Variety is the spice of life

When i saw the trailer of this series, i was so curious and was eagerly awaiting the launch for the very concept of a series involving Sherlock being awesome, the one tracing his origins or young self would surely have been a fantastic premise to explore. True to the expectation, the series began with a bang, involving a jailed Sherlock being rescued by Mycroft and the first episode runs away to a finish like a 1000 wala cracker with several characters mushrooming at every turn and most of the main players already getting established, including Moriarty(!) and a Chinese lady. Pretty soon the crime gets established and Sherlock, for a change, is on the run as a suspect/fugitive from law for a murder he didn't commit. The story goes steadily and speedily downwards from then onwards and the climax resembling 1970's Bollywood movies, involving the hero and his dad and their sacrifice!! It could've been a hat tip to the very similar setup involving Sherlock/Moriarty at the Reich...

This movie was making rounds on SM ever since it was released and had been a big hit. Despite its limited budget, Malluwood has been steadily increasing its foothold in the Indian movie industry. While Telugu movies have made a big splash with their overseas BO clout and also making the word Pan India as a regular terminology across every movie industry in the country, it is actually Malayalam movies who have literally owned the OTT space across most genres. Be it thriller, of which they've literal monopoly or soft romcom movies, Malayalam movies are a league of their own. With Sarvam Maya they enter into the ghost comedy genre, which has been the only source of hit genre for tamil films in recent past. The other aspect in which Malluwood dominates is their ability to churn top talents - nepotism or otherwise. They've always been the go-to region for heroines who ruled the roost across Indian like the East India company, having been introduced in Kerala, entering into Tamil, mo...

Mandela already dead aachay..avara edhuku murder panranunga..oru vela "Day of jackal" pola assassination attempt storya irukumo nu nenachu paakaatheenga..ithu adhu illa. Or mandala art perform panravangala poattu thalra storya irukumo nu guess panna adhuvum thappu. Ipdi mandaila egapatta madakozhapams cause panra titlekaga started watching the serial. First konjam viruviru nu poachu. Thideernu paatha running riverla oru body..sorry no body...not nobody because we know who that is/was. It is a dead body minus the body. Adhavathu only head and 2 hands and 2 legs stitched to that head, floating in the river. Ivlo vela menakettu edhukuda kill pannirukaan paatha..adhaan manadla murder. Mandailaye naalu poatu murder panuvanunga pola. It is a cult. Ithu oru ritualistic murder spree. Adutha murder ipdi thaan irukumnu aadhi kaalathu book onnu iruku. Adha decrypt panni decode panni decay aagitrukra andha document lendhu derive panni next death eppo and epdi irukum and adhu endha mathir...

The first thing that made me watch this series was definitely the name - it sounded so James Bond-ish. And within few minutes into the episode with the supposedly lippy guy (whom i thought was the hero) getting shot made me wonder was he really the hero? If not why so much scene putting for a side character? Then like true mega serial setup, the hero joins back to the police squad after the into name reels. I almost gave up on the series, when it suddenly switched into a different story altogether only to cut back to the police officer part in a bit. It takes some adjusting to figure out the story is about Past and what happens in the present. There are 2 "pasts" - one about the officer who gets shot at the beginning and other about a kidnapped woman, whose case comes to the officer as a cold case to pursue. He is joined by a deputy, who resembles guiness record winning hindi actor for having been typecast as inspector in over 100 plus movies. The deputy is an immigrant from ...

 This was one of the episodes from the latest season of Black Mirror. I saw it almost month back but somehow this episode had a lingering effect and wanted to post about it. It begins with one company called Eulogy, reaching out to a guy for colleting photos about his ex-girlfriend who had passed away, to include in the memorial service. Like any guy who has shared a bitter past with his ex, he is very reluctant at first and shares few pictures where the face of his girlfriend is either not clear or where she is looking else where and face not being covered in the picture at all. The company has a feature that allows people to actually visit the photo, meaning they can walk inside the picture mentally and look at the moment when the picture was clicked from a third person perspective. Like a mini time travel, only within that photo. The more pictures he dig up, the more it becomes clear that, he had purposedly struck out her face on all the pictures he had of her out of hatred and ...

