Nonika Singh

The story of Charles Sobhraj is not new… we have seen his criminal life unfold on the big screen more than once. Back in 2015, Randeep Hooda’s ‘Main Aur Charles’ constructed the notorious criminal through the eyes of police officer Amod Kanth. More recently, Vikramaditya Motwane’s web series ‘Black Warrant’ on Tihar jail had Sobhraj as one of its key characters. And then there has been BBC’s drama series ‘The Serpent’. So, what can ‘Inspector Zende’, based on the escape and capture, rather recapture, of the dreaded serial killer offer? For starters, it introduces us to Inspector Madhukar Bapurao Zende (Manoj Bajpayee). The spin is kind of new and ‘Inspector Zende’ is couched as a comedy. A tall order, indeed! Making the tale of a dreaded criminal on the run funny is not everyone’s forte, even when you have a stellar actor like Bajpayee in the saddle. He makes you chuckle here and there, but as his character of Inspector Zende asks one of his colleagues, “Why don’t you laugh?”, the query could well apply to us too.

Beyond politics and violence, the Kashmir valley has a soul and a voice. ‘Songs of Paradise’, as the title suggests, come wrapped in a melody, nay many melodies — the folk songs that once echoed from its radio station. The film claims to be inspired by the songs of Raj Begum, the first woman to sing on Radio Kashmir. In the film, she becomes Noor Begum, though initially her name in the celluloid adaptation is Zeba Akhtar. The very first scene is dramatic and symbolic. We see Saba Azad as Zeba, singing with gusto, unmindful of the smoke around her. In another time frame, Soni Razdan wakes up frantically and we soon see her preparing for a concert. A young student of music, Rumi (Taaruk Raina), approaches her; he is preparing for his thesis on Kashmir’s music. And thus begins a peep into her journey. Saba and Soni play the younger and older versions of the lead. If this transformation appears smooth, so is the editing by Hemanti Sarkar. There are no jerks. The flashback begins in the Srinagar of 1954. Soni is excellent as always and Saba, who is the niece of the late theatre activist Safdar Hashmi, finally gets the part she deserves. She is diffident and endearing, especially the way she utters “maatlab”.

It is touted as a political thriller but unfolds like a potboiler. The very first scene and the dialogue, “I trust you will make the right choice”, is a precursor and portender that impossible choices will soon beset this happy family. The scene shifts to UK’s Parliament. Abigail Dalton (Suranne Jones) is the British Prime Minister facing a volley of barbs from the Opposition leader. As she prepares to meet her French counterpart, President Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy), again an indomitable woman of substance, something sinister is brewing alongside. Abigail’s husband Alex Anderson (Ashley Thomas), a doctor, is abducted along with other medical professionals. The ransom demand is no less than her resignation.

What happens when two superstars come together? One, Hrithik Roshan as Kabir, a bona fide member of YRF spy universe, who headlined the prequel. The other, super sensation from the South, NTR Jr, makes a new entry but in no less powerful role. Well, the movie becomes a fan-service, a showcase of these two heavyweights. Thus War 2 is as much a battle of their swags as face-offs between their muscle power and show of strengths. For the world, rogue spy Kabir is still a mercenary but as audiences we soon learn he is a patriot who believes in the dictum; death before dishonor, service before self and of course India first. NTR Jr as Major Vikram too is a desbhakt. Or is he? If you have watched War, you know nothing is what appears in this spy-game. ‘Hero ko villain banana aur villain ko hero… tumhara shauk hai kya’… Well, it certainly seems to be the motto of the writer. The story credit belongs to Aditya Chopra.

What can be more exciting than the world of espionage, especially when the lead character is somewhat fashioned after our current National Security Adviser! We won’t name him since ‘Khuda Hafiz’ fame director Faruk Kabir’s ‘Salakaar’ doesn’t. The similarities, however, are uncanny. Of course, like all celluloid fiction, the series, too, takes cover under a long disclaimer and the ultimate caveat: inspired by true events. As is with all marriages of fact and fiction, as viewers, you are clueless about which part of the film is true and which isn’t. Pakistan, we all know, is a bona fide nuclear nation with a substantial nuclear arsenal. So, why should a web series revisit the days when it was trying to make a nuclear bomb? The period of attention here is 1978 and the focus is on the Kahuta nuclear plant. The man in charge of Pakistan is General Zia-ul-Haq, portrayed by Mukesh Rishi with demonic inflections of a demagogue, which is what perhaps Zia was.

Not all love stories are about roses and wine, even when these come from the house of gossamer romance, Dharma Productions. Many love tales come laden with thorns, especially when the lovers try to cross the class divide — even more pressingly, the caste divide. Thomas Jefferson’s famous words, “when law becomes injustice, resistance becomes your duty”, set the tone of the film. The very first scene establishes that despite two exceptionally good-looking actors, Triptii Dimri and Siddhant Chaturvedi, helming the film, standard notions of romance will take a backseat. ‘Dhadak 2’, the spiritual sequel to ‘Dhadak’, walks the same line of deeply-entrenched caste prejudices and is once again a remake, this time of Mari Selvaraj’s Tamil film. Since one consciously chose not to watch the 2018 ‘Pariyerum Perumal’, comparisons are out of bounds. So, while we can’t say this Shazia Iqbal directorial is as searing, it does cut you through and quick.

The series opens in 1952. Villagers are set to burn what they are led to believe is an abode of witches. What these women, led by the feisty Shriya Pilgaonkar (in a cameo), are doing is another point of interest. Undeniably, the very premise is intriguing, suspenseful and supernatural. Cut to the present day. Rhea Thomas (Vaani Kapoor) is a CIB (yes, the CBI derivative) detective assigned to crack the case and sent to Charandaspur, the epicentre of mystery and murder. ‘Gullak’ fame Vaibhav Raj Gupta as Vikram Singh is a cop suspended from duty. He is back in this quaint place, which happens to be his hometown and where his mother went missing decades ago. Both find themselves in the midst of a series of bizarre murders and get together to unravel the truth behind the shocking deaths. In the latest Netflix series ‘Mandala Murders’, superstition, magic, miracle and horror (science too) collide. The very first body, of a photographer uncovering a political scam, is discovered with the torso missing. Two more have their arms undone. At one level, the series unfolds like a police procedural, at another it’s political intrigue at its vilest best. But since at the heart of the series is some unnatural phenomenon, the mystery will not be easy to unfold, and conventional answers won’t apply. Who is killing and why, the mystery deepens.

Cyber warfare is the new geopolitical reality and thus an essential exploration area for the celluloid world. Creator-writer-director Neeraj Pandey recreates the world of AI-driven digital espionage. As the master storyteller and his lead protagonist, Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Menon), are back, compelling storytelling is in the offing once again. This time, Himmat, the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) officer, is entrusted with the responsibility of averting an imminent digital attack. Day in and out, we get to read news of digital scams. Imagine if it gets amplified at the national level, leaving not just individuals but the entire nation’s economy crippled. Chilling… but the way Pandey and his co-writers Benazir Ali Fida and Deepak Kingrani build the espionage game, it is more entertaining and engaging than alarming.