OTT: Hostage dramas, the fame game & a grisly honour killing film

A Thursday, a new Hindi film centred around a playschool school teacher, who holds 16 children hostage for an issue extremely critical to her mental well-being, is meant to be a nail-biting thriller. The ‘why’ behind this hostage drama staged by the teacher Naina Jaiswal (Yami Gautam), who comes across as menacing as a poodle, is supposed to warm the hearts of women and make them cheer for her. Forget that she unleashes trauma and mayhem on the parents of the children but her cause is above it all.

She even manages to get the Prime Minister of India (played by Dimple Kapadia), who veers between looking stern and sympathetic, to visit her little playschool in Mumbai for a “chat”. A Thursday, streaming on Disney+Hotstar, leaves you frustrated at the far-fetched scenarios and the characters who behave like robots playing their parts without any conviction.

Even talented actors like Atul Kulkarni and a heavily pregnant Neha Dhupia, who play seasoned cops in the film, look adequately frustrated with the goings-on. Besides the plot which seems to have been put together in a hurry, Yami Gautam, who made her debut in Indian cinema in a Kannada film, and became a sensation after the success of Vicky Donor, and Kaabil, behaves like she is in a horror film.

She tries hard to snarl and glare at the camera, and the rapid zoom-ins and the background score are supposed to make Naina scary. When a TV channel breaks the news that Naina is suffering from depression, she calls the channel and requests them not to equate depression with madness. It is a good message but it falls flat in these bizarre circumstances. Which ‘normal’ person kidnaps a bunch of tiny tots to ensure the PM pays a visit?

Directed by Behzad Khambata ( who earlier did the Sunny Deol starrer Blank, about a terrorist who has a bomb strapped to him and loses his memory. It was brushed off as a moderate thriller), A Thursday’s naive premise is difficult to swallow. If only PMs were so easily accessible and moved by every traumatic story of child rape to change rape laws in this country. That would be a perfect world.

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It is surprising that Disney+Hotstar which gave reasonably engaging thrillers like Sushmita Sen’s Aarya and Sudhir Mishra’s Hostages, a remake of an Israeli series, in which the family of a surgeon played by Tisca Chopra is taken hostage the night before she is supposed to operate on the Chief Minister, has come up with a disaster like A Thursday.

If you are looking for a good crime drama film then, here’s a suggestion. Why not try the 1993 Clint Eastwood’s underrated A Perfect World. Set in 1963 in Texas, Kevin Costner plays an escaped convict, chased by a Texas Ranger Clint Eastwood, who takes a fatherless young boy hostage. The kid and the conman develop a unique friendship as they elude the law in a very imperfect world. Check it out on YouTube.

The name of the game is fame

There are more thrillers lined up for viewers this weekend. A big one, which is Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit’s debut on OTT is Netflix’ The Fame Game. The series follows the life of a superstar Anamika Anand (Madhuri Dixit) who disappears without a trace. The show which also has Sanjay Kapoor and Manav Kaul in the lead is meant to be a suspense family drama that takes us through the highs and lows that accompany stardom and its effect on families, the secrets they hide and the games they play.

We all know that fame is not what it is cracked out to be (we only have to see the tragic consequences of fame on the life of a Bollywood superstar of late). But Karan Johar, who has produced this series directed by Bejoy Nambiar and Karishma Kohli, promises a “sophisticated, complex family drama that shows you how fame, despite being so covetable, can turn your life upside down”. Hindi film fans seem to be losing faith in Bollywood films, so we have to just wait and see, don’t we?

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Bestseller, streaming on Amazon Prime Video, a thriller based on a book by author Ravi Subramaniam has also been panned by reviewers. An author (Arjan) facing a writer’s block comes across a mysterious woman (Shruti Hasaan) and decides to write her intriguing story. But, there’s bloodshed and an investigator (Mithun Chakrobarty wearing a sloppy wig) to add to the confusion in the story. Maybe, a good idea to steer clear of this series this weekend.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan’s production Love Hostel, which landed on Zee5, is set against the backdrop of rustic north India. This film seems to be more promising. It traces the journey of a spirited young couple being hunted by a ruthless mercenary and is “a survival tale in the game of power, money and principles, with mayhem and bloodshed”, says the makers about the crime thriller in a statement.

Starring Sanya Malhotra, Vikrant Massey and Bobby Deol in lead roles, Love Hostel, is also produced by Manish Mundra.

Early reviews of the film seem positive. However, in an outspoken interview about the film, the actor Vikrant Massey, whose career has taken off after OTT, told IANS that there are people he has noticed in our society who are being ostracised by not only the society but also by their own family members. And, that can hurt.

Says Massey with candidness, “That is all the more hurtful when you are thrown away by your own family and loved ones only because you have followed your heart and lived life on your own terms,” he says, adding how the lead couple in the film face honour killing due to their inter-faith marriage. And that this shows what is happening “to a specific religious community post-September 11, 2001 and the story is also capturing that time and situation”.

This film is also directed by Shanker Raman, who had made the 2017 Gurgaon – “a compelling neo noir film”. Not the domestic noir kind in the other disappointing recent Hindi film, the Deepika Padukone starrer Gehraiyaan!

Gurgaon was the story of a dysfunctional family and sibling rivalry. Cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Shanker Raman took this story and gave it twists and turns to keep the audience guessing at every point. But it was all told in a restrained fashion lending poignancy to the intrigues and deceptions. This film is streaming on Disney+Hotstar, check it out.