arguments in the movie. 

But Apoorv Singh Karki, the director has ably managed to maintain the required dignity & empathy in the scenes concerning Nu and he has kept the arguments against the godman quite logical and completely within the dictum of the Indian law & justice. 

Arjun Kukreti, the cinematographer has not only well captured the iconic bird's eye views of Jodhpur, the Blue City and it's crowded lanes, but he has also captured the court scenes in assorted well conceived angles, thereby making them more effective and engaging. 

Manoj Bajpayee has again surprised with an altogether new style of character portrayal. He is so good and thorough that at times you feel that he is not acting at all but just conversing. 

Watch out for his  scenes when twice big shot national level lawyers with star power and intimidating personalities visit the courts to get bail for the godmen. 

Just notice how Manoj Bajpayee expresses his awe & inspiration for them, how he is puts forward his statements against them while being completely intimidated by them and still how thoroughly he does his job with full determination!! 

Also, watch out for his closing statement at the end of the court case, wherein he uses relegion itself as the weapon to stab the sheer misdeed performed by the relegious guru. Full marks to Deepak Kingrani, the writer for writing this scene. 

All the other actors have also performed well. The editing is good. 

Conclusion:

It's an engaging and quite well made movie on an extremely sensitive topic sans any propaganda or scandalous depiction. 

The heart of the movie is in the right place. Do watch it.