Tag: Disney+Hotstar

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Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo: Dimple Kapadia & Co Lead This Formidable Tale Of Badass Women

Director Homi Adajania makes a successful OTT debut with a perfect mix of emotions and thrills.

Leaves you with a solid high!
Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo (Hindi web series)
  • Cast:Dimple Kapadia, Isha Talwar, Radhika Madan, Deepak Dobriyal, Naseeruddin Shah, and Jimit Trivedi
  • Director:Homi Adajania
  • Producer: Dinesh Vijan
  • Music:Sachin Jigar
  • No. of episodes: 8
  • OTT platform: Disney+ Hotstar

It is always refreshing when the stories are headlined by women — whether they are movies or web series. More so, when they are well made.

Homi Adajania’s debut OTT show Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo is one such tale. The director presents four inimitable women who are a treat to watch.

What makes the web series even more refreshing is the saas–bahu dynamics avoiding the clichéd tropes that you generally see in Indian television shows.

Synopsis

This web show is set in a remote village called Hastinapur, somewhere in Rajasthan.

Savitri (Dimple Kapadia) runs a company named “Rani Cooperative” which trades in various products. Some of these include jari–booti (herbs), balms and textiles. However, there is also a dark side to this company — drugs.

“Flamingo” is the name of the drug Rani Cooperative deals in.

Savitri operates out of a haveli (mansion) and is surrounded by a team of women, including two daughters-in-law Kajal (Angira Dhar) and Bijliee (Isha Talwar). There is also the rebellious daughter Shanta (Radhika Madan).

These four women together run the business with a firm hand and live life on their terms. They are always ahead of their enemies, including The Monk (Deepak Dobriyal).

Savitri also has two reckless US-returned sons — Harish (Ashish Verma) and Kapil (Varun Mitra). They both have zero knowledge about the nature of their mother’s business. But soon enough, they find out.

Things take a turn when Savitri announces that she would soon name a successor to her company. What follows is a thrilling tale that keeps you invested for the most part.

Engrossing drama

Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo grips the viewers from the start.

There is a spine-chilling scene at the very beginning. Not many details can be revealed here but it sets the stage for an engrossing drama.

There is a certain authenticity to the way the village has been presented and no artificiality in the rustic makeover of the characters.

A major highlight of Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo is how Homi Adajania uses the palatial haveli of Dimple Kapadia’s Savitri. It is a character in itself. This is a palace filled with many secrets.

Brilliant characterisation

The story written by Saurav Dey, Karan Vyas & Co has many moments of tension and unpredictability.

It isn’t just high on thrills but it also packs in some strong emotional moments. The case in point is the characterisation of Dimple Kapadia.

Savitri is extremely brutal and menacing. But at the same time, there is also an emotional gravitas that makes the viewers empathise with her.

Another characterisation worth mentioning here is that of Isha Talwar. Her character has an additional layer of homosexuality which, thankfully, has been dealt with sensitively.

Director Homi Adajania also pays homage to Shekar Kapoor’s Bandit Queen (1994) and Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala (1987) with some brilliantly executed action scenes where the women take on Deepak Dobriyal and his henchmen.

Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo also works because of its strong antagonist.

Deepak Dobriyal’s Monk hasn’t got many dialogues but the actor makes a solid impression with his eyes and expressions. He exudes menace without breaking a sweat.

This web series has some laugh-out-loud moments, thanks to Ashish Verma who plays one of Savitri’s sons. He raises many chuckles with his understated humour. His moments of bickering with Kapil are a delight to watch.

Dimple Kapadia stands out

Talking about the women characters, Dimple Kapadia is brilliant in exuding both raw power and the required vulnerability in equal measures. With this power-packed performance, the veteran actor shows that she is only getting better with age.

The other actresses who stand out are Isha Talwar and Angira Dhar. They deliver a class act and more than hold their own opposite Dimple Kapadia.

Radhika Madan’s Shanta isn’t different from what she played earlier but she too makes an impression.

The one slight flaw in the series is the underutilisation of Naseeruddin Shah. Much like his last release Kuttey (Dogs, 2023), here too, the senior actor packs a punch despite his limited screen time. But as viewers, we want to see more of him.

