An Ordinary Review: Recent Episodes
Piyush Jain
An Ordinary Review is where your host PJ share his reviews of the movies, web series, podcasts, books and other things. In the podcast you get an ordinary viewer’s perspective to things you can see, listen and read. You also get to share your recommendations with him.
Maharaja is a Tamil thriller starring Vijay Sethupathi and Anurag Kashyap. The movie is Vijay Sethpathi’s 50th. It is directed by Nithlin Saminathan. It is an intriguing story if a simple common man who gets entangled into uncalled for circumstances and how it affects him, hia family and that of Anurag Kashyap’s family. Catch the movie on Netflix #maharaja #moviereview #vijaysethupathi #netflix
Furiosa - A Mad Max Saga is the 5th movie in the Mad Max series created by the enigmatic and acclaimed Australian filmmaker George Miller. He started it with Mad Max in 1979 that made Mel Gibson a global star. He followed it up with Mad Max 2 - Road Warrior in 1981 and Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdrome in 1985. 30 years later he revived the series with one of the best action movies of recent times in Mad Max Fury Road, where he introduced a new character of Furiosa played by Charlize Theron. The latest instalment is a prequel to Mad Max Fury Road, which dwells into the story of Furiosa and how she became the warrior. The movie stars Anya Taylor Joy (of the Queen’s Gambit fame) in the titular role and is supported by Chris Helmsworth as the evil lord Dementes and Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack. You can catch the movie in theater till it comes to OTT. #madmax #georgemiller #furiosa #furiosaamadmaxsaga
Manjummel Boys is a Malayalam thriller directed by Chidambaram and produced and starred by Soubin Shahir. The movie is based on a true incident that happened in 2006 where a group of 10 boys from Manjummel, near Kochi travelled to Kodaikanal and there something happens which turns their fun trip into nightmare. The movie is available on Disney Hotstar OTT. #manjummelboysmovie #manjummelboysmoviereview #disneyhotstar
Article 370 is a thriller set in the backdrop of the events around the abrogation of this article for the state of Jammu and Kashmir by government of India in the year 2019. The movie is produced and scripted by Aditya Dhar who gave us the wonderful Uri, the surgical strike. The movie stars Yami Gautam and Priyamani in pivotal roles with support cast including Arun Govil, Divya Seth, Raj Zuitshi and Mohan Agashe. The movie is available on Netflix. #article370 #netflix
Anatomy Of A Fall is an intense legal drama wherein Sandra Huller has to face trial for her husband Samuel’s death. The trial puts their partially blind son played by Milo Machado Graner under intense pressure as his testimony will decide the innocence of his mother. The film was nominated for 4 Oscars including best actress for Sandra Huller. It finally one an Oscar for best original screenplay. You can see the movie on Amazon Prime Video#anatomyofafall #amazonprime #primevideo @amazonprine
Crew is a multi starrer comedy cum heist movie starring Tabu, Kareena Kapoor and Kriti Sanon. It also stars Kapil Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh, Rajesh Sharma and Saswata Chatterjee in supporting roles. The movie revolves around 3 flight crew members and their desperate measures in desperate times. The movie is produced by Balaji Films and Anil Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor and is directed by Rajesh A Krishnan who earlier made the comedy LOOTCASE#crew #crewmoviereview #netflix
Murder Mubarak is a murder mystery in the classical who done it mould. The movie is based on a book ‘Club you to death’ by author Anuja Chauhan. The movie is directed by acclaimed film maker Homi Adajania and star an ensemble cast led by Pankaj Tripathi, Sara Ali Khan, Vijay Varma, Tisca Chopra, Sanjay Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Karisma Kapoor. The movie is streaming on Netflix #murdermystery #netflix
Sam Bahadur is a biopic on one of India’s greatest soldier and the only Field Marshall, Sam Manekshaw. The movie is well researched and beautifully presented by director Meghana Gulzar. It stars Vicky Kaushal in the titular role and is supported by Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sana Sheikh. The movie presents important and inspirational leadership lessons and this episode focuses on that. The movie is available on streaming with ZEE5 #sambahadur #zee5 #meghnagulzar #sammanekshaw #leadershiplessons
