Weekend OTT: Diwali picks, women power, and a Telugu film feast
Women power rules OTT this Diwali weekend. The new releases on Amazon Prime Video circle around women and recognising their agency over their body and lives.
In the Telugu Aishwarya Lekshmi starrer Ammu, a woman sets out to take revenge against her husband, who turns out to be a wife-beater. Though the screenplay is not cohesive and borders on the bizarre at times, Lekshmi and Naveen Chandra work hard to lift this film on domestic abuse. (Recently, we had Alia Bhatt’s Darlings on a similar issue, though that was treated like a dark comedy)
Bobby Simha’s character, who is meant to help Ammu (Lekshmi) to climb out of this dark toxic hole she has fallen into, ambles in and out of the screenplay in an aimless fashion. There’s a scene when Ammu (who veers from being teary and weak and then revengeful) talks about woman having agency over their bodies and having the right to choose to get pregnant or not comes across as awkward and hanging in thin air, lacking conviction.
The entire plot lacks conviction and never ever takes off after Ammu’s initial shock at discovering that her newly-wed cop husband is a mean bully and beats her at the slightest provocation. The pain and manipulation that Ammu is subjected to is captured in taut close-ups by cinematographer Apoorva Shaligram and the actress delivers a solid performance despite the weak story.
Tales of flawed women
The other female led show, which is more suited to the colour and razzmatazz of the Diwali season, is Four More Shots Please! Season 3, which frolics around the foibles of four free-spirited flawed women, who wear their mistakes on their sleeve. So what if we f****d up? Let’s toast to that is their mantra.
The new season, on Amazon Prime, picks up the story from where the second season ended. These women continue to life, love and blunder through life trying to find out what makes them tick even as they remain good friends. It is set against the cosmopolitan city of Mumbai (where else can we have women discuss orgasms without blinking an eyelid?)
Also read: Interview | Rishab Shetty on Kantara: ‘Local is the new global’
In this season, which comes back after a gap of two years, the girls Anjana (Kirti Kulhari), Damini (Sayani Gupta), Sidhi (Maanvi Gagroo) and Umang (Bani J) are sassier, sexier, and more empowered to make their mistakes and learn from them. The last season ended on a cliffhanger, where Damini had to choose between Prateik Babbar’s Jeh and Milind Soman’s Dr Aamir, and the trailer showed she went with Jeh as the two share a kiss. Siddhi is intent on having a perfect year with good sex and a good career; and Umang has a new girlfriend, played by Shilpa Shukla, and decides to stop running away from confrontation with her family.
The series has been accused of centring a lot around sex and putting women’s pleasure under the spotlight. Luckily, no sanskari group has rushed to the nearest police station. However, reviews suggested that Four More Shots Please fails in the current season because it is not layered and does not delve into the root cause of these women’s feelings.
Cocking a snook at the criticism about too much talk about sex in the show, Bani J, however blamed it all on our ‘male-dominated society’ in an interview, which is just not comfortable seeing women voice their opinion or be assertive. They don’t like seeing women taking charge and having sex with who they want and wherever, and voicing what they want. Well, if all this is like Sex and the City stuff, go for it.
Telugu film feast
A bunch of Telugu films like Oke Oka Jeevitham, Bimbisara and romantic comedy film, Krishna Vrinda Vihari, release on different OTT platforms this weekend.
The Sharwanand and Amala Akkineni starrer science fiction drama film, Oke Oka Jeevitham, has had a successful theatrical run. The movie, which was released last month, was well-received by the audience and the makers have now decided to release it online on SonyLIV. Written and directed by debutant Shree Karthick, the film was also made in Tamil simultaneously and was called Kanam. Aadhi and his friends take a pledge to set their present right.
Bimbisara, streaming on Zee5, is a time travel film set in two different time zones – the present and 500 BCE. Krishna Vrinda Vihari is a love story. Krishna comes from a strict Brahmin family and falls in love with Vrinda, his colleague. He woos and wins her love but he has convince his family about their relationship.
Also read: OTT: Gangster saga, Kashyap’s time-travel thriller, a solid cop drama
Diwali picks on OTT
It’s a long Diwali-weekend, so here are some Diwali picks to savour during the festive holiday.
The Breadwinner
On the topic of women empowerment, here’s a hidden gem. Nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Oscar awards, The Breadwinner is based on a bestselling novel by the same name. Streaming on Netflix, the 1.30 hour feature journals the life of Parvana, a spirited 11-year-old Afghan girl living with her physically-impaired father.
In the absence of any other adult male relative, and under the control of the Taliban, she disguises as a boy in order to take on jobs to support her family. Hers is a tale of oppression, revolutionary conduct and filial responsibilities, and has a 96 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus on the website is that Breadwinner‘s stunning visuals are matched by a story that dares to confront sobering real-life issues with uncommon — and richly rewarding — honesty.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
This is an anthology of six short films from the Coen brothers that take place in the Old West, post the Civil War in America. The stories in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs neatly veer from goofy to ghastly and you can’t always tell which is which. The tales range from absurd to profund.
It follows the lives of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary travelling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman travelling the West to an uncertain future and a motley crew of strangers taking a carriage ride. Check out the longest of the six episodes, The Gal Who Got Rattled, in which a sister-and-brother team leave the cramped and gossipy comfort of a boarding house, to get on a wagon train for Oregon. On Netflix again.
The Bear
This TV series streaming on Disney+Hotsar is billed a genius kitchen drama. A young chef from the fine dining world comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop after a heart-breaking death in his family. Unused to this world of small business ownership, Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremey White Allen) has to deal with his strong-willed and recalcitrant kitchen staff and his strained familial relationships, even as he has to deal with his brother’s suicide. As Carmy fights to transform both the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges kitchen crew that ultimately becomes his chosen family.
Also read: OTT: Madhuri Dixit’s ‘Maja Ma’ tackles same sex love, but plays it safe
Jhund
From sports films Rocket Rashmi to Aamir Khan’s Dangal, to Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani to action entertainer Simmba, there is a lot that Bollywood has on offer to cosy up with. But, Amitabh Bachchan starrer Jhund is that slow burner of a film that needs to be pencilled in the must watch films of the legend.
It is an inspirational real-life story of the Nagpur-based Vijay Barse who founded Slum Soccer, an NGO doing stellar work with slum kids. Marathi powerhouse director, Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, who gave us Faundry and Sairat, brings caste to the fore in this Bollywood film with simplicity and commitment, which in itself is rare and needs to be savoured. It is long at three hours and tries to a sports biopic, a social message entertainer and a Big B tribute but catch it on Zee5.
Bell Bottom
No, this is not the Akshay Kumar disaster movie. If you are a Kantara fan and want to see the current toast of Kannada cinema, Rishab Shetty, in a different role, you can catch Jayatheertha’s 2019 comedy-drama. Bell Bottom streaming on Voot revolves around Divakara, whose childhood dream of becoming a detective comes true when he gets to solve a robbery case after becoming a constable.
Robin Williams: Come Inside my Mind
This intimate portrait examines one of the world’s most inventive comedians. Told largely through Robin’s own voice and using a wealth of never-before-seen archival footage, the film goes through the extraordinary life and career of Robin Williams. This documentary streaming on Disney+Hotstar looks at the life of the comedy legend, focusing on what he brought to comedy and to the culture at large, from his wild days in t he late-1970s L A to his death in 2014. Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, David Letterman, Steve Martin, Pam Dawber and more celebrities have been interviewed in this documentary.
