Mithya (Zee5):
Mithya, produced by Applause Entertainment, is the kind of ballsy breakneck thriller that doesn’t shy away from addressing illicit sleazy relationships, even if it brings the protagonists’ heroism down by many pegs, and I do mean pegs, as the characters drink themselves silly and get their innerwear into a budge time after time. Every main character in Mithya is flawed and to watch one of them turn around and act holier-than-thou after another makes a cardinal error, is ironic, to say the least. Set in an idyllic tranquil hill station, just as the Sippys’ earlier web (of deceit) series Aranyak, this one is about a Hindi teacher Juhi Adhikari (Huma S Qureshi) who doesn’t look she could teach Hindi, but seems happily married to Neil (Parambrata Chatterjee) until we see her making out in the school toilet with a colleague Vishal (Indraneil Sengupta), an insanely dangerous adulterous act that Rhea(debutante Avantika Dassani) witnesses. From these beguiling sleazy beginnings, Director Rohan Sippy and his rigorous team of writers (Alvita Dutta, Althea Kaushal, Purva Naresh) construct a sinister spiral of deceit revenge, and nemesis, all stewed in the juices of a steamy karmic cycle. Undoubtedly the pace of narration is brisk.
Mithya offers the kind of forbidden pleasure that one experiences when on a diet, stealing brownies from the refrigerator post-midnight when the family is asleep. It constantly prods the baser instincts in its characters, and by extension, the audience, and prides itself for its pulpy proclivities. There are no intellectual /spiritual pretensions to this junk food for the soul, and that’s the way I like the whodunit. Admittedly there are some wild, thoroughly implausible leaps of faith in the plot which I cannot reveal(so no spoiler alerts required). But I wonder if a teacher can send his dick-pic to a student in this day and age of MeToo, especially when he knows she is a certifiable troublemaker! Compensating for the questions that arise while watching two women, a teacher and her bete noire a troubled borderline psychotic student, take each other on, are some rigorous rites of passage that take the storyline from one summit to another. Interestingly we are repeatedly shown the climax of the plot(a murder) at the fag-end of each episode so that our curiosity is whetted not by the question. ‘What?’ but ‘Why?” and ‘Who?’. There are some unforeseen twists scattered enticingly across the episodes. Plus, there is some terrific acting here by all, particularly debutante Avantika Dassani who is spectacularly confident as a troubled teenager with a chip big enough to be a boulder on her petite shoulder. Huma Qureshi as the teacher who has a lot to hide has shaped into an interesting actress in recent times.
As for Parambrata Chatterjee as her weak undependable deceptive husband, does he ever disappoint? The men in the series are all weak or deceptive or both. There is a besotted watchman at a girls’ hostel (played by Krishna Bisht) whom Rhea manipulates for favours without actually doing him any sexual favours. He probably gets it off just watching her pretending to be grateful. Rajit Kapur as Huma Qureshi’s Juhi’s father is so weak and blemished he could make a neighbourhood therapist go weak in his knees, and there is another father whom Sameer Soni plays as a smirking almost perversely hostile idiot. Yup, the men get the raw end of the stick. It’s the women who hold this show together and expose the men for what they are: tactless opportunists.
Oh yes, there are two cops, a man and woman played by KC Shankar and Bishaka Thapa, investigating the murder. They could be Parambrata Chatterjee and Raveena Tandon in Aranyak. Small world.
The Fame Game (Netflix):
Rarely do all the components of a web series, creative and otherwise, come together as fluently as they do in The Fame Game, an earlier title more appropriately as Finding Anamika. This IS a series about searching for the superstar Anamika Anand played by superstar Madhuri Dixit, the last of the iconic Bollywood actresses who emerges from her cocoon of self-exile with a performance suffused with subtle flourishes which tell us why she is Madhuri Dixit. Call her by any other name, Anamika Anand will do. She is still that consummate superstar with that enigmatic smile that tells us everything and gives away nothing. The other star of this intriguing often provocative thriller is Sri Rao’s writing. Across the 8 episodes, Rao leaves not a single loose end for us to mourn and carp over. Nothing happens here without reason. Least of all, Anamika’s disappearance at the beginning of the show. As the skeletons from the cupboards of all those who are ostensibly close to her come tumbling out in no hurry and undulating waves of tempered revelation, the full picture of the consummate superstar’s persona comes together…or does it come undone at the end? We really can’t be sure. Because finally what we are left with is more questions than answers. We don’t know Anamika Anand any better at the end than we did at the beginning. Is that the show’s fatal failing or biggest triumph? Is that Madhuri Dixit or Anamika Anand?