Fighter is an action blockbuster from director Siddharth Anand (War, Pathaan) under his own production banner Marflix. The film is an ode to Indian Airforce Pilots and their dare delivery in saving our nation’s borders. The movie stars Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor and supported by Karan Singh Grover, Akshay Oberoi and Rishabh Sawhney.#fighter #marflix#siddharthanand
This is a special episode where I have two equally passionate movie buffs Rajagopalan and Rajkin join me in reviewing the Malayalam blockbuster movie Kaathal - The Core starring Mammooty and Jyothika. The movie is directed by Jeo Baby whose body of work includes the award winning The Great Indian Kitchen. Kaathal - The Core deals with the sensitive topic around homosexuality and how it affects the individual, his family and society. I am also enclosing two wonderful blogs in the episode notes. One written by Rajkin in his impressions after seeing the moviehttp://lucidityinmotion.blogspot.com/?m=1And the other he shared written by Sreelatha who faced a similar situation in real life https://www.thenewsminute.com/flix/we-were-like-mathew-omana-a-gay-mans-ex-wife-pens-letter-to-jeo-baby-mammootty#Kaathalthecore#mammooty#jeobaby
The Railway Men, The untold story of Bhopal, 1984 is a limited series from the stables of Yash Raj Films. It is inspired by true events of the Bhopal Gas Leak Tragedy that happened on 2nd and 3rd December in 1984. The series focuses on the role of railway people in saving lives of passengers on the station and of the incoming train into Bhopal Junction. The series stars R Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon, Divyendu and Babil Khan in main roles with support from Juhi Chawla, Raghuveer Yadav, Sunny Hinduja and Mandira Bedi. The series is created by Shiv Rawail. Do check out a round table conversation with the cast of the series on YouTube hosted by Netflix. https://youtu.be/7n3D_DzTCno?si=pFAylaTwp-ppvAoDThe Bhopal Gas Tragedy is also covered in detail in the book 5 past midnight in Bhopal by the French author Dominique Lapierre. The episode also contains a recommendation of an alternative history web series ‘For All Mankind’ available on Apple TV+#therailwaymen #yrf #bhopalgastragedy#1984 #netflixindia #netflix #seriesreview #review
Tiger 3 is the 5th movie under YRF spy verse and 3rd in the Tiger series. It stars Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi and Revathy in pivotal roles. The movie is a spy thriller involving RAW and ISI agents on a mission to save Pakistan from a rogue ISI agent trying to do a coup on the existing democratic government #yrf #yrfspyuniverse #tiger3
The Deepest Breath is a fabulous documentary on Netflix on the extreme sport of free diving. 🤿 The documentary traces the journey of Italian free diver Alessia Zecchini’s quest to break the free diving record and 100 meters barrier. It also traces the journey of Irish Steven Keenan who becomes a safety diver and sets up free diving camp in Dahab Egypt. He supports Alessia’s quest for the world record and becomes her training partner and soul mate. It ends tragically when Steven sacrifices his life to safe Alessia’s as she undertakes the mist difficult free dive of crossing the arch in Dhahab The documentary is directed by Laura McGann. #alessiazecchini#freediving #thedeepestbreath#netflix
Jaane Jaan is an Indian adaptation of the famous Japanese thriller novel ‘The devotion of suspect X’ by Keigo Higashino. The novel has been adapted into movies in multiple languages. The Indian adaptation is by the acclaimed filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh (Kahaani, Kahaani 2, Badla) and stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat and Vijay Verma in central roles. The movie is a murder mystery thriller focused on not who did it, but how the murder was covered up by suspect X. It is available on Netflix#netflix #jaanejaan #thedevotionofsuspectx#keigohigashino#sujoyghosh
Jawan is a mass entertainer by the superhit Tamil director Attlee. The movie stars Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupati, Sunil Grover, Sanya Malhotra, Priyamani with Deepika Padukone in am extended cameo and Sanjay Dutt in special appearance. The movie focuses on key social messages around farmer suicides, corrupt practices in government hospitals, faulty weapons for Indian soldiers and so on. The movie packs action with drama in driving social justice and vigilantism. The music for the movie is scored by Anirudh Ravichandran with catchy songs particularly Zinda Banda. The movie is breaking all Indian box office records. You can catch it in a theatre near you. #jawan #jawanmovie
Kerala Crime Files is a Malayalam web series on police investigation of a crime of murder. The series is created and directed by Ahammed Khabeer and stars Aju Varghese and Lal in lead roles. The series is available on Disney Hotstar in India.
