telltale: my take on what I watch on screen

Whodunnit murder mysteries – is a genre which has been a favorite of story tellers and audiences since ages. Our minds immediately associate this with Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason or Hercule Poirot. Despite watching and reading a lot on this subject, it continues to evoke interest. A plot where a murder happens and a detective investigates to find the killer – that’s how simple the basic premise of stories in this segment are usually. What makes it work is that it does not turn out to be as simple as it seems and far more interesting than it sounds.   Streaming now on Netflix, is one such story, where an inspector investigates a patriarch’s death after a family gathering gone wrong. No, I am not talking about Knives Out, another brilliant movie starring Daniel Craig with a similar plot. I am describing the plot of Raat Akeli Hai , starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui who plays an inspector investing the murder of an influential person in a small town in UP. The victim is murdered in hi...

How far can a person go to save one's family - a theme which has been explored multiple times by various movies and series in the past. The most recent account of this was in Aarya where a mother does everything in her power to protect her family. Breathe: Into the shadows continues this theme from Breathe , the first series of this franchise, which was released in 2018. Apart from this, there is nothing common between both series as far as the story is concerned. With so much content on this theme already out there, does Breathe: Into the shadows bring anything new to the table? I'm afraid, the answer for me is no. Directed by Mayank Sharma (same as the first part), Breathe: Into the shadows, is streaming on Amazon Prime. It stars Abhishek Bachchan (Dr. Avinash Sabarwal) as a psychiatrist whose 6-year old daughter - Siya - gets kidnapped. As ransom, the kidnapper asks him to kill people in exchange for his daughter. What follows is a thriller where...

Finally, Season 3 of Dark is here... streaming on Netflix.... the wait is over. However, anyone who has watched the first two seasons know that keeping up with various characters and their timelines is not an easy job. A year has passed since the last season dropped and one hardly remembers the minute details of it. To prep myself for the latest season, I decided to draw up a chart of my own to recap all the events that have taken place in Winden until now. The result of that is the image you see below (#spoiler alert - given that its a recap of season 1 and 2). Its a labyrinth and rookie mistake on my part to assume that a small sheet of paper would be enough. Have a go at it.. though I doubt you'd be able to make much out of it, given both the complicated plot and the terrible handwriting. Enjoy streaming the final season of this intelligent series. Cheers.

Pehle dhanda mard chalate the, ab bache nahi, spites back Aarya to one of her colleagues who asks her if she was so capable of handling her family business, why did she not do it before. Earlier, midway through the series, when she asks the same colleague to resume working with her in their family business, he responds mockingly by asking who will run it as the men who used to manage it earlier aren’t available. The mocking turns into disbelief when Aarya indicates that she will run it. He says yes suggesting that it makes no difference whether it’s the men or Aarya, a woman, who handles it. His expression, however, indicates the exact opposite. He clearly doubts a woman’s ability to run a rough business of illegal drugs. Sushmita Sen, as Aarya, is back with a bang on screen. She can remain suspended inverted on gymnastic ropes, raise 3 kids and is certainly the force behind her husband. Running her family business may not come naturally to her. But just like any ...

The series opens with Jaideep Ahlawat's character describing the three worlds he believes exist in our universe   - Swarg Lok (Heaven) at the top where Gods and Goddesses reside, Dharti Lok (Earth) in the middle where human beings like him stay and then there is Paatal Lok (Hell) at the bottom where insects live. He then goes on to suggest that the area where he is posted (Outer Jamuna Paar in New Delhi) is akin to Paatal Lok. By the end of the series, one doubts whether this entire society that we live in may very well be hell. This world in which 'Paatal Lok' is set mirrors our society which is filled with social evils. Casteism, discrimination against minorities, racism and transgender inequality are all prevalent and represented. And this is not it - corrupt politicians, attack on the freedom of media and fake news rear their ugly heads as well. It’s an assortment of all those real-world problems which we know exist but turn a blind eye towards as it s...

At some point in our lives, most of us would have suffered from performance anxiety. It could have been while performing in a school play when you were a child, just before an important meeting / presentation or even in bed while having sex. The field of sports is filled with examples of strong teams and players choking when it matters most. While reading this, I am sure all cricket fans are thinking of South Africa. It isn't unique to any one of us. What matters is how you move on and that defines you as an individual. Anurag Kashyap's latest - 'Choked: Paisa bolta hain' - on Netflix is about an incident of performance anxiety that affects the direction of one's life. Sarita, played by Saiyami Kher, is a working woman who handles household chores along with earning for a living. Her husband Sushant, underplayed well by Roshan Mathew, is unemployed and refuses to be of much help at home. Sarita is haunted by an incident in her past where she choked an...

Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Ratna Pathak Shah, Deepak Dobriyal, Vijay Raaz, Saurabh Shukla… the list goes on. They are not heroes in movies; this is list of ‘Kalakaars’ (Artists). These are so called supporting actors without whose support the movies they act in will never be the same. However, hardly any of them ever get the recognition they deserve. ‘Har kissi ke hisse: Kamyaab’, now streaming on Netflix in India, is a call for attention to such supporting character actors. The movie, directed by Hardik Mehta, stars Sanjay Mishra – another one of those actors who belong to the above list. He plays the role of Sudheer, a successful supporting actor who is now past his heydays. As an actor, he has played every supporting role one can imagine mouthing (the now cliched but then popular) dialogues from the 80's and 90's. Realizing that he has done 499 movies in his career which ended abruptly, he wants to act in one last movie to complete 500 movies and ...

Remember the scenes on the streets when India announced a nationwide lockdown in response to pandemic crisis. People rushed out to stock essentials fearing they may not be available later. And people bought more than they required resulting in stocks running out. This led to few people having more than they required and most having less or nothing. The optimal behaviour in such a situation would have been to stay calm and buy only what one needs. However, this works only if everyone in unison exhibits this same behaviour. Fear that some would opt to hoard leaving others stranded, leads to most people opting for a not so ideal solution to avoid regret. Changing the strategy from not hoarding and buying only what one need when they need, in absence of others following suit, will result in no additional gains. As defined in Game Theory, this is the Nash Equilibrium – a solution of a non-cooperative game where no player has anything to gain by changing only his/her own strategy....

Do people responsible for protection need protecting? Vigilantes or criminals wear a mask to hide their identity. They use masks for protection from the law as they do not have the legal authority to carry out their activities. So, does it make sense for people with legal authority to wear a mask? Why do they need protection? This paradox forms the crux of Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen universe streaming on Hotstar in India. This TV series is a sequel to the original 1987 DC Comic book series. Set in the same alternate universe, this is a world where the US has won the Vietnam War and is now their 51st state, Robert Redford (the American actor director) is the President and the Watergate scandal is never exposed. There are no mobile phones with people still using pagers. But there are inter dimensional portals and spaceships and satellites that travel across the galaxy. A white supremist group called the Seventh Kavalry, targets the police department in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This ...