Iconic songs like 'Channe ke khet mein' and 'Maar dala' are referenced to create a deliberate confusion between the superstar we see on screen and the one playing her. This is a very strong role for a female hero. Dixit does full justice to it. She merges the public diva in the private persona of the unhappy wife (married to a jerk played with conviction by Sanjay Kapoor) and concerned mother of two grown children who have their own very difficult issues as celebrity kids. Muskkan Jeffery and Lakshvir Saran are excellent as Madhuri/Anamika’s troubled children Avi and Amyra. While one is wrestling with his sexuality the other is trying to prove she is more than a star kid. They are two strongly-etched female heroes in The Fame Game. While Madhuri’s Anamika Anand goes missing the compelling Rajshri Deshpande steps in as Shobha Trivedi the investigative office. I wish the writing had not gone into the cop’s personal life. The subplot of Shobha’s love life is reminiscent of ACP Khan’s closeted crisis in Ram Madhvani’s Aarya. Writer Sri Rao understands the pain behind the sham of the entertainment business. He never judges his characters, no matter how deeply and fatally flawed they might be.
Even Madhav (played with chilling deep-focus by Gagan Arora), Anamika’s fanatical fan who claims she is his long-lost Aaai (mom), or Anamika’s self-serving brash mother(Suhasini Mulay with a gorgeous collection of sarees), or Billy (Kashyap Shingari) her faithful but slippery hairdresser who finally turns out to be not so trustworthy after all, and Manish Khanna (Manav Kaul), her favourite costar and long-standing love interest, are never scrutinized for their spineless action. Things sometimes get ugly in The Fame Game. At a press conference ‘superstar’ Manish Khanna slaps a reporter and all hell breaks loose. If this incident reminds you of a certain actress’s run-in with the press, then hang on. This is not the series about film folk that cannibalizes Page 3 gossip to titillate. Its motives in digging out the grime behind the glam are far less salacious. It digs deep into the dirt drawing out dark secrets that are not the least seductive. Just tragic and saddening.
Bestseller (Amazon Prime Video):
It is easy to be dismissive and derisive about a suspense thriller that is not derivative or disrespectful towards the conventions of the suspense genre. But if truth be told, a sincere and gripping suspense thriller like Bestseller is hard to come by on the cluttered OTT platform. Unlike its icky ilk Bestseller, adapted to the small screen from Ravi Subramaniam's The Bestseller She Wrote, unravels its complicated plot without tying itself into knots. There is an assured elegance to the storytelling, the interiors gleam even as the proceedings grow murkier by the episode, and barring one actor who is jarring, the rest of the cast gets into the groove of things with guarded gusto. OTT offers freedom from the image trap for actors. Arjun Bajwa making a comeback after ages is cast as Tahir a scummy pulp writer, a “wannabe Chetan Bhagat” who feels no scruples or remorse in plagiarizing the lives of hapless unsuspecting people who share their stories with him. Bajwa represents that yawning stretch of numbed morality that has seeped into contemporary competitive societies. His wife Mayanka (played by Gauahar Khan) chooses to remain impervious to her husband’s low-level ethics because, as Tahir Wazir tells us, she is freed herself from marital obligations for flings, her latest toyboy being an office colleague Parth (Satyajeet Dubey, an interesting young actor who grows with every series) who openly despises Rahir Wazir’s success, much to Mayanka’s amusement. This is not a marriage. It’s a ticking timebomb. The fissures and clefts in the Tahir-Mayanka marriage become apparent when a small-town girl Meetu invades their marital mansion.
Shruti Hassan plays Meetu with such wide-eyed obviousness that it becomes crystal-clear from the start that she is not what she appears to be. The complex character and its murky motivations needed someone more subtle and skilled. Gauahar Khan should have played Meetu Mathur. The layers of subterfuge and deception in the character are never brought out skillfully. It’s the one abiding lacuna in this otherwise-engaging show. Bestseller has a complicated storyline about a disintegrating marriage and the intruder who proves the pretty pebble in the placid pond. It also questions the boundaries of art and just how a work of fiction bleeds into real lives mowing down their resistance and privacy. Mithun Chakraborty who enters in the third episode plays the semi-retired cop with a combination of quirk and caprice. Apart from the ridiculous wig, his character moves confidently from whodunnit to whydunnit, a journey that takes time while remaining fully aware of the pitfalls ahead. Director Mukul Abhiyankar doesn’t allow the narrative to trip over in pursuit of suspense. Agreed, some of the plot twists are way too implausible to be interesting. But then what is life in a suspense thriller if not an occasion to crack open the codes of conventional conversation and pin down what lies beneath? Bestseller gets there.