Hijack is a thriller series available on Apple TV+. The series stars Idris Elba and a predominately British cast including Archie Punjabi, Max Beesley and Neil Maskell. The limited series is about a flight from Dubai to London getting hijacked and how Idris Elba puts his corporate negotiation skills to its ultimate use to manage the delicate situation. #hijack#appletvplus #idriselba
Kohrra is a Punjabi crime drama web series available on Netflix. It is created by Sudip Sharma and team who are behind hit movies and web series like NH10, Udta Punjab and Paataal Lok. Kohrra means Fog or mist in English. The series stars Suvinder Vicky, Barun Sobti, Varun Badola, Manish Chaudhary and Rachel Shelly in main roles.
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Dahaad is a crime thriller series available on Amazon Prime Video. It is created by Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar, two very accomplished film makers whose movie Talash is one of the classics. The series stars Sonakshi Sinha, Vijay Varma, Gulshan Deviah and Sohum Shah in main roles. The series is about disappearance of young unmarried girls from poor background who wind up dead under mysterious circumstances enacted like suicides. It is about a cat and mouse game between the serial killer and cops. The series is loosely based in real life serial caller called Cyanide Mohan from mangalore. You can read more about him using the following link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohan_Kumar_(serial_killer)
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Indiana Jones and the dial of destiny is the 5th and final instalment of the Indiana Jones movie franchise that started way back in 1981 with Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison Ford reprises his role as the famous action adventure, whip cracking archeologist who teams up with Phoebe Waller Bridge to save the dial of Archimedes from falling in the hands of Mads Mikkelsen who plays the villainous German Nazi scientist Dr. Voller. The movie also stars Boyd Hallbrook, Etthan Isidore and Antonio Banderas in a short cameo. Karen Allen and Jonathan Rhys Davies also reprise their roles in short cameos. The movie is directed by James Mangold with Steven Spielberg being the executive producer.
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Ghosted is a fun filled action thriller available on Apple TV+. The movie stars Chris Evans, Ana De Armas and Adrien Brody in primary roles. It also has cameos by Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan and Ryan Reynolds.
