Sonal Pandya

Skydance Animation’s second film, Spellbound, updates family dynamics in a modern way, letting kids know that sometimes happily ever after doesn’t work out. Shrek director Vicky Jensen helms this refreshing but overlong story of a teenage girl trying to undo a spell on her parents that has turned them into literal monsters. The colourfully appealing but flat world of Lumbria makes way for a quest for the royal trio in this well-meaning musical.

12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen takes audiences through the life of a Londoner during the German blitzkrieg of their city during World War II. The Apple TV+ feature Blitz has more of a child’s perspective as a young boy named George escapes back to his mother after being sent away for evacuation. We see the good and bad of the times through his eyes as he loses his innocence during his misadventure.

In January 2022, the Netflix series Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein introduced us to an unusual drama. The show, set in a small town, revolved around Vikrant (Tahir Raj Bhasin), who uncomfortably finds himself to be the object of affection for a gangster politician’s daughter Purva (Aanchal Singh). Instead of marrying his college sweetheart Shikha (Shweta Tripathi), he finds himself tied by matrimony to someone he doesn’t love. Sidharth Sengupta’s series took Vikrant to his limit as he found himself hiring a hitman to get rid of Purva. Now, nearly three years later, the series returns to pick up where it left off.

Comedies that mock America’s inexplicable obsession with true crime and especially podcasts are on the rise. The new season of Peacock’s Based on a True Story, starring Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina, brings back their suburban couple, Ava and Nathan Bartlett, who thought unmasking a serial killer would make them famous. By the end of Season 2, the duo become more infamous thanks to their curiosity about a new copycat serial killer. The comedy is still funny and insightful even as it takes its time to surprise the characters and audience with new twists.

Set in a small, quiet American town where nothing really happens and everyone knows everyone, Greedy People is a feature film told from many perspectives. Starring Himesh Patel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Lily James, the crime comedy quickly moves from laughs to backstabbing, some quite literal in this crazy narrative. While the story simply must be seen to be believed, the actors’ performances sell the absurdity of the fast changing plot.

The prequel series, Dune: Prophecy, opens with an interesting quote that lays the foundation for its narrative ahead. It states, “Victory is celebrated in the light, but won in the darkness.” The HBO show is set around 10,000 years before the existence of Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides from Dune; a powerful organisation called the Sisterhood aims to guide humanity to its correct path. Easier said than done.

Based on the novels of Hugh Howey, the world of Silo easily captivated sci-fi fans when it first premiered in May 2023. The dystopian drama is set in a future where thousands of people have isolated themselves in a giant underground silo to protect themselves from the outside. But what exactly is outside? The gripping new season, led by Rebecca Ferguson, finally takes us beyond the silo we’ve known for the first season.

One of the most painful and fraught chapters of India’s history is brought to life in the SonyLIV series Freedom at Midnight, created by Nikkhil Advani. With a large ensemble cast of Indian and foreign actors, the series moves forwards and backwards in time to depict what went through the minds of India’s political leaders as they bargained and argued with the British empire for their freedom. Through the seven episodes, the threat of partition looms large, and the tense finale brings with it a melancholic feeling that lingers.