The Indian division of Netflix, continues coming up with average content for its Indian viewers that include their originals as well as the acquired works. Having said that, 3 of the following five series, are still much better if not up to the mark as something highly recommended putting it honestly.
SHE
(2020 / 7 Episodes)
Collectively written and created by Imtiaz Ali with Divya Johry, this surprisingly is an intense yet directionless crime drama (coming from the writer-director known for his love stories). Under the direction of Arif Ali and Avinash Das it basically revolves around a girl, a female constable, who is asked to pose as an undercover prostitute in order to reach a gangster and bust his underworld reign. A simple, middle class girl is not comfortable in doing so, but she agrees as a part of her job and in the process rediscovers herself and her sensuality too.
Sadly, such a distinctive psychological subject gets a very uninteresting and boring kind of treatment from the director duo, requiring a lot of effort to complete its 7 episodes. Aaditi playing the lead does a fine job, but really wish this had a much better execution and vision behind its making. In the present form it more or less appears to be an unnecessary venture with a few merits in its basic idea but nothing more than that.
Rating : 2 / 5
Directed by Arif Ali and Avinash Das
Starring : Aaditi Pohankar, Vijay Varma, Vishwas Kini and more.
WHAT THE LOVE! With Karan Johar
(2020 / 7 Episodes)
After quite a few flops as well as fake TV series on dating and marriage proposals in the past, it’s really strange that such series still gets a green signal from a reputed portal as Netflix. No doubt it got approved because of the name of Karan Johar involved, as otherwise you cannot bring in any viewer to watch such series and that too when its placed along loads of other far better watchable stuff.
As expected, it has Karan Johar trying to help few selected people find their love and the presentation is typically glossy, glamorous and clearly staged too, catering to a specific (posh) section of society as well as the viewers. So if you are one of those then the choice is all yours, otherwise this should not be even considered for your precious time and you can surely try its first episode to know why!
Rating : 0.5 / 5
Talk Show Director & Host – Karan Johar featuring many celebrity guests.
KHAN NO. 1
(2018 / 9 Episodes)
Produced by Rohan Sippy, earlier aired at a TV Channel, this is a detective kind of serial with its protagonist being an Inspector and plots taken from many real life events we have seen or read about in daily newspapers. For instance its various episodes deal with cases such as online shopping frauds, wedding scams, con property dealers, fake spiritual gurus, paid seniors giving competitive exams from others and more.
The best part of the series is the ever dependable Rajesh Sharma playing Mr. Khan, who keeps trying to lift up the narrative with his known humour, fun and drama. Plus it also isn’t any dark series as normally seen in such ventures. But sadly the crime based drama has been dealt too simply and unexcitingly with everything happening and the cases being solved with convenience, which is not really expected from an investigative drama. So this can be seen for the light-hearted and likable performance of Rajesh Sharma and the interesting real life inspired cases, but certainly could have been much better with a more tensed and descriptive writing and execution.
Rating : 2.5 / 5
Directed by Rohan Sippy, Mrityunjay Singh, Raj Acharya, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Puneet Prakash, Raju Parsekar and Dharmesh Mehta
Starring : Rajesh Sharma, Pitobash Tripathy and more.
JAMTARA – Sabka Number Aayega
(2020 / 10 Episodes)
Coming up with a unique and highly relevant subject/scam of the present times, JAMTARA is a winner as far as the chosen theme is concerned exposing the ‘Phishing Attempts’ on fake phone calls from Jamtara district of Jharkhand. It begins showcasing youngsters calling random numbers in a girl’s voice successfully hacking the bank accounts and thus drags the viewer in right from the first episode itself.
However as we go past 4-5 episodes, the script starts going back to the same old progression, characterization and twists in its storyline showcasing the police-goons-politician nexus seen several times before. Thankfully the actors keep delivering and the fresh faces keep you involved despite many clichéd sequences. In short it’s a series with characters coming straight from the exciting world of Anurag Kashayp but lack any similar finesse and culmination. The execution and performance truly win you over in the first few episodes, but really wish it remained the same in the concluding episodes too creating a clear winner.
Having said that, JAMTARA is still worth trying for its merits mentioned above and for being much better than many mediocre series online.
Rating : 3 / 5
Directed by Soumendra Padhi
Starring : Amit Sial, DibyenduPurab Kohli, Palomi Ghosh, Jisshu Sengupta, Sameer Kochhar, Aarna Sharma and more.
Cheers!
Bobby Sing