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Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai is a legal drama based on the famous Asaram Bapu case where an ordinary lawyer successfully convicts him under POCSO act for sexually assaulting a minor. The case gained popularity because of the Godman status and his high profile legal team that failed to defend him. The movie stars Manoj Bajpayee as the ordinary lawyer. The movie is available on Zee5
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Gaslight is a mystery thriller available on Disney Hotstar. The movie stars Sara Ali Khan, Chitrangada Singh, Vikrant Massey and Rahul Dev in main role. #disneyhotstar #gaslight
Gulmohar is a family drama available on Disney Hotstar. The movie has an ensemble star cast led by the indomitable Sharmila Tagore, Manoj Bajpai, Simran, Amol Palekar, Suraj Sharma and with cameos by Talat Aziz and Vinod Nagpal. It is a story about the Batra family who are selling their ancestral home Gulmohar Villa and now it affects every person in the family. #gulmohar #disneyhotstar #spotify
Take Seven was a Jazz music event at Bangalore International Center (BIC) to commemorate International Jazz Day. The music festival had an ensemble collection of Jazz artists and bands You can get the details of the event at the BIC link https://bangaloreinternationalcentre.org/event/take-seven/
Murder Mystery 2 is a Netflix comedy thriller, which is a sequel to the 2019 hit movie Murder Mystery. Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston reprise their roles in the sequel, this time as full time private detectives. In this part they are supported by Mark Strong, Adeel Akhtar, Enrico Arce (Aka Arturo from Money Heist), Melanie Laurent, Kuhoo Verma and John Kani who was also there in the first part. #murdermystery2 #netflix #adamsandler #jenniferanniston
Beast is a wildlife thriller starring Idris Elba. It is a story of a father and his two daughters surviving the attacks from a rogue lion who is taking his revenge on humans after his pride was attacked by poachers. The movie is available on Amazon Prime #beast #idriselba #amazonprime
Luckiest Girl Alive is the movie based on a novel of the same name by Jessica Knoll. The movie is a story about an aspiring writer played by Mila Kunis who has done dark secrets within her that come tumbling out when a documentary film maker approaches her for a school incident that happened in her past. The movie also stars Finn Wittrock and Connie Britton in support roles. The movie is available on Netflix. #netflix #luckiestgirlalive #milakunis #jessicaknoll
The Swimmers is based on an inspiring true story of two Syrian sisters, the Mardini sisters who escaped war torn Syria to Germany to have a better life. The younger Yusra pursued and lived her dream of competing in Olympics in swiming. She represented Refugee contingent in Rio Olympics in 2016. The elder sister Sarah joined NGO to help fellow refugees. She has since been arrested under the charges of human trafficking and is awaiting trial. The movie stars two wonderful actors and real life sisters Manal Issa and Nathalie Issa as the Mardini sisters. The movie is available on Netflix #theswimmers#mardini #netflix #truestory
Rorschach is a neo noir psychological thriller starring Mammooty. The movie has an interesting storyline and narrative style. In this episode I discuss the movie with Rajagopalan who is an actor, movie enthusiast, creative contributor to film making and a dear friend. The movie is available on Disney Hotstar. #rorschach #rorschachmovie #disneyhotstar
Govinda Naam Mera is a comedy thriller starring Vicky Kaushal, Kiara Advani, Bhumi Pednekar, Renuka Sahane, Dayanand Shetty and Sayaji Shinde. The movie is directed by Shashank Khaitan. It is available on Disney Hotstar #govindanaammera #disneyhotstar #comedy #thriller
Based on the book by Charles Graeber, this is a shocking story of the nurse Charles Cullen who killed 29 patients across hospitals in the US. The undocumented number is as high as 400. The movie stars Eddie Redmayne as Charles Cullen and Jessica Chastain as nurse Amy Loughren who helped the investigators in catching Charles. The movie is available on Netflix You can also catch the documentary Catching the Killer Nurse to get to know about the real life Charles Cullen on Netflix
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Acclaimed filmmaker Ron Howard recreates the miraculous mission to rescue 12 young football players and their coach who were trapped in the Tham Leung caves in Thailand 🇹🇭 in June 2018. The incident had captivated the entire world and millions were praying for the safe rescue of all thirteen people. British cave rescue council members Rick Stanton and John Volanthen along with other rescuers from Thai Navy divers and Dr Harris carried out this daring mission to rescue everyone alive. The movie captures the drama and thrill of the mission. The movie is available on Amazon Prime Video and stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton in main roles
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Five Days At Memorial is a drama series based on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that struck US coast in 2005 and devastated the city of New Orleans. The drama series chronicles the terrible impact of the hurricane on a hospital and how it affects the doctors, nursing staff and critical care patients as they gasp for survival and rescue effort. It goes into morally conflicting decisions that were made at the time under desperate circumstances which later became part of a federal investigation. The series stars Vera Farmiga in a pivotal role
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Darlings is a dark and quirky comedy that deals with a serious issue of domestic violence. It is a first time production from Alia Bhatt and she has partnered with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. The movie stars Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma and Roshan Matthew in main roles. The movie is available on Netflix
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The Terminal List is an action thriller based on a novel by Jack Carr. It stars Chris Pratt and he is supported by Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, Jai Courtney and Jeanne Tripplehorn. The series is an Amazon Prime Original.
