Sonal Pandya

Making movies is a serious business. But in the Apple TV+ series, The Studio, co-created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez, seeing the behind-the-scenes decisions on how movies get sanctioned is very funny business indeed. Rogen is Matt Remick, who is bumped up as the head of Continental Studios, and has to prove himself over and over as he tries to do what he loves the most, make movies. The clever and biting satire lifts the lid on awards ceremonies, industry parties, and of course, the deals that go into making sure the movies get sanctioned in the first place. Corporate CEO Griffin Mill, played by the excellent Bryan Cranston in a guest appearance, promotes Matt Remick as top boss and sets some unreasonable expectations on him. The movie-loving executive has some tough decisions to make from here on, most of which he fumbles badly. Like most studios, Matt must launch a franchise based on a nostalgic brand like Barbie, and watching him and his team put together a film on Kool-Aid is downright hilarious. Even more cringeworthy are Matt’s interactions with people who make movies; he has a desperate need to be liked. At times when absolutely everything goes wrong, he and his team manage to hold it through.

A standalone followup to Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, this new instalment is set in Kolkata, with the only similarity being a cop bringing down a crime nexus. In Khakee: The Bengal Chapter, the corruption is deep-rooted, wherein the politicians in power already have an alliance with gangsters. The Hindi series, created by Neeraj Pandej, boasts of a star-studded cast who fill out the erractic narrative in which every man and woman is out for themselves. The crime thriller is set in the early 2000s, with Parambrata Chatterjee playing an honorable cop who sets out to break up the lawlessness in the city. However, his death sets off a chain of events that leads to the downfall of the whole criminal alliance between the ruling party, the cops, and the top crime lord Bagha (Saswata Chatterjee). Afterwards, the balance of power continues to shift as everyone tries to make a play. But with a new man on the scene with IPS Arjun Maitra (Jeet), it starts off a bloody game of chess.

There have several documentaries and series dissecting the curious case of Natalia Grace, a young Ukrainian girl with dwarfism adopted by an American couple. Later, the couple, Kristen and Michael Barnett, allege that they’ve been misled and Natalia is actually an adult. The adoption drama, which later escalates into a legal trial, is detailed in the new JioHotstar series, Good American Family, led by Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass. The tone of the series feels similar to a horror film or a car crash, when you know that the inevitable is upon you soon. Kristen (Ellen Pompeo) and Michael Barnett (Mark Duplass) already have a strained marriage, raising three boys, including one with autism. They are seeking to adopt a young girl to complete their family. Kristen is shown as a selfless Midwestern mother, running a rec center for special needs and raising her autistic son, who is considered a prodigy. Meanwhile, Michael is shown as slightly more needy and unable to handle the larger pressures of life. Their marriage is one crack away from splitting when Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid) enters their home.

Remo D’Souza’s latest dance film Be Happy revolves around the relationship between a straitlaced single father and his imaginative daughter. Together, through the medium of dance, they learn to live life to its fullest. While much of the Hindi film is focused on young Dhara wanting to achieve her dream of appearing on the dance reality show India’s Superstar Dancer, Be Happy is much stronger when it rests on the father-daughter bond. The dance portions of the film are unnecessarily stretched. Dhara (Inayat Varma) lives with her father Shiv Rastogi (Abhishek Bachchan) and grandfather Mr Nandar (Nasser) in Ooty. But her real dream is to join Maggie Teacher’s (Nora Fatehi) top dance academy in Mumbai and appear on India’s Superstar Dancer. The musical drama follows how she manages to fulfill her wishes against all odds. Along the way, Shiv also learns to be a little less rigid and protective as a single father after the death of his wife Rohin (Harleen Sethi).

Co-created by star Stephen Graham and filmmaker Jack Thorne, Adolescence should become necessary viewing at schools for teachers, students, and parents. The four-part series is focused on the arrest of a 13-year-old boy, Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), accused of stabbing his classmate fatally. The British series deftly captures how this incident affects all those around Jamie—his family, the police, his classmates, and even the psychologist assigned to the case. While the devastating story will leave you emotionally sapped at the end, Adolescence is a stark reminder of the evolving world around us where kids are forced to grow up much too fast.

The eight-episode series Dope Thief takes its main characters on an absolute journey as greed and corruption in law enforcement are exposed through each stage. Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura’s characters are longtime friends who are drawn into this mess and try to emerge on the other side unscathed. The story hooks you in from the start, but with each twist, you’ll find yourself rolling your eyes at the outrageous turn of events. The well-acted crime drama is worth tuning in only for its cast. Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura) became the best of friends in juvenile detention and continued their life of crime undetected as adults. The duo pose as DEA agents and rob small drug dealers of their stash and money. Until one day when they hit the wrong meth house in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, they are entangled in the larger narcotic crime ring that involves more dangerous drug dealers and even the cops themselves. With no one to turn to and their families now in danger, how do the two friends find an escape?

The 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre remains a pivotal event in India’s fight for freedom. The deadly killings of hundreds of Indian civilians during the British Raj have been covered several times in cinema. SonyLIV’s new limited series looks at the painful historical event through the eyes of a young lawyer who is part of the Hunter Commission, which aims to find out what happened that day in April 1919. Led by a very able Taaruk Raina as the London return lawyer, The Waking of a Nation is less a historical recreation of what happened but rather an examination of the events that led up the massacre.

Picture This, led by Simone Ashley, is a remake of the Australian rom-com Five Blind Dates from star Shuang Hu. Relocated to London, director Prarthana Mohan’s film takes the same elements but places it within a dysfunctional but loving British Asian family. Amidst wedding planning, blind dating, and reconnecting with an old love, Ashley’s Pia finds herself again in this funny and enjoyable romantic comedy. The Amazon Prime Video feature is fast-paced and colourful, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Ashley is Pia Jaswani, a talented photographer who owns her own photography studio, The Ninth Mandala, and runs it with her best friend Jay (Luke Fetherston). Her younger sister Sonal (Anoushka Chadha) announces she’s getting married with a month-long series of events. Their mother Laxmi (Sindhu Vee) calls an astrologer (Kulwinder Dhir) to check the groom and bride’s janampatris (birthcharts), when he suddenly predicts Pia will meet her soulmate after going on five dates. Her meddling family gets to work with unsuitable suitors, while her first love Charlie (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) walks back in her life.