Nonika Singh

Lust and pleasure, pain and meditation, West and East… can all these inhabit the same space? Well, in Mike White’s third season of ‘The White Lotus’, they do. Those familiar with his award-winning franchise and template are well aware that ‘White Lotus’ is a chain of luxury resorts where the super rich vacay in their quest for the elusive happiness. In the third season, the setting is Thailand, perhaps the perfect place to train the camera on the beauteous and to ask some existential questions too. There are many strands in the story… a seemingly perfect family of five, three childhood friends reuniting, an ageing balding man with a young woman and yet another couple of a similar variant. What they are seeking in this mental wellness resort depends entirely on how you see them and how they see themselves. Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins) is catching up with his unburied traumas of the past, young daughter Piper Ratliff (Sarah Catherine) of the seemingly perfect affluent Ratliff family is here to find purpose in Buddhism. Her sex-obsessed brother Saxon Ratliff (Patrick Schwarzenegger) is only looking for bodily fulfilment. Where this pursuit will take him is the most revelatory and shocking part of the series and is certainly meant to rattle.

Logic has never been the strength of Salman Khan’s ‘suspension of credulity’ variant of films. But at least massy entertainment high on actiona and drama with right tadka of comedy has been his and his kind of cinema’s forte. Alas, the superstar’s Eidi, Sikandar, falls flat on this front too. Some films look good on paper and are lost in execution. Only Sikandar that starts off with the usual bad guy getting bashed up by our superhero is probably a project that should have remained on paper. Till the first half, the Raja saheb aka Sanjay Rajkot (Salman Khan) and Rani sahiba’s (Rashmika Mandanna) cute love story in the backdrop of action is still bearable. By the second half, the narrative simply spirals out of context and control. Biting into innumerable concerns, from land grabbing to environmental pollution and even patriarchy, much of it is meant to be a bleeding heart’s cause celebre. Only the churn of events is yawn inducing with boredom writ all over it. Good news, unlike zillion Bollywood films, the villain is not gunning after the heroine and using her to get even with the hero. But even worse than bad news is, he goes after persons who have benefitted from her philanthropic act. Actually, momentarily our expectations rise what with the heroine portrayed as a saviour. She saves our superhero couple of times till she herself is caught in the crossfire. Her wish for organ donation is honoured by the grieving hero.

The second outing of a well-made franchise is a tough nut to crack. ‘Khakee: The Bengal Chapter’, a standalone sequel to Neeraj Pandey’s acclaimed series ‘Khakee: The Bihar Chapter’, faces the same acid test of great expectations. The anticipation is high, but can the master of thrillers up the game once again, or ends up delivering more of the same? Showrunner Pandey’s creative signature is writ all over as the series brims with immense possibilities. Only, these mostly remain unrealised. The subject at hand, a self-righteous cop pitted against the politician-gangster nexus, is nearly on the same lines as ‘The Bihar Chapter’, which was based on the memoir, ‘Bihar Diaries: The True Story of How Bihar’s Most Dangerous Criminal Was Caught’, by Amit Lodha. ‘The Bengal Chapter’ is a fictional story written by Pandey, Debatma Mandal and Samrat Chakroborty.

For the longest time, Dharma Productions has been known for reminding us how rich lives matter. Time and again, it has taken viewers not only on a voyeuristic ride into the extravagant lifestyles of the uber rich, but also offered a deep dive into their ‘struggles’, often evoking a fair degree of empathy, even relatability. ‘Nadaaniyan’ is one more such film where the poor rich girl syndrome manifests itself. Pia (Khushi Kapoor) is the daughter of ultra-rich parents (Suniel Shetty and Mahima Chaudhry), studying in an ‘ultra-elite school’ where students seem to be doing anything but study. She, ‘the poster princess of privilege and entitlement’, has her fair share of dilemmas, including her parents’ failing marriage.