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The Tourist is an Australian Western Thriller. It is a story of a man (Jamie Dornan) who has lost his memory and with that has lost the information of something valuable that people want to know from him, but he has no idea who they are and what they want to know from him and why they want to kill him for that. The series stars Jamie Dornan (fifty shades of grey) Danielle Macdonald (unbelievable) Olafur Darri Olafsson (trapped)
The series is an HBO MAX original and is available on LIONSGATE PLAY in India
You can also access LIONSGATE PLAY content through Amazon Prime or Apple TV+
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Tehran is an Israeli spy series that has Mossad pitted against Iranian sepah intelligence agents in a cat and mouse game of carrying out fatal missions in Iran. Season 2 is in continuation where season 1 left off. Niv Sultan, Shaun Taub and Shervin Alenabi reprise their roles from S1 and are joined by Glenn Close. The series is available on Apple TV+
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Gaslit is a political drama that explores the making of the watergate scandal and how it affects the people who are involved in it after it gets exposed. The series provides an in-depth look into how the scandal was planned, what went wrong and the repercussion thereafter leading to the resignation by President Richard Nixon in 1974. The series stars Julia Roberts (she also is an executive producer), Sean Penn, Dan Stevens, Shea Whigham in main roles. The series is available on LIONSGATE play app or can also be accessed through Amazon Prime or Apple TV+ through a separate subscription for LIONSGATE content You can also checkout the Oscar winner movie All The President’s Men, which is about the Washington Post investigation on the Watergate scandal.
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The Invisible Man is based on the science fiction story written by H G Wells way back in 1897. The story has been adapted multiple times in movies right from black and white era. The last adaptation that was loosely based on the story was in 2000 movie Hollow Man starring Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Shue. The Invisible Man that came out in 2020 stars Elizabeth Moss (Handmaid’s Tale, Mad Men) The movie is available on Netflix
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Top Gun Maverick is the sequel to the iconic 1986 movie Top Gun directed by Tony Scott. That movie was a milestone in the start of Tom Cruise as an action hero. This sequel is directed by Joseph Kosinski, the acclaimed director of Tron Legacy Top Gun Maverick stars Tom Cruise and he is supported by Jennifer Connelly, John Ham, Miles Teller, Monica Barbaro, Glenn Powell with special appearances by Ed Harris and Val Kilmer. The movie is a direct sequel to the original movie.
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The 355 is an action film from the production that brought you Jason Bourne. It is helmed by an all women action team led by Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o and Fan Bingbing. They are supported by Sebastian Stan and Edgar Ramirez in a special role. The movie is about secret agents of multiple countries chasing a secret weapon to prevent it from falling into wrong hands.
The movie is available on LIONSGATE play app or can be accessed through Apple TV+ / Amazon Prime
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Deep water is a psychological thriller from director Adrian Lyne, who is known for his work on 9 1/2 weeks and academy award nomination for Fatal Attraction. It is a Hulu movie that is streaming on Amazon Prime in India. The movie stars Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas with support from Tracy Letts, Grace Jenkins and Finn Wittrock. The movie is recommended for mature audiences only. It has adult scenes and so viewer discretion is advised
Anatomy of a Scandal is a mini series, which is a legal drama from the makers of Big Little Lies and The Undoing. The series is based on the best selling novel by Sarah Vaughan. It stars Sienna Miller, Rupert Friend and Michelle Dockery in key roles.
