Cinema, Karam, Kapi

What happens in the island, stays in the island. Perhaps not, if it is the death (rather, murder) of someone on the eve of a high profile wedding! Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy) is one of the closest friends of bride to be Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson). She is getting married to Benji Winbury (Billy Howie), the second son of Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman) and Tag Winbury (Live Schriber).  Greer is a prolific author and has several books to her credit, while her latest one is awaiting a launch right after the wedding is over. She is not happy with her son’s choice of bride, as Amelia doesn’t match the “class” of her clan, and hence always looks down upon her.  Tag is a chilled out husband of a popular persona, that is his wife. He makes it appear that their wedding is just the kind of story people love to believe. The media makes a celebration of their relationship, calling Greer and Tag “ The Perfect Couple ”.  Though, they are exactly the opposite in real life. Tag is...

The Police force of India tries its best to reign in on the rowdies and the anti-social elements to ensure peace is upheld all the time. Though policing is a state-specific department, Indian Police Service (IPS) is governed through the Central Ministry, directly under the Ministry of Home. Some of the notorious goondas and culprits have largely arisen from specific cities. And Mumbai is no exception. While one wouldn’t say the city tops (with the most number of such elements), the city’s crime scene has always been on top, especially for film makers. Murshid is one such subject, depicting the behind the scenes of what happens in the lives of such rowdy elements. Two men deployed by Farid (Zakir Hussain) are to exchange money for drugs with the men of an operator who has a Talibani background and is based in Dubai. While exchanging the “goods”, one of the men shoot 3 members of the other group and tries to escape with the booty – money and drugs while the other guy rushes to the office...

What happens when a person builds his or her business with a certain tenacity, has a repute of being self-made, going through all odds in life, who is eventually brought down by the same lenders or investors who helped him or her grow the business?  He / She fights it back and goes all out to ensure the business they built brick by brick, is retained somehow.  That’s the story of Charlie Crocker (Jeff Daniels) in this web series in Netflix. Charlie celebrates his 60 th with almost the entire who’s who of Georgia, Atlanta in tow. Much to everyone’s envy, Charlie who lives a high life, doesn’t disappoint the glitterati on his big day.  He was once married to Martha (Diane Lane) and is now living with his second wife Serena Crocker (Sarah Jones), after offering a settlement to his ex-wife and their teenage son.  Trouble brews when the Raymond Peepgrass (Tom Pelphre), the manager at Plannersbanc who lent Charlie’s business to fund his dreams along with his Boss Harry Za...

I am not a big fan of reading, writing or even discussing about the Naxal movement in India. On one extreme, they are (till date) gunning down their enemies – from upper caste leaders / personalities to those in power & bureaucracy including Politicians, Police and Forces. On the other, their claim of displaying their angst against the establishment for want of bringing about a change – I wonder, if the Western way of doing things has found results in India.   The Web series of the title on Sony Liv is a fictitious account of what happened on 13 Nov. 2005, when a huge group of rebels thronged the District Jail in Jehanabad in South Bihar. They freed their fellow comrades who were housed there, in a daring attempt of prison break-in, kidnapped a few leaders of the upper caste Ranvir Sena and sent a strong message to the State and Central Governments of their might in full public display. This whole incident happened late in the night and almost no civilian were attacked or injur...