News and Views

The biggest pull of Aarya, streaming on Disney+Hotstar, will have to be Sushmita Sen. Forever etched in our memories as Miss Universe in her crowning glory, Sushmita plays the eponymous character around whom the story unfolds. Based on the Dutch series Penoza, it has been created for the Indian audience by Ram Madhvani and Sandeep Modi.

Madhvani, who has also directed the series along with Sandeep Modi and Vinod Rawat, has a knack of scooping out performances and playing to his actors’ strengths.

Sonam Kapoor in Neerja is proof . Here, too, the strong and confidant woman sits pretty on Sushmita’s well-toned shoulders. The first time we see her, the actor is immersed in aerial yoga . In fact, in the first episode, Sushmita seems to have come out of her own Instagram account. Her yoga videos, the perfectly turned-out glam avatar, those arched eyebrows as she enunciates each word - its like watching Sushmita play herself as she seamlessly merges with Aarya. It is a Sushmita show and she doesn’t disappoint.

Tune in for the full review!

VO: RJ Stutee

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A renowned public health expert and orthopaedic surgeon at St Stephens Hospital in Delhi, Dr Mathew Varghese has been consulted by governments and institutions across the world. In 2018, Bill Gates had described Dr Varghese as one of the five real life heroes of the world.

In an exclusive interview to The Quint, Dr Varghese speaks about where we are headed with the coronavirus pandemic, how it will only spread further, and when the disease is likely to peak. Dr Varghese also talks about how the lockdown has not been beneficial.

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'Bigger Quake After Mini Jolts?', 'The Big One is Coming' or 'Major Earthquake May Rock Delhi-NCR Soon'...

No, these are not a satirical news headlines. They are real headlines, reflecting the question looming large in the minds of people living in Delhi-NCR; a big question a lot of the media is fanning – are we about to be hit by a really big and bad earthquake?

The simple answer to that is – no, we’re not.

And here is why – no one, not scientists, not politicians, not your favourite TV news anchor, not your neighbour, not your dad, not your pet cat.. No one can predict earthquakes.

Scientifically speaking, no one can certify that a big earthquake will happen tomorrow, nor can they certify that it will not. Unfortunately, we’re surrounded by headlines that mislead or only half inform us and we fall prey to that. So, let’s decode some headlines.

VO: Rohit Khanna

We hear Amitabh Bachchan even before we see him in Shoojit Sircar’s latest directorial Gulabo Sitabo (streaming on Amazon Prime Video). Huffing, panting , a slight groan before he stretches his slouching body to take a bulb out of its socket. What he does with it we get to know in the next scene and why he did it is clear subsequently.

Big B, who has a prominent nose and beard, initially grabs our attention but then makes us forget about his towering star quality as he melts into the role of a rapacious old man who someone refers to as “laalchi” in the first few minutes of the film.

Avik Mukhopadhyay’s camera moves slowly, taking in the sights and sounds of Lucknow and Juhi Chaturvedi’s writing marinated in local flavours keeps getting better.

Be it Piku, October or Vicky Donor Shoojit Sircar films the everydayness of life with avid pleasure.

In this one too he tries but is unable to hold our attention for as long as he would like. But that doesn’t take away from the dark solid core of the film and the statement it makes on insatiable greed and the ephemeral quality of youth. Gulabo Sitabo has its moments, the characters and their eccentricities stay with us but how much undivided attention can it command when the going gets slightly tedious? Tune in for the full review!

VO: RJ Stutee

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Anurag Kashyap’s latest collaboration with Netflix, Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai opens with a dark silhouette surreptitiously walking into a room carrying a briefcase full of notes…these are the Rs500 notes of yore. The image is striking enough and the said notes stand to reason since its still October of 2016 . Even before we can fully register the implications of the scene or who that man was we are pulled into the bustle of everyday life of a typical middle class family who we get to know better over the course of the next 2 hours.

VO: RJ Stutee

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In one unintentionally funny scene during an intense gun battle with zombies, one of the military squad commandant says, “Angrezon ne hamari naukri churai, sona churaya, zameen churai aur ab ye hamare bhoot bhi churaayenge!”. I absolutely cracked up given that these creatures from the dead are supposed to be part of a military regiment of the East India Company, who have retained their Chief Lieutenant Colonel John Lynedoch and archaic bullets for what feels more like zombies for dummies.

It’s literally this- the angrez have left but a cursed tunnel and their zombie selves remain stuck here. When corporate greed shows its ugly face we have a situation where the tribals of Campa forest are relegated to the margins with brute force and their land snatched away from them. Tune in to this podcast for the full review!

VO: RJ Stutee

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The latest to drop on Zee5 is Ghoomketu. Written and directed by Pushpendra Nath Misra (who directed the lovely Taj Mahal 1989) it has Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead along with an extensive ensemble cast and a bevy of cameos by stars.

Ghoomketu was shot back in 2014 but due to financial troubles the release date kept getting postponed. Initially slated for a release in 2018, it was only after the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 that the film has finally managed to hustle up an online outing. Tune in to the podcast for more!

VO:RJ Stutee

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Truth be told, I really tried to come up with some funny, attention-grabbing opening paragraph for this review. But I have failed miserably. As it is, this lockdown is hard and then to watch Mrs Serial Killer can really bring on the blues. So straight to the point. I won't be so mean and tell you who the killer is (though no big surprise in store) but I can tell you Mrs Serial Killer is really a great mood killer and logic killer and sadly not a time killer either!

Tune in for the full podcast!

VO: RJ Stutee

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For some reason, Irrfan Khan’s going away seems deeply personal. Some of us were lucky to have met him in person but for most of us, it was his magic on the big screen that made us feel like we had forged a special relationship with him. One of the last films I saw in a theatre and reviewed before this lockdown was Angrezi Medium. At that time I had no idea that it would indeed be his last. This sentence always tears me up and it is so difficult to imagine cinema and films without one of its brightest stars.

Tune in to this podcast!

VO: Rj Stutee

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Hotstar’s latest show starts with the voiceover of one of its leads introducing us to the other. As ACP Saumya Shukla aka Lara Dutta’s voice slowly takes us through Nethra Patil aka Rinku Rajguru’s life and motions we do get a hint of how the two women will invariably be conjoined in their efforts to question the status quo. The word “Hundred” in the title refers to the number of days Nethra’s doctor tells her she has to live before the malignant tumour will put an untimely stop to her existence.

Tune in to this podcast for the full review!

VO: RJ Stutee

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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