The series is available on
netflix
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Pieces of her is a thriller web series on Netflix It is based on a NY times best seller novel by the same name. The series explores mother daughter relationship in the backdrop of daughter’s quest to find out who her mother really is. It stars Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote in main roles.
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Mai (means mother) is an engaging thriller web series on The series is a quest of a mother to find out who killed her daughter and why. The series is led by Sakshi Tanwar and she is supported by Vivek Mushran, Raima Sen, Prashant Narayanan, Seema Bhargava and a host of other actors. This series is from the same production house that got you the popular series Paatal Lok.
Gumnaami is a Bengali-Hindi movie that dramatises the Mukerjee commision proceedings that were setup to explore the theory of Gumnaami baba being Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Netaji’s death has been shrouded in mystery with multiple theories floating around. The movie gives an overview of all the popular theories and then focuses on one that claimed that they mystic saint called Gumnaami baba was none other than Netaji.
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Humans Of Covid, To Hell and Back authored by Barkha Dutt chronicles the human stories from the pandemic in India. It touches on key phases of the pandemic and its impact on people. The stories are based on her extensive coverage of the pandemic where she travelled 30,000+ kms across the length and breadth of the country meeting countless people and capturing their pain, sorrow and hope in dealing with the most devastating pandemic we have experienced in our lifetime. You can also check out an episode from the podcast The Seen and the Unseen from Amit Varma, episode 243 called The Barkha Dutt files, to know and understand Barkha Dutt as a person, what drives her and why she is the way she is
https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-seen-and-the-unseen-hosted-by-amit-varma/id1190896090?i=1000535960608
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The Batman is new adaptation of the most popular DC character. This rendition is helmed by Matt Reeves who made the hugely successful Planet of the Apes sequels. This one stars Robert Patinson in the titular role and he is supported by Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle a.k.a Catwoman, Andy Serkis as Alfred, Jeffery wright as commissioner Gordon, Colin Farrell as Penguin and Paul Dano as Riddler. It also stars John Turturro in an important role. This adaption is not an origin story but is rather a detective thriller. Running time is close to 3 hours
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This Netflix documentary will provide you an investigative report on Boeing 737 max issue that led to 300+ people dying on two air crashes in 2018-19. The documentary also provides insights on what went wrong in Boeing culture that led to quality and safety issues denting their reputation of make safe airplanes
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An intense drama from HBO that explores the trials and tribulations in a marriage. The series is a remake of a Swedish series. The series plays out like a tele play where both Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac engage in deep conversations around the reasons they are drifting apart inspite of the intense love they have for each other. The series is available on Disney Hotstar in India and HBO MAX in US
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Unpaused - Naya Safar is a 5 part anthology series of short stories from pandemic times. It covers interesting slices of experiences from covid times, each of them capturing a different emotion. The series is available on Amazon Prime India
Bhoothakaalam is a Malayalam horror drama starring Revathi and Shane Nigam. It is an interesting drama that unfolds slowly into a horror that will leave you chilled and disturbed. The movie boasts of fabulous performances by lead actors and adept direction by Rahul Sadasivan. Check out my review and provide your feedback and ratings
Human is an Indian web series focused on an interesting premise of drug trials and how pharma companies and hospitals exploit and abuse poor people for drug trials. It exposes the murky and dark world of medicine and also reflects on the greed and ambitions of doctors who would go to any length to achieve their objective. The series is available on Disney Hotstar in India. It stars Shefali Shah and Kirti Kulhari in main roles
My review of a gritty drama starring Sandra Bullock. The movie also stars Vincent D’ Onofrio, Jon Beranthal and Viola Davis. The movie is available on Netflix
This is a review of a web series based on the mystery thriller story by Harlan Coben, an American novelist. The web series is available on Netflix