 This is probably the earliest i am posting about a series, having just watched 3 episodes. Mighty impressed with the content and presentation of "3 body problem" drama series on Netflix. The production values rivals that of Marvel and other high budget production houses. With each episode running for nearly an hour and with majority of the running space requiring Special effects, the cost of making a single episode must be as high as a full time movie!!  The interesting part about this series being, the take on aliens and future of human civilization. A bit like Star Trek, but on a more relatable level, the series talks about the SETI program and its impact on human civilization, base assumption being, upon receiving a response from the other side. The series is almost as Chinese as it is in English, for i understand, the base premise has been taken from a book written in Chinese. The concept as it is, is quite novel and the timing of the response when received from the othe...

Recently, saw a movie called “Missing” on Netflix. It came as a recommendation from the app basis my preferences and watching behaviour and was also on my eyeline across several reviews. First few minutes, it felt like better version of “Blairwitch project” with a video being played. While I was about to lose interest and switch, the movie began to pick pace. It went on a decent pace and quite soon you get caught up in the kidnapping mystery that dawns on you suddenly. What follows next makes you wonder at the concept of privacy and how much our life is being monitored, knowingly and unknowingly. The girl on camera chases behind her mother’s whereabouts with the help of Google and several other tools that helps you to track the timeline of visits and journeys made by the person. All you need is a phone with a decent data plan!! The ease with which the girl hacks into her mother’s boyfriend’s profiles across several apps where he happens to have either the same email ID/PWD or same secu...

Towards the close of last year, that is couple of weeks ago, I watched a hindi movie called “Doctor G”. Had been wanting to post about ever since. The lead guy, Ayushmaan Khurana, whom I believe resemble Edward Norton in some angles, has made a name for himself in picking off beat themes. Almost all his movies have a never tried storyline and his character would be something that majority of the mainstream heroes wouldn’t touch with a stick. I’ve seen most of his movies and I like the humorized approach towards such sensitive topics. He is possibly the bravest actor in India who bets the box office potential of a script sheerly by its content. Doctor G is a testament to this statement where 90% of the cast are ladies, including the director, with the theme being primarily about ladies and how bling guys are towards them. And who better than Ayushman to pass on that message!! Only a lead guy who is super confident on himself and on the role, he is portraying could’ve even committed to t...

Possibly the highest or second highest grossing Indian movie ever at box office. Apdi oru padatha pathi review pannama vitta saami kutham aaidum endra kaaranthaal this post. Having seen KGF one (which is quite accessible. All you need is a TV with Colors tamil channel subscribed. They use this movie as ad break amongst their other programs), I was waiting for a good print or some OTT to stream the movie. Anti-piracy apdinulam illa. The setting and the picturization has been royally rich on every aspect of movie making but for color! Even in the era of black and white film, this movie would’ve been termed as black and black. For a story based on gold mining, the setup looks as if they are working on Neyveli lignite!! Atta kari everywhere. Finally when KGF2 was released on Prime, started watching the movie. With runtime of almost 3 hours, was wondering the number of man hours people worldwide have spent on this movie, taking it into the 1000 crore BO collection club, feeling proud of my ...

I am a big time fan of Kishore kumar like zillion other people. As much as his songs, his acting skills are something I am very fond of, which I believe not many give him due credit. The way in which he dances for “Bindu re Bindu” song in Padosan movie is a good example. He effortlessly performs those steps which, I would be really surprised, if they were choreographed. Being the playback singer for that song, the way he sways to the tune is pure fun. His antics often remind me of Chandrababu, great comedian of tamil cinema, who also was a decent singer and superb dancer who did his own steps. This movie had been on my watchlist for a long while and finally managed to see it last week. The other reason for watching the movie being Madhubala(Venus, she is). She looks divine and all those praises of her beauty are well justified. Wouldn’t quite say about the performance though. But if you are so good looking, enough to set the screen on fire, what else is needed. I read in the trivia sec...

