Bharathi Pradhan

We were charmed in 1994. By the story of Simba the lion cub, son of Mufasa, King of the Pride Lands. Scar, the evil force, had provided dramatic confrontation. The freshness of the animated number Circle of Life and the energetic camaraderie of Hakuna Matata have remained on the charts since then. Director Barry Jenkins’ prequel therefore comes with high expectations of a heartwarming, musical entertainer. The screenplay by Jeff Nathanson gives a backstory to Mufasa who died early in the 1994 blockbuster. Who was Simba’s dad?

“You don’t know what you’re getting into,” warn half-a-dozen faces – an assortment of builders, cops, politicians, media colleagues. Similarly, be warned, you don’t know what you’re getting into, if you switch on writer-director Kanu Behl’s ‘thriller’. Loosely patterned on the daylight murder of real-life investigative reporter J Dey of Mid-day in 2011, Behl and co-writer Ishani Banerjee manage so much incoherence that the only takeaway is of a man flawed by contrasts.

In our autograph books way back in school, a favourite verse was, “East is East, West is West. When they meet, it’s the best.” Bandish Bandits makes the same point, embellishing it with blended, mood-elevating music. There’s usually an ambience-fatigue when a fresh premise goes into a second season and struggles to say something new. Kota Factory, Mirzapur, Undekhi and Aarya are prime examples of ambience-fatigue.

Pushpa: The Rise (2021). Writer-director Sukumar had thrown a revenge-seeking SP Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat (Fahadh Faasil) on the trail of Pushpa Raj (Allu Arjun) even as the cheeky red sandalwood smuggler was happily taking his wedding vows with the love of his life, Srivalli (Rashmika Mandanna). Five baits have kept the audience agog for the last three years. What will happen to the sizzling chemistry of Pushpa and Srivalli? How will the face-off between strong opponents Pushpa and Bhanwar play out? Will the item number in the sequel match or surpass the saucy raunchiness of Samantha-Allu’s ‘Oo antava’? Will the dances and songs have risque-naughty moves once again?

How refreshingly different. Writer-director Rahul Dholakia takes his camera into the life-saving heroism of firefighters, so far an unexplored subject in Hindi cinema. Cut through black smoke and scorching flames for a warm story on how Fire Chief Vittalrao Surve (Pratik Gandhi) and his colleagues respond with alacrity and put their lives on the line to save lives day in and day out. Vittal, Avni Purohit (Saiyami Kher), Jazz (Udit Arora) and Mahadev (Jitendra Joshi) are a team that fearlessly go in to bring out those trapped in a fire.

A recap of Season 1: Purva (Anchal Singh), daughter of ruthless neta Akheraj Awasthi (Saurav Shukla), a don-like figure with the authorities at his beck and call and an army of goons, has always obsessed over and been a thorn in the flesh of good boy Vikrant Singh Chauhan (Tahir Raj Bhasin). To add to his misery, Vikrant’s father (Brijendra Kala) has always been a servile, loyal employee of the Awasthis, afraid to go against Akheraj even if it means pushing his son towards Purva. Vikrant had instinctively and steadfastly spurned Purna’s friendship even in school and could heave a sigh of relief only when she was packed off to the UK. He had a dream future planned with Shikha (Shweta Tripathi), the love of his life, when Purva returned as an adult, obsession intact and ready to claim him as hers once again. With Akheraj willing to go to any lengths to get her what she desires, getting rid of Purva was Vikrant’s only way out of a marriage he dreaded. It was, unwittingly, Vikrant’s first step towards turning himself into an unrecognisably dark person, no different from the Awasthis.

When an Abhishek Bachchan starrer comes along, you’re assured that there will be something different and something endearing on offer. Whether it works or not. With a repertoire that includes Vicky Donor and Piku, director Shoojit Sircar also stands for cinema with a difference. Again, whether it works or not. The qualities associated with Bachchan and Sircar combine to tell the real-life tale of an unknown Arjun Sen, inspirational in its own way. Arjun’s days are numbered, say the docs. His surgeries can no longer be counted on his fingers. He’s lost his roof to wife in a divorce settlement, his job to laryngeal cancer. His legendary arrogance has been whittled down, he’s become a statistic. One of those that sum up your chances of survival as bleak. He almost drives his Cadillac off the cliff, one evening.

The communal bloodshed that tainted Gujarat in 2002 has been told and retold on film, in books, on TV debates. But there’s been a lid on the Godhra tragedy that preceded the riots, a lid that’s lifted occasionally to put out theories that suppress and mislead more than reveal. A gas cylinder, a cigarette? What sparked the fire that roasted 59 kar sevaks including tiny children inside a bogey of the Sabarmati Express outside Godhra station in 2002?