Sukanya Verma

Policeman Pawan has a lot on his plate in Kartavya and it’s not cake. Although the movie begins with a scene of him cutting one. It’s his fortieth birthday and one he’s unlikely to forget for a long, long time. But for a few moments past midnight, outside Jhamli station, a fictional town in what sounds a lot like Haryana, the mood is cheerful and celebratory. Pawan (Saif Ali Khan) appears so entertained by his subordinate Ashok (Sanjay Mishra), you barely notice his laboured accent. Only they are cops at the end of the day and banter will end in bloodshed. Pretty much what happens when a senior journalist they are escorting is gunned down by unknown assailants.

When the Russo Brothers, Joe and Anthony, launched the espionage vehicle along with showrunner Davil Veil three years ago, the idea was to create something grand, global and glamorous. Given their success with the Avengers factory, one envisioned a slick Bond sort of brand taking on worldwide threats. It’s a shame then to see their ambitious vision marred by hackneyed writing and muddled goals. Neither the international Citadel nor its Indian (Citadel: Honey Bunny) and Italian (Citadel: Diana) counterparts to follow made the grade.

A lone rider makes his way into the eerily empty night speeding across a remote road of Rajasthan. Shrouded in darkness, our only impression of this drunk dude is the existential crisis in the voiceover’s monologue, ‘Manzilen mili unhi ko jo raaste mein hain goom.’ Babbles of a stoned fool or prophetic words of a sage mind? Dug Dug lets you decide after the dangerously dizzy ride meets its crashing end right before magician P P Sharma’s pulpy art poster eyes. Despite repeated attempts to confiscate the deceased’s bike by local cops, the blue and pink Luna keeps miraculously resurfacing at the exact same spot it was first found. As the moped earns divine status, word spreads far and wide and droves of believers flock the site-turned-shrine with offerings of beer, beedi and big bucks.

Although the milieu is boxing and Haryana’s tough training culture, Glory’s revenge drama has more mayhem than medals on its mind. Director Karan Anshuman, along with co-writer Karmanya Ahuja and Vaibhav Vishal’s bombastic dialogues, strive to create a hostile universe populated by insidious, sly beings becoming hard targets of a family seeking justice. Swarming with characters of the good, bad and ugly kind, Glory juggles its whodunit goals and estranged father-son equation across a hoard of suspects and unreliable allies. The upshot is uneven yet watchable because of the talent on board.

Smoke-filled, dimly-lit joints strewn with cards, cash and the looming threat of raids or shutdown above their heads, the shady ‘jua addas’ enjoyed a frequent appearance in several Hindi movies of the 1970s and 1980s. Despite my familiarity with the term, thanks to movies like Arjun and Dharmatma, I had no idea just how exactly the matka format of gambling works until Vijay Varma’s Brij Bhatti got down to explaining its nitty-gritties in and as Matka King. Directed by Nagraj Popatrao Manjule, the eight-part series based on Ashish Aryan’s concept draws titular as well as character inspiration from the trailblazer of the gambling world, Ratan Khatri.

A brown Bond may not be on the British bingo card… Until Riz Ahmed challenges the status quo as a struggling British-Pakistani actor auditioning for 007, following Daniel Craig’s departure in Bait’s six episodes of marvelously meta, humorous and unabashedly topical commentary. There are no shortage of actors vying for the role of the ‘white neo-colonial MI6 agent’, including Idris Elba and Regé-Jean Page.

We’ve seen Shah Rukh Khan’s pre-teen daughter gatecrash a wedding to get her dad remarried in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Akshaye Khanna endeavour to reunite his widowed father to his childhood sweetheart in Mere Baap Pehle Aap and Ayushmann Khurana embrace the idea of his mom’s need for companionship in Doctor G. Maa Ka Sum draws out on similar single-parent child psychology in the story of a teen mathematics genius using his skills to create a perfect match for his lonesome mom. Except there’s a dark side to his purpose. He doesn’t just wish to see his mother happy with somebody but also make that choice for her.

An unmistakable air of caution encumbers Anubhuti Kashyap’s Accused, which unravels when a woman and her wife are thrown in a spot. Konkona Sensharma plays Dr Geetika Sen, a reputed UK-based gynaecologist on the brink of promotion preparing to move into a bigger home and adopt a baby with her doting partner Meera (Pratibha Rannta), a paediatrician still trying to find her bearings. Bliss is brief after Geetika is suspected of sexual misconduct at work.