Nonika Singh

Revenge is the name of the game… well, in most crime thrillers. ‘Sankalp’ by Prakash Jha opens with a couple of bodies arriving at the gurukul run by Maat Saab (Nana Patekar). Before we learn who died and at whose hands, we are taken back to the unfolding of events six months earlier. Bit by bit, we grasp who Maat Saab is and how he derives his power. Bureaucracy in India is the bulwark through which the veins of power run and control the system. What better way than to infiltrate this very nerve centre with an army of loyalists? He picks up boys and girls from underprivileged backgrounds, educates them and trains them to crack the UPSC examination. Voila, a team of exceptional men and women in positions of extreme privilege within the civil services (from IAS to IPS to IRS) are ready to do his bidding.

On paper, a woman as a sexual predator sounds rather exciting as a theme. And when that part of a woman accused of sexual transgression is being played by Konkona Sensharma, a gifted actor with chameleon-like malleability, the interest touches another level. In the first few scenes, her abilities as a skilled gynaecologist Dr Geetika are established and her acting chops are on ample display too. The focus shifts to her home where her married partner is a woman, Meera, also a doctor. The beautiful Pratibha Rannta of ‘Laapataa Ladies’ is back and stuns as much in this modern avatar. Yes, we know, same-sex marriages are not allowed in India. The setting here, by the way, is London, where this couple lives and works and is planning to adopt a child.

How often have we read news reports of a woman being gangraped in a moving car and how often have we turned insular to reportage of such heinous incidents? In his latest film ‘Assi’, acclaimed director Anubhav Sinha not only gives a face, heart and soul to a rape survivor, but also stirs something deep within us. With horror, we watch a young woman, Parima (Kani Kusruti), being pulled into a car by a bunch of youngsters. Hereafter, what happens is meant to evoke repugnance and Anubhav succeeds in bringing out the reprehensibility of the crime in a no-holds-barred sequence. How can this crime against women, rather humanity, be fun for some? The thought is as unsettling as searing.

When ‘Kohrra’ came in 2023, it was a breath of fresh air which not only put a majorly Punjabi language series on the world map of OTT, but showed a state dipped in shades of realism. Now, as its second season streams, the template is kind of… same. It’s still a police procedural with loads of human drama at the centre of it. ‘Kohrra 2’ starts on a similar note: murder of an NRI. But, hereafter, the series — again set in the hinterland of Punjab — takes a life of its own and envelops you as much in the mysterious air of whodunit as the lives of its protagonists. Investigation begins and we are all agog to know who has murdered this young lady Preet (Pooja Bhamrrah), a divorcee who loved to make reels and by no stretch of imagination was a pushover.

Justice, we all know, by and large eludes the powerless. On screen, however, poetic justice as well as its vigilante variant has been delivered time and again. At times with a loud thump and less often in a quiet, restrained tone. ‘Vadh’, as the name suggests, is about killing. Since the word has much significance in mythology, we know it would be for the right reasons. Enter a jail in Madhya Pradesh. Now the much-acclaimed series ‘Black Warrant’ and many other Indian films have already shown us what all the innards of a jail possibly entail. So you bet the presence of a despicable criminal like Keshav (Akshya Dogra), with deep political connections, hardly comes as a surprise. What does is the tender love story brewing between a criminal serving life sentence and one of the jail’s guards. Trust both Neena Gupta and Sanjay Mishra to breathe life into their characters of Manju Mishra and Shambhunath Mishra.

In ‘Bhakshak’, Bhumi Pednekar’s Vaishali Singh busted the wrongdoings in a shelter home. In ‘Daldal’, her character is face to face with a victim-turned-assassin from the same place. Before you accuse us of letting the cat out of the bag, let it be said that the seven-episode crime thriller is not exactly a whodunit. Early on, by Episode 2, we know who the killer is. So, it’s the why and how which is more significant. Suresh Triveni, who gave us the delightful ‘Tumhari Sullu’ and ‘Jalsa’, is the creator of the series.

Till date, ‘Border’, directed and produced by JP Dutta — never mind certain misgivings — is considered a significant war film. So when Dutta decided to produce its sequel 27 years later in 2024, the new captain of the film, director Anurag Singh, knew he had to tap into the same emotion which made ‘Border’ a blockbuster. Apart from Sunny Deol as the connecting thread, ‘Border 2’ thrives on music, emotions and of course melodrama. Anurag possibly couldn’t resist Sunny Bhaji’s “dhai kilo ka haath” manifesting with full force. So, Sunny Deol’s Lt Col Fateh Singh Kaler gets plenty of one-to-one combat scenes and some bombastic dialogues too, besides a heartrending track.

Many Hindi films on smuggling, aka taskaree, have delighted audiences since the days of the iconic ‘Deewar’. So what can ‘Taskaree: The Smugglers Web’ bring to the table? Coming from the stable of a brilliant director like Neeraj Pandey, who gave us the ultimate heist film ‘Special 26’, and headlined by a fine actor like Emraan Hashmi, expectations build up.