Binge Watch Suggestion List on Sony Liv 🙂

Sony Liv is the youngest web channel on the internet. Currently, it's kitty of Hindi web series comprises of 3 originals. All of them are - Indian by origin, constitute of only the first season and quite worthy of binge watching.

They are -

1. Your Honor (18 Jun 2020)

Genre: Crime Drama Thriller

No. of Episodes: 12

Running Time: 35 minutes

Short Review: This web series is about - how an extremely honorable and effective circuit court judge (Jimmy Shergill) in Ludhiana, Punjab is first blinded by the love for his only son and then his ambition and the stake imposed upon his life and career, so as to put in danger, the life and reputation of an innocent teenager, who is just a small time thief.

The story backdrop is a complex web of tussle between two local dons - a  local Punjabi and a migrant bhaiyya aka UPite, who further get entangled with a sharp lady police officer (Mita Vashisht) and a CRPF personnel (Varun Badola).

The web series ends with an absolutely unthinkable climax.

Jimmy Shergill and Varun Badola are expectantly good. Mita Vashisht as the seasoned lady cop is a treat to watch. Whenever she is in the frame, she just steals the scene. Rest of the cast has also performed well.

The pace of the web series is rather uneven and majorly slow.

2. Gullak (27 Jun 2019)

Genre: Comedy Drama Family 

No. of Episodes: 5

Running Time: 24 minutes

Short Review: Centred around the middle class Mishra family comprising of father, mother and their two sons, one barely of voting age and the other in high school, Gullak is a not a story but a collection of anecdotes narrated by the gullak aka the earthen piggy bank of the family!

Inspired from the usual happenings of any town based nuclear middle class family, the anecdotes are simple, funny, engaging and a treat to watch. 

The casting is perfect and everyone has acted quite well. Vaibhav Raj Gupta, who plays the elder son, looks and sounds a lot like Arjun Kapoor.

3. Undekhi (10 Jul 2020)

Genre: Crime Thriller Drama

No. of Episodes: 10

Running Time: 26-40 minutes

Short Review: A well scripted and engrossing web series that travels from poverty ridden tribal lands of Sunderban to pomp, glitz and power oozing wedding of Manali, in the house of the ultra rich industrialist cum don (Harsh Chhaya) of the hill station.

Two tribal women are the common link between the aforementioned places, who happen to face extremely bad deal in both the places, as if their root level vanilla existences simply don't matter!

Harsh Chhaya has marvellously enacted the role of the extremely powerful and revered but perennially drunk and melodramatic Papaji aka patriarch of the family, as well as, the business enterprise.

Surya Sharma has stood out as the stoic, practical and ruthless Rinku ji, the blind follower, relative and true successor of Papaji.

The web series is well paced and unmasks some gruesome out-in-the-open but royally ignored practises of the society.

ZEE5 Movie: Ghoomketu (22 May 2020)

Genre: Comedy Satire Drama
Language: Hindi
Duration: 108 minutes

Writer: Pushpendra Nath Mishra
Producer: Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl
Director: Pushpendra Nath Mishra

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raghubir Yadav, Ila Arun, Anurag Kashyap, Swanand Kirkire, Bijendra Kala, Ragini Khanna

Music: Zubin Balaporia
Background Score: Sneha Khanwalkar, Jasleen Royal
Editing: Pushpendra Nath Mishra, Kratika Adhikari
Cinematography: Satya Rai Nagpaul

Introduction:

Shouldered by the fine acting of primarily Nawazuddin Siddiqui and secondarily Raghubir Yadav and Ila Arun, filmed around scenes from different genres of movies, with comic satire woven around stereotypes and deja vu, Dhoomketu is an offbeat engaging watch with well timed guest appearances by multiple Bollywood stars.

Plot:

Ghoomketu (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a village bumpkin and aspiring writer from Mohna is constantly fired by his father (Raghubir Yadav), who is unanimously addressed as Dadda by Ghoomketu and his father's siblings - a widow sister (Ila Arun) and a bachelor brother (Swanand Kirkire), addressed as Santo Bua and Guddan Chacha respectively, by Ghoomketu.