Talking about the music, Sachin Jigar’s score goes perfectly with the tonality of the show. Even his background score enhances the drama by several notches.

Cinematographer Linesh Desai does a spectacular job of capturing the parched and arid land through his lens.

Final take

Overall, this group of women in Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo leaves the viewers with a solid high making you look forward to Season 2

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Save The Tigers: A Solid Entertainer With Good Treatment And Performances

A binge-worthy watch!

Save The Tigers (Telugu)

  • Cast: Priyadarshi Pulikonda, Abhinav Gomatam, Krishna Chaitanya, and Harsha Vardhan
  • Director: Teja Kakumanu
  • Music: Ajay Arsada
  • No. of episodes: 6
  • OTT platform: Disney+ Hotstar

Films about marital discord and frustrated husbands have a universal (should I say, male) appeal because of the way marital relationships have changed over the years.

Several films have humorously portrayed this and they have been hugely successful, too.

Director Teja Kakumanu’s Save the Tigers also follows the same route.

The husbands here come from three vastly different backgrounds but share one commonality – issues with wives. More than the story, what makes this show work is how the director used the background of his respective protagonists.

Synopsis

Ghanta Ravi (Priyadarshi) is a dairy farm owner, Rahul (Abhinav Gomatam) is an aspiring writer, and Vikram (Krishna Chaitanya) is a creative ad writer.

They meet at a school where their respective children are studying. Soon, they become friends and start bonding big time.

As mentioned above, they are frustrated married men. One day. they get arrested in a drunk-and-drive case.

Meanwhile, a noted actress gets kidnapped. The rest of the story deals with several aspects. Do the trio have any connection with her disappearance? What made these three men drink so much, and finally why do they call themselves “tigers”?

Highly entertaining

The title Save The Tigers here refers to how married men should also be saved from extinction as much as tigers.

The web series hits the ground running from the first frame. There are a lot of scenes that tickle our funny bones.

The case in point is the servant character played by Jabardasth-fame Rohini. Her interactions with Abhinav are an absolute laugh riot. What makes this track even more refreshing is the absence of body-shaming jokes.

Director Teja Kakumanu is also successful in creating conflicts that have certain credibility, more so if you are a male.

For example, Vikram’s wife is an activist-cum-lawyer who has issues with his mother. Like many children, Vikram’s daughter is the emotional anchor between them.

Save The Tigers also touches upon issues like workplace harassment, but without being preachy.

This comes out through the track of Sunaina who is a harassed employee working in the same office as Vikram. Harsha Vardhan plays the toxic boss.

These scenes are both poignant and entertaining.

There is also a passing comment on how literary standards are falling in recent times.

By the very nature of its story, Save the Tigers isn’t very high on logic.

Sometimes illogicality does come as a deterrent. The case in point is how the husbands bump into each other and realise that all their children study in the same school. The same thing happens to the wives, too.

Also, the kidnapping subplot needed to be etched far better.

Characterisation and performances

Priyadarshi’s Ganta Ravi has the trait of over-talking but this trait is never milked for stereotypical comedy.

On many occasions, his character repeatedly uses the word “paalu” which is similar to the pressure cooker obsession from the film Jathi Ratnalu (Jewels of The Nation, 2021).

The wife characters have also been written with some care.

A particular mention must be made of “Jordar” Sujatha who plays Priyadarshi’s wife. Her aspiration of wanting to live in a gated community has been well-written.

Out of the three men, Priyadarshi and Abhinav Gomatam are the best.

Priyadarshi gets the body language of a dairy farm owner spot on. The actor makes a huge impression starting from his body language to the way he delivers his dialogues in a particular accent.

Abhinav Gomatam is equally good with his satirical humour. The scenes where he is struggling to get over his writer’s block are hilarious, to say the least.

Krishna Chaitanya does not have many comic punch lines but the actor is still mighty impressive in whatever he does.

He is particularly good in the scenes when Vikram expresses his frustration on being sandwiched between his boss, mother and life.

Final take

Overall, Save the Tigers is an absolute binge-worthy watch. It is just six episodes and the duration of each episode is short. Have a fun weekend!

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Freddy: Karthik Aryan Scores A+, But The Film Could Have Been So Much More

The extra half-star is purely for Karthik Aryan’s transformation!

