This week on the OTT platforms in India, there is plenty of promise as a slew of new films and a series are up for your viewing pleasure. With India’s superstar Sharukh Khan’s production house Red Chillies Entertainment in the fray, the stakes are indeed high. Again, we have come up with a multi-language list — two Hindi films, a Hindi series, and a film each in Telugu and Tamil as our weekend pick.
Across the various States in the country, film production has not kicked off in full earnest, and hence newer offerings are slow to come on the OTT platforms. But as lockdown curbs slowly start to ease, we can expect fresher content from the OTT platforms that have cemented the presence in the Covid-19 times.
Anyway, here’s our list for the week:
Class of ’83
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Director: Atul Sabharwal
Cast: Bobby Deol, Anup Soni, Joy Sengupta
Synopsis: There is plenty of hope and expectation riding on this film as it is produced by Sharuk Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. Based on the book “The Class of ’83”, the film is about a cop who gets posted to the police academy, and he in a fit of pique trains five assassin policemen. As it happens, his ploy backfires, and Bobby Deol, who plays the Dean Vijay Singh at the police academy, has to douse the fire he had ignited. As we said, some high-octane action is guaranteed.
Language: Hindi
Platform: Netflix
Release date: August 21, 2020.
Buchinaidu Kandriga Thurpu Veedhi
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Director: Krishna Poluru
Cast: Munna, Drishika Chander, Ravi Varma, Subbarao, Prabhavathi
Synopsis: Starring debutants Munna and Drushika Chander in the lead, Buchinaidu Kandriga Thurpu Veedhi is another straight-to-the-OTT platform movie. The story is a typical young lovers in conflict with caste-ridden family opposition. In that sense this is a standard Telugu masala movie. Yet, as this is a new team, some freshness and novel can be expected. Love story, in any case, is ideal to bring down the weekend.
Language: Telugu
Platform: Aha
Release date: Aug 21, 2020.
Mee Raqsam
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Director: Baba Azmi
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Shradha Kaul, Danish Husain
Synopsis: Any series or movie featuring Naseeruddin Shah recommends itself as it will not be found wanting in terms of acting performances. The veteran has set high standards for himself. The film is directed by Baba Azmi, Shabna Azmi’s brother, and again this should offer a lot of hope on the quality and sensitivity of the story. The story is about a young girl from a small town wanting to become a dancer. But her conservative relatives and friends don’t encourage her, only her dad is an exception. The story is about her audacious journey in the face of sustained opposition.
Language: Hindi
Platform: Zee5
Release Date: August 21, 2020.
Flesh
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Director: Danish Aslam
Cast: Swara Bhasker, Akshay Oberoi, Yudhister, Vidya Malvade, Mahima Makwana
Synopsis: This eight-episode series is, as the name suggests, about the disturbing sex-trafficking. The daughter of a rich NRI couple gets abducted by the goons of the sex trade. Swara Bhasker, who plays an ACP, gets down to crack the case, unravels a complex web of shady happenings involving human brutality and debauched tendencies. The series doesn’t pull its punches. It is gritty and disturbing. Apparently the story is based on some real-life incidents.
Language: Hindi
Platform: Eros
Release date: August 21, 2020.
Market Raja MBBS
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Director: Saran
Cast: Arav, Kavya Thapar, Nikesha Patel
Synopsis: This film is an inverse of standard horror movie. A ghost usually enters a meek person’s body and makes him valrous. Here it is upside down. A dangerous don becomes a subservient student here thanks to a ghost. The plot, to be sure, is interesting. In fact, it is a premise that looks very enticing. It remains to be seen how the director has handled the scripted and what kind of performance he has managed to wangle out of his cast, bulk of which is totally new. The director though is the odl war horse Saran, who had given many a popular hit before.
Language: Tamil
Platform: Zee5
Release date: August 21, 2020.
All in all, this week’s offerings on the various Indian OTT platforms, as ever, is a heady mix of fun, love, action and drama. Happy weekend viewing.