296. Web-series Reviews – 129

More web-series reviews…

Love and Death – Came out in 2023.  Based ona true story😊! Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore had a lot in common: They sang together in the Methodist church choir, their daughters were best friends, and their husbands had good jobs working for technology companies in the north Dallas suburbs known as Silicon Prairie. But beneath the placid surface of their seemingly perfect lives, both women simmered with unspoken frustrations and unanswered desires.  Two churchgoing couples enjoy small town family life in Texas - until somebody picks up an axe.

One of the reviews from IMDB...

First off, I am a bit impressed and encouraged by television offerings lately. ...Well okay, two or three series come immediately to mind.

Love & Death is one of them.

At first, my husband and I weren't too interested in watching this perhaps because neither of us knew much about the case it is based on. After seeing it pop up as a choice a few times, however, we figured 'what the heck', and began watching. While parts of Episode 1 actually felt a bit "icky" (for lack of a better term), I am so glad we stuck with it, and by the next day, I couldn't wait to get home in order to to pick up where we had left off at episode three.

To begin, the soundtrack at least for the first half or more of the series, is a MASTERFUL collection of tunes from the 70's and 80's, and which work perfectly to add to the feeling that you are watching this dark series unfold firsthand. In fact, IMO, the only thing within Love & Death that rivals how excellent the music is for most of the first few episodes, is how exceptional Elizabeth Olsen is in her riveting portrayal of Candy Montgomery. That is not to say that rest of the cast's acting was not top-notch or that the rest of the series is not good, it is just difficult not to notice how much Elizabeth Olsen stands far and above here. This Elizabeth Olsen is tiers from the one you may have seen in anything else. To say her range is incredible, would be an understatement. Not too far behind in accolades, should be Lily Rabe who it was nice to see again, and who also wonderfully, convincingly, and definingly portrays the role of Betty Gore. Jesse Plemons as a love interest is the only casting choice I found a bit problematic.

In as far as the story, it unfolds ... engagingly. What's funny (strange), not funny (haha), is that while the episodes are an hour long, each felt much longer. This normally happens when something isn't paced well or isn't interesting enough to keep one's full attention, but neither was the case here. The series, which revolves around what occured before and after a certain true-life incident, is both compelling and flows well.

A recommended watch.

My Take – Worth a watch!

 

Modern Love, Chennai – Came out in 2023.  Storyline: Six unique love stories about characters in different age groups, from different social strata and backgrounds, and living in different parts of Chennai

One of the reviews from The Hindu…

An anthology like Modern Love: Chennai is rare. Every segment of this anthology works wonders and it does so with refreshing writing and treatment at a time when love stories are seen as a done-and-dusted genre that no longer surprises the viewers. Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s anthology, based on a collection of real essays that appeared in The New York Times, has shorts that make you wonder what was real or what was fictionalised, as well as those in which you wish the events were true.

The bizarreness of what transpires in Rajumurugan’s Lalagunda Bommaigal is the former — you wonder if something similar really transpired —  you chuckle for a bit and feel bad for the characters at times, but you also know that this is as real as it can get. Lalagunda begins as a love story between two souls, one hesitating to open up again and the other fighting to be accepted. Left broken on the hospital bed after an abortion, Shoba (Sri Gouri Priya) hopelessly shuts off the world around her; eventually, after many ‘fateful’ events, she falls in love with Nathuram, a panipuri seller. Unexpected events follow.

The biggest of attractions is Sean Roldan’s music, which brings nonchalance to it all. ‘Jingarthathanga’, in particular, bursts with the energy of finding love again. The lyrics compare Shoba to a racing dove (though she looks peaceful, she can put up a fight), and Nathuram to a single shark (even if he’s all alone in a dangerous ocean, he’s still a shark). There are other strikingly-impressive aspects, like how it attempts to break bigoted notions about migrants from North India, at a time when incidents pertaining to the same have been hitting the headlines.

In Balaji Sakthivel’s Imaigal, there is a compelling argument for the futility of fixed gender roles. When Devi (TJ Bhanu) informs her boyfriend Nithiyanandham (Ashok Selvan) that she will lose her eyesight after a few years due to a degenerative eye disorder, it seems like she expects him to desert her. Nithiya, however, takes her hand in marriage and promises to show her all the world until she can. But after a few years, we realise that Devi’s world has shrunk to doing household chores and taking care of their daughter; this is where it speaks of how hopeless patriarchal gender roles are.