Freddy (Hindi)

  • Cast: Kartik Aaryan, Alaya F, Jennifer Piccinato, Karan A Pandit, Sajjad Delfrooz, Harshika Kewalramani, and Tripti Agarwal
  • Director: Shashanka Ghosh
  • Producers: Shobha Kapoor, Ektaa Kapoor, Jay Shewakramani, Narendra Hirawat, and Shreyans Hirawat
  • Music: Clinton Cerejo and Pritam
  • OTT platform: Disney+ Hotstar
  • Runtime: 2 hours 13 minutes

Karthik Aryan is someone who is synonymous with lighter roles. Whether it is the Pyar kaa Punchnama series or the recent Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. In between there was also Ram Madhvani’s Dhammaka, but Karthik is someone who is still largely associated with comedy and romance.

With Freddy, the actor does something drastically different. The same applies to director Shashanka Ghosh as well.

There is no denying that Freddy starts off promisingly, but it soon becomes a mundane revenge drama.

Freddy tells the story of Dr Freddy Ginwala (Karthik Aryan). Freddy is someone who has difficulty in communicating with people other than his patients. He is haunted by a childhood trauma. Freddy is a respected dentist but he has no friends except for a tortoise. He desperately wants companionship but it is not happening anytime soon.

Things take a turn when Freddy spots Kainaaz (Alaya F) at a wedding. It is love at first sight for Freddy. Kainaaz is a victim of an abusive marriage. Freddy soon becomes her companion; he also hatches a plan with Kainaaz to bump off her husband.

However, Kainaaz is not what she appears to be and soon enough Freddy faces a big jolt.

The rest of the story is about how Freddy’s personality goes through a sea change and what happens at the end.

The second-half problem

As mentioned, Freddy begins well enough. The social awkwardness of Freddy is well established and as an audience you are invested in his journey. Freddy’s desperation to find a partner makes you root for him. Alaya F’s entry spices up the film. There isn’t much scope for romantic chemistry, but still both Karthik and Alaya are wonderful to watch together.

Things go fine until the big twist comes along. From here the film enters the territory of Shahid and Kareena Kapoor starrer Fida. Much like that film, here, too, Freddy is seething with rage.

Shashanka Ghosh tries to give more dimensions to Freddy, throwing in the angles of mental health and childhood trauma. However, these efforts come across as rather half-baked.

The revenge of Freddy has also been portrayed in a haphazard manner. The thrills are mostly missing.

Kudos to Karthik Aryan

In the title role, Karthik Aryan gives it his all. There is a visible transformation that you see in his body language. He has drastically alternated his trademark mannerisms and merged himself into the character.

Alaya F embraces the dark shades of her character wholeheartedly. Her character-switch is rather abrupt but Alaya is consistently watchable.

The rest of the cast are there just for the sake of filling the screen.

Freddy is a decent attempt at making a psychological crime thriller. However, a lot more effort was the need of the hour, the extra half-star is purely for Karthik Aryan’s transformation.

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O2: A Strong Cautionary Tale For Humankind

Nayanthara is one of those few actresses who has struck a perfect balance between doing glamorous roles and also strong female parts. She has always experimented with different kinds of genres. The results haven’t always been on point but that hasn’t stopped the actress from taking risks. O2 directed by GS Viknesh is one such film. The director juxtaposes the concept of two maternal figures, one being Mother Nature and other is Nayanthara playing a widowed mother Parvathy.

The film begins off with a bird’s sorrow as her chicks are being killed due to deforestation by human beings. From there we go to the home of a seven year old boy called Veera. Veera suffers from a life threatening disease called cystic fibrosis. He is heavily dependent on the oxygen cylinder for breathing. From the very beginning Veera is used to represent the repercussions of tearing down the natural resources. A hope comes for Veera in the form of a corrective surgery. Parvarthy makes a quick decision to go ahead with it. The mother and son are joined by more characters as they travel by bus to Kochi for the surgery. These characters include a corrupt cop, an ex-MLA, inter-caste lovers etc. In a horrible twist of fate they get trapped within the bus, the nature unleashes its anger in the form of a horrific landslide. The rest of the film plays out as a claustrophobic thriller. Nothing more about the plot can be revealed.

