Sonal Pandya

Karan Tejpal’s directorial debut, Stolen, begins in the night and ends in the day. It starts with a nightmarish scenario wherein a woman’s baby is taken from her and takes viewers on a real rollercoaster ride where the fates of all the characters are up in the air. The tense crime thriller, which is inspired by true events, is a real edge-of-your-seat drama that allows you to take a breath only at the very end. Gautam (Abhishek Banerjee) goes to pick up his younger brother Raman (Shubham Vardhan) at a sparsely occupied railway station in the middle of the night. Before that, a baby is quietly whisked away from the arms of Jhumpa (Mia Maelzer). When she wakes, she suspects Raman of the deed and causes an uproar. Soon, a crowd is gathered, and it takes Gautam’s interference to calm things down. From thereon, Stolen moves from one wild moment to another as the brothers, plus Jhumpa, are questioned by the police and overzealous locals in a bid to catch the real kidnappers. As the duo digs deeper and deeper in the mess, they discover the truth is much crazier than they imagined.

While KanKhajura is an official remake of the Israeli series Magpie, certain updates done by the makers of the show feel more potent. The first being the title change, which fits Roshan Mathew’s Ashu much better. The actor plays Ashu, who reenters society after spending 14 years in jail as a teenager. Trying to reconnect with his older brother, Max (Mohit Raina), he ends up destroying his carefully crafted life instead. The Hindi remake is most effective at trying to get to the root of the siblings’ relationship. KanKhajura: PlotRelocated to Goa, the show examines Max and Ashu’s bond as adults. Max is about to embark on an important chapter in his life as he bids to redevelop an impoverished colony with luxury villas. As Max comes up against bureaucratic and other hurdles in his proposal, Ashu decides to help him out in his own way. Their methods show their different approaches and attitudes in life. The brothers’ eventual clash is oddly compelling to watch as they air all their grievances.

The genial but crafty lawyer Madhav Mishra, played by Pankaj Tripathi, is back for yet another legal conundrum that doesn’t test much of his intelligence. Instead, this new murder involving a couple and a mistress has many confounding twists that don’t leave the desired impact. Directed by Rohan Sippy, the crime thriller Criminal Justice - A Family Matter will keep you interested in the final outcome, but the excitement levels have dimmed with the formulaic treatment of the show. The fourth season is focused on the Nagpals, a separated husband and wife couple, Raj (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) and Anju (Surveen Chawla). Raj is accused of murdering Roshni Saluja (Asha Negi), the caretaker of their 13-year-old daughter Ira (Khushi Bhardwaj), and later Anju is roped in as a potential suspect. It’s up to Madhav Mishra and his ace team to stop his client from spending their life in jail. Will the defence be able to prove their case over the police and prosecutor’s evidence? The answers seem pretty obvious.

After Inheritance, the adventure film Fountain of Youth is the second streaming film of the week to take viewers around the world. From London to Giza, the feature goes on a whirlwind ride to solve an impossible quest. The answer is in the title itself, the Fountain of Youth. The promise of eternal life is too much to resist for many, as John Krasinski’s Luke recruits his younger sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman) to help him. Their adventure is thrilling, engaging, and surprisingly well done for a streaming film. The Purdue siblings are poles apart. Luke (Krasinski) follows his father’s teachings and is now an art thief. Charlotte (Portman) has become an art curator but is missing the joy in her life. Her son Thomas (Benjamin Chivers) believes she begins to gain some adventure with the return of her brother. Together, they work on finding the elusive Fountain of Youth with the backing of an Irish billionaire, Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson). But they have all sorts of people on their trail, including Interpol, trying to stop them. Will they succeed?

The first season of the psychological drama anthology Nine Perfect Strangers premiered in 2021, and it was adapted from Liane Moriarty’s novel. This time, creator David E Kelley and star Nicole Kidman, who is back as eccentric wellness guru Masha Dmitrichenko, have nothing new to add. A new group of ‘guests,’ who are treated more like guinea pigs, are introduced as the action moves to colder climes in the Austrian Alps. While the last season certainly was an undertaking to get through, this new season has been created just because the creators could.

Neil Burger’s Inheritance zips across the globe from New York to Seoul in a compelling thriller that features a heroine with a strong survival instinct. Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor is Maya, who gets a chance to repair her relationship with her father, Simon (Rhys Ifans). However, she soon realises that leopards don’t change their spots. The innovative feature of Inheritance, besides the fact that it’s filmed on location in Egypt, India, and South Korea, is that the film has been shot with an iPhone 13 Pro. The guerilla-style filmmaking works to a large extent, but it’s the suspense of what Maya will do next that keeps viewers locked in. New Yorker Maya (Dynevor) has just watched her mother die of cancer when her estranged father (Ifans) shows up at the funeral. Despite her sister Jess’s (Kersti Bryan) warnings, Maya agrees to accompany Simon on his work trip to Cairo. Soon enough, she remembers why the family kept their distance in the first place. Maya is pulled into a complicated operation spanning countries with several authorities on her case as Simon dubiously disappears. Will Maya be a dutiful daughter and complete the assignment? Or will she uncover more hidden secrets about the mysterious man?

The Weitz brothers, Chris and Paul, have adapted Martha Wells’ book series Murderbot and given it their unique spin. The Apple TV+ series is also aided by Alexander Skarsgård’s fantastic performance about a security robot trained to obey humans. After he hacks his own system and names himself Murderbot, he begins to find himself transformed by the humans around him. The ten-episode series takes a while to grow on you, but once you immerse yourself in its world, you’ll find yourself charmed by what you see. Murderbot (Skarsgård) is assigned to protect a crew from the Preservation Alliance who want to explore a more dangerous planet for scientific purposes. The robot tries to hide the fact he has free will, but the presence of an augmented unit, Dr Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), amongst the scientists trips him up. As the situation becomes more dangerous for everyone, with death looming around every corner, the security unit must think fast and use his instincts to survive amongst a group of distrustful humans.

The Royals packs in every bit of drama, comedy, and romantic tension in its eight episodes. Teeming with a large cast of characters, the series focuses on the romance between a Maharaja and a Madam CEO. While their love story anchors the show, the lives of the supporting characters too deserve a bit more attention. Co-created by Rangita Pritish Nandy and Ishita Pritish Nandy, the Netflix series is in a similar vein to Four More Shots Please! also produced by the same company. However, the Indian royal setting in Rajasthan adds that extra bit of glamour. Ishaan Khatter is Aviraaj Singh, the reluctant heir to the royal throne of Morpur, who meets his match in WorkPotato CEO Sophia Kanmani Shekhar (Bhumi Pednekar). Opposites attract and then proceed to spend much of the show denying their feelings for one another as they work to transform the palace Motibagh into a royal bed and breakfast. Around them, there are many saboteurs and well-wishers, and both Sophia’s company and the crumbling Morpur estate act as a hindrance. Then, of course, there are the other members of the royal family who are dealing with their own issues after the death of the previous Maharaja (Milind Soman).