At times I feel the universe conspires to set me up for things that are coming up, which could be as simple as a movie watch. Few days back, saw a movie called “Rocky” (tamil). It was praised sky high by fellow mates and they were calling it a noire film, appreciating the visual impact of each scenes and how they’ve been picturized. Nammaku therinja oray nair, Palakkattu Madhavan nair from Andha ezhu naatkal movie, apdingarappo enna panirukanum? Idhu malayala filma? Illa director malayalia nu theera visarichitu pathirukanum. Evano sonnanna unakkenga poachu buddhi? Apdinulam hindsight, hind leg vachu pin mandaila udhaichalum, what was done was done. The only genre that Rocky would’ve fit in was revenge po**. The movie was so violent, for such a routine story of revenge, that in every alternate scene someone got killed, maimed, beaten and dead – not necessarily in that order. All characters were playing holi with blood only difference being, instead of water pistons it was sickle/knife/m...

There are certain movies that I like while watching and once the movie is over, when I try to think about writing a review post, I realize it wasn’t that good a story and had lot of loop holes. Considering that, at times, contrary to the popular opinion if I find a movie to be different from the review, possibly this could be the reason I guess. Movies are meant to be visually appealing and enchanting. They are meant for entertainment purpose for the duration of the run time and if the positive hangover lasts beyond the end credits, the objective of the movie stands accomplished. At times, the thoughts may linger as to how bad the making was and one may end up grumbling about the time wasted on such a bad presentation, which again is an impact nevertheless. Between the chasm of very good and very bad, falls the majority of the movies that fails to make any impression and are as quickly forgotten as the answers written on end semester exam paper.  The In between movie, falls into th...

When my friend had posted a review about one of the series “Stay close” I started watching it and lost interest within couple of minutes. Somehow the British way of story telling is difficult to relate for me as I find it way too slow or erratically paced. Accent can be addressed by subtitles and familiarity with faces will get adjusted as the scenes go by, but they do lack that hook to capture the audience from first scene in most of the creations is my humble opinion. After reading a bit about the author Harlan Coben, I decided to give that series a try and ploughed on, hop-skipping and jumping across many scenes. In the end, it wasn’t that bad as I had perceived with the final episode having so many twists than a coir rope. The entire series of 8 odd episodes happen in past and present mode, where the events of one night that happened decades ago, comes back to haunt the characters involved in present day world. It is almost as if, the past casting its shadow on present, making the ...

For the first ever time a trailer gets review post!!! There is an upcoming movie scheduled for Christmas eve release, on 1983 world up win. It has been in making for a while with much hype around who will be playing Kapil’s devils. Now that the trailer is out, it is no wonder that the expectation around the movie has hit the ceiling. It is possibly one of the best made trailers, with the actual events contributing to its content naturally. I belong to that tribe of movie watchers who get goosebumps on just seeing India flag being waved in slow motion, with or without thumping BGM. More so if it is accompanied by a sporting event where India is shown victorious. All the more top of the world stuff if it happens to be on cricket. This one trailer has all these 3 elements along with situations that happened in real. If at all it is even slightly and remotely engaging of a screenplay, this movie would be the biggest blockbuster to come out of India.  All things apart – Kapil Dev. Proba...

I’ve mentioned about “Tamizhachi Aandal” series that is presently coming on “Kumudham” (tamil weekly magazine) a couple of times in this space. It is possibly one of the best written devotional series I’ve ever read. It doesn’t fully go overboard on philosophical stuff and is very smartly written, with clever intermixes of “paasurams” by the aazhvaars, the history of the place where it was sung, the story of the deity on whom it was written, mixing it with the main story of Aandal. The entire episode is narrated by Periyaazhavar, Aandal’s dad at his house, along with the company of their neighbours and friends. The story has grown manifold in dimension, having started at the time when Vairamuthu (cinema lyricist) defamed Aandal’s birth and fame. Every week, the story covers one or other aazhvaar and their interactions with god, narrated as a story, worth made into multiple movies. As I mentioned, the narration is strictly simple. There are no over the top philosophical teachings, with ...