Another lovely, deftly-done touch is the first shot of this short — we see Devi looking straight at us as if she could pierce through our souls; her still pupils look so clear that it almost seems unnatural, foreshadowing what we later realise. Interestingly, she looks the most peaceful when she closes her eyes at a pivotal moment in the end.

Cinema is the craft of selling the figments of one person’s imagination to everyone else; it creates an unreal even if probable world and lets ordinary mortals live larger-than-life lives. Krishnakumar Ramakumar’s Kaadhal Enbadhu Kannula Heart Irukkura Emoji is an ode to such romantics. Mallika (Ritu Varma) begins to question if anyone at all could become the dreamboats that Alaipayuthey’s Madhavan and Titanic’s DiCaprio were. She’s so adamant that even a National Award-winning English pesra Blue Sattai film critic fails to convince her.

Everything about this short makes you swoon and look back at the charm, delight, and angst of innocent love. There are callbacks to Tamil films that make for some hilariously real and human moments even while addressing the filminess of it all. Even coping with heartbreaks is infused with humour and it’s glad to see a film that takes into account how food and movies are the most popular coping mechanisms.

When Mallika wonders why there aren’t any “soup songs” for women, you chuckle but share her wonder. While it makes a solid point on the endeavour to find people who share the same madness as you, it’s disappointing that even this turns a hypocritical lens on the beauty of the unpretentious moments of reality by using a slow-motion shot at a pivotal point.

Akshay Sunder’s Margazhi begins with a divorce and ends with the birth of love. It speaks of the feelings that bloom like flowers in between the crevices of a rock. Puberty, hormones, and the yearning to fill the sudden maternal absence take by storm the heart of young teenager Jazmine (Sanjula Sarathi), who lives with her divorced father (Srikrishna Dayal).

Jazmine’s father enrols her in a choir class at the local church, and there, she meets Milton (Chu Khoy Sheng), a Delhiite spending his winter holidays with his grandmother. Margazhi speaks of seasonal love — the love that is temporary — and is meant to push you through the harsh winter. An ethereal world, with minimal expressions from its fantastic actors, gets overwhelming emotional heft when Jazmine listens to a particular Ilaiyaraaja song. Ilaiyaraaja here is composing music for a world that celebrates his music. It is only when Jazmine plays Ilaiyaraaja on piano and speaks of her mother, do we realise how its the song that lets her fill the void in her heart.

In Bharathiraja’s short Paravai Kootil Vaazhum Maangal, the metaphor of pruning a tree to bring new life becomes a dialogue, a sign of over-exposition that becomes the only issue with this short. Ravi (Kishore), a married man, his wife Revathy (Remya Nambeesan), and Rohini (Vijayalakshmi), a woman Ravi is in love with, decide to talk things through to see how they can all get the best of the circumstances.

Paravai Kootil.. is Bharathiraja’s ode to the late Balu Mahendra, a filmmaker who was known for his unconventional stories: ‘En Iniya Pon Nilaave’ from Balu Mahendra’s Moodu Pani becomes the song through which Ravi and Rohini fall in love and, similarities in the stories apart, it’s also a tribute to Marubadiyum (the characters are named after the actors in the latter).

Even while it has characters desiring to be a part of a conventional family structure, the ideals that they follow are modern; case in point, Ravi’s explanation of how people can change, or how Rohini speaks out on being unable to take a step back even when she knows what it means to Revathy. Rohini isn’t treated as the ‘other woman,’ but instead, is shown as an individual just trying to find happiness in her life.

After Bharathiraja’s crystal-clear frames, it takes some time to acclimate to Kumararaja’s world in Ninaivo Oru Paravai, especially due to its colour palette of scarlet and blue. But a breather — the advantages of streaming — helps, because you get to see what the two colour-scheme means; the splash of the colours denoting how in a relationship, two people carry the pieces of each other.