The masterly Joe Baby who gave us the great The Great Indian Kitchen last year is billed as the “presenter” of this 5-storeyed anthology. Baby even directs one of the stories, and that without doubt, is the central attraction of this enormously craggy though nonetheless remarkable omnibus with stories about an individual’s personal space and the freedom that the space strives desperately to wangle amid insurmountable societal pressures and prejudices.
Freedom Fight (SonyLIV):
Only one story from the anthology, Joe Baby’s story Old Age Home shines brightly. It’s set in an idyllic verdancy in a luxurious bungalow where the patriarch (Jijo George) who has just retired is detected with the beginnings of dementia. A household (Rohini), evicted from her home by her son, is brought in by the sensible practical wife (Lali PM). The dynamics among the three characters are enunciated with clarity and a complete lack of guile. There are no evil characters in Joe Baby’s story. The conflict that arises within the domestic setting is not about power but powerlessness and how the best of intentions could be squandered in practical necessity. The direction is here phantom-brilliant. Joe Baby leaves the characters to their own devices. The fact that the three actors, especially the redoubtable Jijo George, know exactly what to do, makes it all look easy and graceful
The quality of grace is tragically missing in the other stories, except perhaps the story Ration directed by Francies Louis where class differences bubble to the surface in a quaint coastal Kerala town between two neighbouring families. Food plays a pivotal part in the equation between the two families and when the well-off blogger (Mini IG)’s rare frozen fish disappears from the economically modest neighbour(Kabani)’s refrigerator I was reminded of Maupassant’s short story The Necklace where the non-affluent woman loses her aristocratic friend’s necklace, goes from pillar to post to replace it, only to discover it was fake. Some such searching anxieties guide the course of the story which features the director Joe Baby as the husband of the non-affluent woman.
Gehrayiaan (Amazon Prime):
Finally the most talked-about product on the streaming platform. People either loved or hated Gehraiyaan. This film was not for fence-sitters. It evokes extreme emotions. Beautiful actresses yearn to turn the tables on themselves In Chhapaak Deepika played a victim of an acid attack with a scarred face. Here is a film ironically titled Gehraiyaan she is cast as a fractured broken woman struggling with suicidal thoughts and emotional-physical indiscretions that would shame the self-delusional antics of Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins. Padukone tries hard to give a semblance of structure to her character Alisha, hellbent on ruining everything she touches. When the film opens she is not too successful with her work, in a relationship that’s seen better days, Alisha embarks on a hellishly ruinous relationship with her cousin’s boyfriend Zain. As played by Siddhant (Gully Boy) Chaturvedi, Zain is neither particularly charming nor exceptionally intelligent. Just why Alisha is attracted to him remains a mystery.
Tia as played by the supremely untalented Ananya Pandey is a clueless heiress. She reminded me of Tina Munim in Basu Chatterjee’s Baaton Baaton Mein where she tells her uncle (played by David) that she has a huge problem.“What is it my child, you can’t make up your mind about which dress to wear for the party tonight?” David mocks. That’s Pandey’s Tia for you. While her cousin Alisha bangs away with her fiancé Zain right under her nose in a luxury yacht brought with Tia’s money, Tia looks like she is meditating over which shade of lipstick to wear for the evening’s party.
All the four main characters of Gehraiyaan are spectacularly shallow people. Seen ironically the film’s title seems appropriate, especially in the light of the fact that one of the characters eventually ends up being swallowed up in the depths of the ocean while all the rest of the protagonists are perpetually at sea. The performances range from admirable (Deepika Padukone) to clueless(Ananya Pandya) to tolerable (Dhairya Karwa) to insufferable (Siddharth Chaturvedi). There is also Naseeruddin Shah as Alisha’s tortured tormented Dad. He gets to be part of one of the stupidest most awkwardly written sequences where he sees Zain hurry out of Alisha’s apartment, drop the keys pick it up, and runoff, only so that Naseer, the method actor, can tell his screen daughter, “Beta what’s going on? I saw him leave your apartment and he had your keys.”
Incidentally, Zain’s surname is Siddiqui, a fact that’s kept out of the proceedings. And that’s about the most discreet that this film can get about the indiscretions of illicit lovers.
What kept me going through nearly 2 ½ hours was the flawed fractured protagonist’s character. It’s good to see female heroes in Hindi cinema who are not perfect in face, fortune, or feelings, and who have a sexual appetite. For those who count these things, the number of smooches that Deepika shares with her co-stars could make for an interesting diversion.
The writer is a Patna-based journalist. He's been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.
from Firstpost Bollywood Latest News https://ift.tt/6pdurhE
0 Comments