Project Agni is the name of the short film made as part of the Navarasa Anthology season 1, depicting Adbhutha (Wonderment). Of the 9 stories, this one is the best fitment to the theme alongside Bhibatsa (Payasam - directed by Vasanth sai). True to its rasa, the story has sensational reveal and leaves you awestruck with the twist at the end. And the other noteworthy part being, true to OTT cult-ure, this deals with hard core sci-fi thriller genre and sticks to its gun when it comes to detailing and explaining. In fact 90% of the dialogues in the supposedly tamil story are in American English. For a change was wondering if the episode will have subtitles in tamil for the English dialogues!! That was the sore point which didn’t stick for it felt like a bad caricature of an American sci-fi in tanglish. That apart, the concept and execution where simply brilliant. It does share common inspiration with “Dark” web series in Netflix that deals with similar topic – where in people go back and ...

I actually had no intention of watching it anytime soon and was waiting for it to be thrown open on all OTT and other tv channels. Ever since the reunion show was announced FRIENDS fans were abuzz on what to expect and how the gang that shaped the lifestyle of a generation couple of decades back, would look like now. More importantly, how alike or different they are/were from the characters. It begins with the cast coming one by one to the very set where their life got made. As they keep talking with each other, hugging crying and joking, the show slowly moves into its rhythm. A talk show host, interviews them in front of the famous fountain where the show’s name credits begin. There are short voice bites from famous followers of the show, some regular characters throw their voice in, sitting along with the audience. There are some surprise special visits by celebrity guests and AV voice bites by lot more of them. The most touching and awesome ones being the fans from all over the worl...

Amazon prime has this unique knack of picking one dud movie after another for direct release. But when it comes to drama series, they’ve curated some decent ones to their credit. “Four more shots please” is touted as one of the most watched shows online for last year and this year as well. It was claimed to be the desi version of “SATC”, which makes one wonder if it was a credit or tease. The series is about 4 women – a journalist turned author, a lawyer, a rich girl from a super-rich family and a gym instructor from small town Ludhiana. They all meet in a bar called “Truck bar” and befriend the bartender/owner. They discuss their daily lives, sorrow, happiness, frustration and everything under the sun and true to the name of the series, always accompanied by liquor. The series have run for two seasons so far and has some unique thing about the way it has been setup. Claimed to be the first whole women unit ever to have produced this series where in right from the technicians to the di...

Recent fetish. Have been desisting from watching this series for a long while as there were many other investigative thrillers abound. Now that I started off with season 1, even before I could realize I am on to the next season. There is something catchy about those drama series that came in the early 2000’s. Be it sitcoms, crime thrillers, mystery series – after watching the recent ones on air, every one of them seems very down to earth and simple (for want of a better word). There is a very strong human element on each show, with the characters playing the role having a major say on the success. The backdrop for each characters are more defined, researched and at any point in time, are well fertile to have an offshoot series of their own. This human element being the single reason I could find across all of those famous and successful ones, which are equally rich on emotional connect with the audience. Be it FRIENDS, 24 (at least the first 4 seasons), Breaking Bad, Everybody loves Ra...

Time travel has always been a favorite topic of mine to ponder. Have often wondered how it would be to revisit situations in the past and interestingly very rarely have I thought of travelling to future. My mind and head are always deeply buried in the sands of time to look behind, the path that has been travelled and about the turns not taken, rather than imagining a route forming up front at that very instant. When reviews were proclaiming this web series as the best sci-fi series ever, I was bit skeptical as I wasn’t sure if it would be easier to follow. Many of the times, in the name of making it as close to being factually and scientifically correct as possible, the makers kill the story element and end up creating a documentary with weird music. Dark starts off on the right note with some one waking up from a nightmare. That guy happens to be the hero and through him the story moves backwards, forwards, side wards, across dimensions and worlds. The starting premise reminds of Abo...