Ninaivo Oru Paravai is easily the pick of the lot; the staging of the scene where the two have explosive, mind-bending sex that literally rocks each other’s worlds is the peak of it all. Ilaiyaraaja’s background score in this scene hits a crescendo and is the cherry on top. Like yet another take on astrology by Kumararaja after Aaranya Kaandam or how the characters question the innate abnormality of storytelling in books and movies, there’s a lot to keep you hooked. The most intriguing touch is how the characters enclose their world, making you question the reality of it all.

In this short, the final moments of a relationship are the most pleasant. K (PK) and Sam (Wamiqa Gabbi) have sex for one last time and part ways. Months later, we realise that Sam is heartbroken and that K, after a nasty accident, is left with partial memory loss. He only remembers Sam, and she is brought in to help put his mind back together.

Modern Love: Chennai is just what was needed to rejuvenate mature discussions on love. Most of the stories in the anthology manage to surprise you with their unique takes on romance, something that has been absent in new-age Tamil cinema, and umpteen moments end up lingering in your mind; it’s the best of storytellers coming together to tell a wonderful assortment of love stories.

Modern Love: Chennai is currently streaming on Prime Video

My Take – Worth a watch!

 

TVF Pitchers 2 – Came out in Dec 2022.  2nd season of the Pitchers series.

One of the reviews from The Hindustan Times...

The TVF series shows the cons of running a startup in the most realistic manner, though it cannot still be called a binge watch.

Still nurturing blurred dreams of launching a startup someday? Get a reality check first with Pitchers as the hit TVF show returns after seven long years. The show is back with the team of three, not four as Jitendra Kumar takes an exit, leaving the rest of the budding entrepreneurs in a dilemma of managing a new company without him. But a lot has changed in the world of business shows on OTT (also a startup) ever since Pitchers made a powerful impression with the first season. Seven years and many hit shows like Scam 1992 and its film version The Big Bull later, Pitchers show season 2 arrives right in time, days before the popular Shark Tank India returns to TV with a new season.

There is no competition as such and the best it does is make an impressive effort in invoking empathy for the entrepreneurs who would be pitching their business ideas on the show. And when it comes to getting it right, Pitchers season 2 doesn’t shy away from serving bitter reality without a sweetner. They even pull in Sugar founder Vineeta Singh and ex-shark Ashneer Grover for cameos. Also read:

The new season takes us right inside the hectic messed up lives of the three entrepreneurs Navin Bansal, Yogi, Saurabh Mandal and their never-ending struggles after they launch their own company, Pragati. From the word go, it’s made very clear that the real struggle wasn’t to launch a startup but to keep attracting investments in order to keep it alive. The startup mantra of being a beer which should only know how to flow irrespective of the vessel, is turned on its head with ‘be a whisky’ in order to last long. Unlike other business series elsewhere, there is absolutely no attention given to the personal lives of the three entrepreneurs as it is evident there is none left in the race for survival. They hunt for investors day and night with just a few-months fuel in the bank account on one side and make big promises to their employees on the other. Not just Yogi’s receding hairline, everything is put at risk from friendship to their very existence in this effort to simply survive if not thrive in the ruthless world of business. But what if even a mentor’s advice, a calculated risk and a tonne of hard work also fail to guarantee success.

What I like the best about Pitchers is that it keeps clear of cliches no matter the pressure from episode one, or say day one. It remains realistic and relatable at the cost of a longer runtime and ranking lower on the entertainment quotient. Still, what it offers is precious – a masterclass in how not to run a startup. The hour-long episodes somehow even transmit the pressure and stress of the pitchers to the other side of screen but that’s what quality content is about. Naveen Kasturia, Arunabh Kumar and Abhay Mahajan can also take the credit here as they once again deliver believable performances and do their best to not let the boat sink. The ZEE5 series doesn’t fall in binge watch category but the creator justifies it completely as the setbacks hit hard at every juncture.

The long and tiring journey of a new entrepreneur not just invites sympathy but can also work as an alarm clock for those attracted to the rosy side of owning a business. The show brings the worst of the startup world and how tough it can get to just survive. If you too are ever thinking of acting upon your startup idea, this one is definitely not to be missed.

My Take – An ok watch!

Cheers till next time😊!