Nonika Singh

It’s a story that is in our collective DNA. Which one of us has not grown up with tales of Ram and Raavan, of good versus evil and the triumph of virtue over sin? Ramanand Sagar immortalised it with his legendary TV series ‘Ramayan’. Om Raut’s ‘Adipurush’ proved that even in a nation where faith is the driving force, ‘Ramayana’ is not the easiest story to tell. Clearly, producer Namit Malhotra and director Nitesh Tiwari had a lot to prove with the first instalment of their two-part ‘Ramayana’.

It’s the usual game of cloak and dagger, blood and gore, only cloaked under the garb of a matrilineal society. In the very first episode, we go back to the history of these fictional places where women once ruled. In post-Independence India, they still call the shots, literally and metaphorically. Lineage runs from mother to daughter, marriage is forbidden and men are at best companions and at worst, wimps. On the face of it, what can be more progressive and delectable than women being hailed as Akka? Men here are no more than superfluous appendages. Keerthy Suresh is Bhavani, who straddles this world and your screens with indomitable strides of strength. For those who dare to cross her path, she does not squirm away from resorting to killing in a brutal fashion.

“Highly efficient and highly corrupt” — that is our hero Ajay Nirvit (Manoj Bajpayee). The dishonest cop is introduced before the actual story begins. Ajay is out to conduct a raid at a hotel, not because he has a strong moral/duty muscle. On the contrary, his mission is to extract money from the flesh trade operative (Kiku Sharda in a guest role). Suddenly, Ajay receives a call from his superior and is assigned to check out a near-dead young girl lying on the streets of Delhi. Who is she and why has she jumped out of a moving car? Some cards are laid on the table right away and many lurk in the closet. Stakes are undeniably high as more than one character and actor pops up. There is the good-looking Akshay Oberoi as CBI officer Naveen Madhok, with a history that is just alluded to. Saqib Saleem as Karan Gill works for the NIA. What exactly is his business remains opaque and Saqib doesn’t get much flex. And then there are their masters, including Divya Dutta in a key and impactful role.

Much before the cinematic spectacle ‘Ramayana’ unfurls on silver screens, we get its partial retelling, a mini version inspired by the epic battle between the righteous and the sinful. We have nothing against films dipped in religious fervour, but when a film tries to be many things at one go, we can’t quite figure out whether ‘Nayyi Navelli’ is a social film masquerading as horror.com or mumbo-jumbo folklore being peddled as a divine subject. From the word go, the film wears its social conscience on its sleeve. A sprightly Dadima (Sushmita Mukherjee) tells her newly-wedded daughter Pinky (Mita Vashisht) that there is no rush to have children; your body, your choice. And all these woke ideas have come to her from Mohini. Now, who is Mohini? The beautiful Yami Gautam Dhar. Only, in the film, her devar Bantu (Anurag Thakur) is a doubting Thomas and takes hours to convince us, and his family, including her husband Raja (Adinath Kothare), how Mohini is no mortal but, god forbid, a daayan.

As this review appears in a newspaper which has actively led a crusade against illegal mining, there is no denying the relevance of the subject. Or the significant role played by the media in unmasking it. Straight up, ‘Reporting Live’ takes us to a pressing concern: the eviction of fishermen from their ancestral land. In its place, a mall by a builder has been proposed. Reporting the protest and new development plan are journalist Sandhya (Parineeti Chopra) and photographer Vinod (Deven Bhojani) from television channel Azad Bharti. Those clued in on the affairs of television journalism know all too well, it’s anything but azad. Free press is fast becoming a chimera.

Can third time be the charm, or unnecessary fatigue? As Ajay Devgn’s successful ‘Drishyam’, a remake of Mohanlal’s franchise of the same name, races towards a decisive conclusion, it makes a departure too. In interview after interview, Ajay has claimed that the triquel does not follow the Malayalam original. However, the makers, keenly aware of the truism ‘don’t change a winning combination’, stay with its lead characters and actors.

Illusion meets reality… those of us who have watched Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ with rapt attention know all too well what a fascinating blend it is. Of course, Netflix’s latest web series ‘Shaque: Trust No One’, which too marries phantasmagoric elements with truth, bears no similarity with the acclaimed film. Rather, on the surface, it bears an uncanny resemblance with another of Netflix’s new films, ‘Gandhari’. Yes, like the Taapsee Pannu starrer, ‘Shaque’, which marks the web-series debut of Parineeti Chopra, too, deals with a mother’s search for her daughter.

It’s a talent riot! Four of India’s best directors, a cast that stands tall by the sheer virtue of talent, and a subject which, as a rule, makes most of us squirm. The ‘Lust Stories’ franchise, ever since it made its foray on Netflix, has treaded forbidden territory. Desires, lurking deep within, have leapt on our screens in many forms. Sure enough, the three-letter word, sex, has come out of the closet and yet not quite. Women’s sexual desires are still spoken about in whispers, at least among the old school. The third outing, even with acclaimed directors at the helm, does not really offer anything as path-breaking as the first Emmy-nominated season.