It is not easy to make a thriller/drama set mostly in a single location. It needs enormous talent from both the director and also the actors to hold the audience’s attention. But director GS Viknesh does a good job in keeping the audiences engrossed. He makes you feel the wrath of nature.

GS Viknesh is also immensely aided by the acting talent of Nayanathara. The actress is in splendid form. She shoulders the weight of the film effortlessly. There are many shades to her character. She is someone who can be unapologetically selfish, self-serving and also violent too. Nayanathara sinks her teeth into the role and makes the audiences root for her. Just like mother earth Paravathy will also go to any lengths to save her son from danger. The parallel between these two maternal figures has been brought out brilliantly by the director.

Rithivik as Veera holds his own. He is particularly impressive in the high-octane emotional moments. Among the rest Bharath Neelakandan is terrific as a vicious cop.

The cinematography by Tamizh Azhagan is perfectly in sync with the narrative.  He does a commendable job in capturing the claustrophobia. The audiences feel that they themselves are in that situation.

The scenes where we see the fight for oxygen also strikes a chord. The reason being many lives were lost in the second wave of Covid due to the limited supply of oxygen.

The only bits that rankle in the film are those involving the inter-caste couple. They don’t add much to the film.

In a nutshell O2 is a largely gripping thriller that leaves you thinking.

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Kaun Pravin Tambe: A Heartwarming Saga That Touches Your Heart

It is difficult to make an engaging sports film given that the audiences know what will happen at the end. Over the years there has been a flurry of sports biopics like  Priyanka Chopra’s Mary Kom. Farhan Akhtar’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, and late Sushant Singh Rajput’s MS Dhoni among many others.

As a result the genre has lost some of its sheen. But Jayprasad Desai’s Kaun Pravin Tambe works not only as a sports film, but it also gives an important message on patience, perseverance and resilience. It gives an important lesson to all underachievers on continuing to do what they do best until the tables turn in their favor.

For those who are not aware, Pravin Tambe is a cricketer who made his debut at the age of 41. He had played in the Indian premier league without any first class or international experience.

The director perfectly captures the grit of Pravin Thambe and makes sure that the audiences root for him. Apart from Shreyas Talpade the other important cast members include Ashish Vidyarthi, Anjali Patil and Parambrata Chatterjee.

An interesting aspect of the film is how Jayprasad Desai captures the life of those cricketers who haven’t made it to the big league. However, they still continue to play cricket thanks to the private companies who hire them for their cricketing teams.

The jobs are mundane but they provide a steady income to these cricketers. As a result they are able to use their skills on the field.

The chief reason why Pravin Tambe is able to pursue his dream is because of his talent and the kindness of the people that he encounters.

The home life of Pravin, and his wife, also gives the film some of its best moments. The director authentically captures the middle class lifestyle. There is certain realisticness to the proceedings.

Anjali Patil’s character never comes across as a nagging wife. She has her arguments with the husband but at the same time she understands his passion for cricket, this has come out really well.

The scenes between Ashish Vidyarthi and Shreyas are also a delight to watch. Initially the audiences along with Pravin don’t understand why Ashish Vidyarthi’s character insists that Pravin should change from being a medium pace bowler to a spinner. But as we go along we understand why he is insisting so much.

The reason is Pravin’s wrists and grip is very strong. It is a pleasure to see Ashish Vidyarthi in a positive role. The actor delivers a solid performance.

Parambrata Chatterjee’s Rajat starts off as some kind of villain. He doesn’t think much of Pravin’s talent. There is a dismissive attitude that he has towards Pravin. He never seems to appreciate anything that Tambe does,

But thankfully the character doesn’t slip into a caricature thanks to the assured direction and also the actor’s performance.

Coming to the onscreen Pravin Tambe, it is great to see Shreyas Talpade doing something substantial after a long time. The actor delivers a performance which is on par with his debut role in Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal. It looks like Shreya’s acting career has come full circle with Kaun Pravin Tambe.

He throws himself into the part with full conviction. He makes the audiences resonate with Tambe’s passion for cricket.

In a nutshell, Kaun Pravin Tambe is much more than just your regular sports drama. It will inspire you to pursue your dreams until you achieve your goals.