The absence of Ghoomketu's dead mother has caused Dadda to re-marry in the past, but the motherly figure in Ghoomketu's life is Santo Bua, his bossy and smart aunt.

Guddan Chacha is a political representative from the village, with not much brain but simpleton comic antics and some clout.

Dadda has a tendency to shout non-stop over mundane things. Funnily, all the family members are scared of his shouting, but they never fail to make fun of this trait, in his absence!

Ghoomketu aspires to become a writer and requests the local publication 'Gudgudi' to employ him. Therein, Editor Joshi (Bijendra Kala), instead of employing him, gives him a self written book about the art of writing movie scripts, wherein each chapter is dedicated to a different genre of movies.

Thereafter, Ghoomketu is married off in a samuhik vivah aka group marriage event, a charity initiative wherein the concerned organization bears the expanse and responsibility of marrying off a group of bachelor men and women in random pairs.

During his first night, Ghoomketu finds his ghoonghat (veil) wearing bride (Ragini Khanna) quite fat, unlike she seemed during the marriage ceremony. He doesn't even bother to lift her ghoonghat and rejects her without seeing her face, even for once!

After some contemplation, Ghoomketu solely confides in Santo Bua and runs off to Mumbai to fulfill his dreams, not before stealing around one month worth of basic daily use items and money from his Dadda's shop and locker respectively.

In Mumbai, he somehow manages to rent a makeshift accomodation in a room adjacent to his landlord's flat and gets in touch with a small time producer who asks him to write a script.

Given the basic lifestyle items and money at hand, Ghoomketu gives himself exactly
one month to find his niche in Mumbai.

Back in Mohna, Ghoomketu's sudden disappearance creates a furor in his household and after some village styled comic antics, a missing person's report is lodged in the local police station with the citation of a strong suspicion of him running off to Mumbai.

Guddan Chacha makes use of his political clout and a Mumbai police station receives the aforesaid missing person's case sans any pic but with enough political pressure, which makes it imperative for Inspector Badlani (Anurag Kashyap), a laid back and corrupt police officer, to find Ghoomketu within a month, or else to get posted in a forlorn area sans any extra income.

Though Inspector Badlani happens to be Ghoomketu's landlord, but by Bollywood styled turns of fate, both of them cross each other many times, but never once does the Inspector recognises him.

For his script writing assignment, Ghoomketu pens songs and scenes of different genres, as and when he reads about them in the book gifted by Editor Joshi.

Somehow after one month of his Mumbai arrival, he finishes a bound script, only to get it stolen right in front of his eyes.

He lodges an FIR with Inspector Badlani. Therein, his identity surfaces. By the time, the inspector confirms it, he gets a revelation and leaves the police station, packs his bags and leaves for Mohna.

How will he be received in Mohna? What will be the fate of his marital life? Will his attempt to write for movies find any closure? What will he eventually end up doing?

Watch the movie to get the answers of all these questions.

Analysis:

Along with it's comedy, satire and Ghoomketu's funny action-reactions, the movie highlights the fact that just aspiring to be something in Bollywood is not enough. One has to have enough talent and luck to make it there. Also, that at times even though the movie honchos desire and attempt to give due credit to the concerned artists, but fate doesn't let them.

The movie is funny in parts and well made. But it lacks innovation in depiction of different genres of film making. Also, the line between the actual happenings and the scenes playing in the protagonist's mind while writing, is quite thin.

Cameos by Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha and Chitrangada Singh and Nikkhil Advani keep the movie interesting.

There is a cheesy item number by Lauren Gottlieb. There are no adult scenes.

The music and the cinematography of the movie are average.

With 'Motichoor Chaknachoor' in 2019 and Ghoomketu in 2020, Nawazuddin has proved that he can singularly hold the audience even without spitting out choicest of expletives and crudely picturized copulation scenes.

Ila Arun's matriarchal and gutsy performance with mischievous twinkle in her eyes is a treat to watch. Raghubir Yadav has wonderfully displayed an altogether new style of aggressive frustration. Rest of the cast has also performed well. Anurag Kashyap is an excellent director, but acting is not his cup of tea.

Conclusion:

Watch the movie for the web of fun created by Ghoomketu, Santo Bua and Dadda.