Ever since ‘Aashram’ dropped in 2020, both the director, Prakash Jha, and Bobby Deol, who plays the devious Baba Nirala, captured our imagination. Indeed, the perils of a successful show are that it often gets extended into many seasons, elongated and stretched way beyond the story actually calls for or deserves. Thus, the powerful and impactful show about the nexus between fake gurus, politics and power did get diluted in between as it offered more of the same in the intervening seasons. But, as ‘Season 3 Part Two’ drops, our worst fears that it will continue to go round in circles are given a slight reprieve. Sure enough, his victim, Pammi (Aaditi Pohankar), who is on the run, manages to nail the Baba. But before you can even heave a sigh of relief, he and Bhupa (Chandan Roy Sanyal), his irascible deputy, once again outwit her and have her jailed instead.

Nothing is more heartwarming than aspirational stories of underdogs. Only, Reema Kagti’s cinematic recreation of small-town filmmaker Nasir Shaikh’s life is more than just a tale of a man dreaming the unthinkable, and realising it. As she takes us to Malegaon and right into the heart and soul of these dreamers, it is at one level an ode to friendship, at another about the magic of filmmaking. More importantly, it reimagines how dreams can take flight, not on the wings of hardcore ambition but an emotion far more beautiful and deeper than that. Though an extended disclaimer does not vouch for the complete veracity of the story, the fact that Nasir is very much alive and part of making of the film as well as the promotions implies that the story is rooted in his reality. Yes, there is a possibility that the narrative could have been buttressed to make his story look even better than what it actually might be. Nevertheless, at no point does it sound exaggerated or artificial. Consistently, it remains an interesting and inspirational tale of Nasir (Adarsh Gourav), who runs a video parlour, and intercuts pirated videos of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee to create some original mishmash. A police raid sets him on the path of ‘original’ filmmaking.

The fine line between journalism and sensationalism is fast becoming wafer-thin. Even those not privy to the world of journalism are aware of the falsehoods the media propagates in search of truth. So, what can the showrunner of ‘Crime Beat’, Sudhir Mishra, tell us what we already don’t know, or go beyond what Hansal Mehta’s ‘Scoop’ or ‘The Broken News’ offered? ‘Crime Beat’, like Mehta’s ‘Scoop’, is very much an insider account of investigative journalism. Based on the novel ‘The Price You Pay’ by Somnath Batabyal, who spent a decade covering crime, it takes us into the heart of news gatherers. Set in 2011 in New Delhi, a journalist, Abhishek Sinha (Saqib Saleem), in pursuit of page one stories even recreates the drama for a story. Of course, before we meet the protagonist of the series, we are introduced to Binny Chaudhry (Rahul Bhat). Hailed as a messiah, he is on the verge of surrendering to the police but before we get to know who he is, he is shot dead.

For the uninitiated, the glory of the Maratha kingdom ends with the great warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. That his son, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, was an equally valiant, fearless and fierce ruler is a fact we are not fully privy to. Thus, on this count alone, ‘Chhaava’, which chronicles the life and death of Sambhaji, is worthy of celluloid attention. After a brief historical introduction in the voice of Ajay Devgn, the film comes straight to the point. Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and his courtiers are celebrating the death of Shivaji. The Maratha kingdom is now well within their grasp. Only they have not factored in the might of Shivaji’s son. Vicky Kaushal as Sambhaji soon appears with his army and his valour is on full display as he vanquishes his enemy in Burhanpur, a domain of Aurangzeb. Clearly, the emperor is enraged and vows to wear his crown only when he hears Sambhaji scream in pain. Can the Marathas defeat the might of the Mughal army? We all know the answer to this question. The point now is how well the director, Laxman Utekar, can take us through it. Until the intermission, the narrative moves at a fast pace. The period setting is right, with grandeur befitting the 17th century in which it is set. Sambhaji is not all brawn, but heart too. Other characters include a maternal uncle, Sarsenapati Hambirao (Ashutosh Rana), a loving and fawning wife Maharani Yesubai (Rashmika Mandanna), and a Rajput braveheart who is a poet too (Vineet Kumar Singh). But the problem is that whenever a Bollywood film is in service of one character, historical or otherwise, it goes overboard in eulogising its hero. Even if well deserved as in the case of Sambhaji, it keeps drumming the fact time and again. The net result is that not only are the other characters sidelined, the hero even when played by an actor of immense calibre like Vicky Kaushal does not get time to truly breathe. One of the early dialogues is, “Hum shikaar karte hain shor nahin”. Yet, the film is loud, with a louder background score (imagine, by none other than AR Rahman).