Shubhra Gupta

Labelling a good-looking, confident woman, unwilling to be boxed into the coy, submissive template, a ‘daayan’ happens too often even in this day and age. To decode generations of social prejudice and conditioning across genders is a chance that films should take, even if they fear falling under yet another dreaded label — ‘female-oriented’ movie. When Nayyi Navelli begins, with Yami Gautam as the new dulhan who arouses the suspicions of her devar (Anurag Thakur) and his pal, you really want the film to deliver on the promise. Fronted by Gautam, who did a wonderful job in Haq, and an ensemble which looks like fun — the last time you had Mita Vashishth and Sushmita Mukherjee, both capable of delightful ditziness, in one frame was in the 90s — this one feels like it had so much potential.

The case against Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist who was captured alive during the Mumbai attack on 26/11 was built by public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, whose painstaking methods left not a shred of doubt about the former’s guilt. Rajkummar Rao brings a dogged sincerity to his playing of Nikam, but the film never really shakes off its dominant quality — it is as by-the-numbers as it can get, in both re-creating the glimpses of that terrible night during which a terrorist group took Mumbai hostage, as well as the court-room proceedings in which defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi (Sikander Kher) works hard to dismantle the case, under the watchful eye of the judge (Ashish Vidyarthi).

When this sixth season of Slow Horses showed up amongst much excitement, there was this automatic question in our heads: would the change in writers — series creator and lead writer Will Smith handed over the reins to Gaby Chiappe — impact the show, which nestles comfortably in my list of best spy thrillers currently streaming. The answer is a resounding no. I have to confess I was a little sceptical when this new season began, but the way it has forged ahead, turning a show that spent a lot of time brooding in dank rooms, sending its gaggle of gabby, dank spies, on a breathless chase involving our favourite slow horses and a Russian hit-couple, I’ve barely had time to breathe.

Illegal sand-mining continues to be the flavour of the season. Anil Kapoor’s ex-Armyman went up against the ruthless mafia controlling operations in the sepia-tinted hinterlands in Subedaar earlier this year. Now come Parineeti Chopra and Deven Bhojani as the intrepid reporter-camera duo from a TRP-hungry TV network (are there any other kinds?) who confront the bad guys. The nearly two-hour long duration is spent in watching Sandhya Yadav (Parineeti Chopra) and Vinod Sharma (Deven Bhojani) tracking the act itself on the banks of a river, being threatened both outside and inside the workplace, running the gamut of supportive types and unhelpful seniors, going sleuthing in tall unfinished buildings, and other dangerous places.

Pooja (Mrunal Thakur) is in the dock. Her jilted boyfriend Aniket (Vikram Singh Chauhan) is dead, and the blame has been placed squarely upon her slender shoulders. Her lawyer Sana (Huma Qureshi) is not well-versed in criminal law, but she’s a friend, something the investigating officer Jatin (Vijay Raaz) is clearly not. He’s convinced that Pooja is responsible, and vows to make her pay. Pooja is the kind of modern, independent young woman whom the manosphere — desi or elsewhere — hates. She has a busy dating life, and doesn’t think that it’s her job to rescue the men she’s with. It’s even-stevens, and if the men have a problem, there’s the door. Which is pretty much how it should be, but of course it’s not, whether it’s in the movies or real life.

Does the much-awaited concluding part of Drishyam live up to its expectations? Yes, it absolutely does. A very quick recap, before we jump into the details. In 2013, came the original, headlined by Mohanlal as the not-very-educated cable-TV operator who gets embroiled in a dark cover-up involving his family. Loosely borrowing from the chief plot twists of the globally popular Japanese thriller The Devotion of Suspect X by Kiego Higashino, the Malayalam-language film gained an instant cult following and was remade in a bunch of languages, including Hindi, in which Ajay Devgn jumped into the part and ran with it, in 2015.

One of the reasons that Dupahiya worked was its cheerful focus on the importance of the two-wheeler—its ‘whereof’ and ‘whyfor’. A potential groom demands a dupahiya to marry an excited girl who has fallen, not for his brash charms, but for the promise of getting away from here to there, a fictional Dhadakpur to a real-life Mumbai. It became the dhuri (fulcrum) around which the series revolves, telling the story of a gaon, its people and its politics in a spry and enjoyable way. The second season suffers from a plot which doesn’t thicken till way past the halfway mark, even though it feels timely: the leaking of exam papers is a fraught issue, whose fire has caused unimaginable turmoil.

The rampage of dhongi babas, spellbound bhakts and shell-shocked victims continues apace. The fresh spate began in 2020 with Bobby Deol spreading his beatific smile and vile ways through the multi-season ‘Ashram’ . In 2023, we saw Manoj Bajpayee fighting a lone battle against a powerful self-styled godman, based on the real-life Asaram, in ‘Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai’. That was followed by Jaideep Ahlawat jumping into the role of the rapacious ‘Maharaj’ in a film of the same name in 2024. Now comes ‘Hunkkaar’, in which the excellent Raghubir Yadav plays Baapji, the all-seeing seer who preys upon young girls. While the casting seems, at first glance, to be inspired – I mean, the always likeable Yadav turning into a monster, can you imagine – not being able to overcome the utter familiarity of the subject never allows Hunkkaar to become its own beast.