News India Times

www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Entertainment News India Times (January 4, 2025 - January 10, 2025) January 10, 2025 27 PHOTO:TrailerVideo Grab PHOTO:TrailerVideo Grab Year-Ender: Trapped By The Web—The Best Of OTT Series I t’s a no-brainer, really! Web series have now proved a godsend for entertainment—with our choice of time, place and duration. They often compensate for an over-supply of poor cinema, as we do not have to go to a movie-hall and buy overpriced tickets and snacks, or, at the other extreme, suffer from uncomfortable seats and dirty washrooms—and then feel we have made a poor investment in both time and money. And, of course, we have that power to switch if the episodes do not measure up. What’s more, the scale is on par with films, and often the powerful perfor- mances are add-on magnets. Let me then enumerate what I felt was the best of the web in 2024, come original, sequel, adapted or non- crime! Yes, a significant chunk of the overall supply was of crime dramas. My list is in alphabetical order. And this time, Disney+Hotstar has gone missing! BANDISH BANDITS 2 / AMAZON PRIME VIDEO / DIRECTED BY: ANAND TIWARI This fabulous sequel was almost and incredibly binge-worthy as the tensions and drama kept rising by the episode. I use the word “incredibly” because in essence this film revolved around music and Season 2 lacked the musical resonance of the first season’s stand- out music score. But the script and the powerhouse performances more than made up. CALL ME BAE / AMAZON PRIME VIDEO / COLLIN D’CUNHA Ananya Pandey was a revolution in this story of a (rich) girl brought to a position where she has nothing and must start life afresh. An original concept, it saw the perfect blend of light and serious storytelling and has immense repeat value. HEERAMANDI: THE DIAMOND BAZAAR / SANJAY LEELA BHANSALI Based on a book, and with a fantastic female en- semble cast led by Manisha Koirala and Sonakshi Sinha, this drama set in British times in a famous red-light area marked Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s web debut, and fol- lowed the filmmaker’s template of exorbitant budgets and songs backing an intense human tale of passions, malefic deeds and selfless actions, with India’s struggle for Independence at centre-point. Killer Soup / Netflix / Abhishek Chaubey Abhishek Chaubey always had a fetish for dark wickedness, but this was his coup d’état with a woman who is married to a man but lusts for his doppelganger. A bouquet of powerful performances by a seasoned cast (Konkona Sensharma, Sayaji Shinde, Nasser) marked this series as the only worthwhile Manoj Bajpayee out- ing this year amidst some really dull big-screen fare in which he starred. MAHARANI 3 / SONY LIV / SAURABH BHAVE The political snakes-and-ladders game got a befit- ting end in Season 3 with Huma Qureshi and Amit Sial in full fettle, thanks to the tight vendetta-driven script. Here was a series where each season was better than the earlier one. It was dominated by performances by an ensemble of brilliant actors including Kani Kusruti and Pramod Pathak. Mohrey / Amazon MX Player / Mukul Abhyankar Wicked and satirical and laced with the finest lines in that genre (Hussain Dalal & Abbas Dalal), this crime drama is one those rare ones where I cannot wait for the continuation, that is, the next season. A storyline as simply original as rivetingly multi-pronged and inven- tive, it saw what is one of the best male performances this year in Jaaved Jafferi’s towering essay as a don who is many things more! Raat Jawaan Hai / Sony LIV / Sumit Vyas The ever-dependable humor expert as actor, Sumit Vyas, directed this genre-defying saga of three college friends, two married women and one married man, and their adventures and misadventures with friendship as well as their respective kids and spouses. I had one issue with Khyati Anand Puthran’s racy script: it was laden with needless expletives that changed this family enter- tainer series into adult fare! And yet, the series ranked high this year! SHEKHAR HOME / JIO CINEMA / ROHAN SIPPY & SRIJIT MUKHERJEE An original plotline that tributes the fiction world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, and yet turns the canon on its head, Shekhar Home remains the most in- genious Indian adaptation ever of a legendary character. The true hero was story writer Aniruddha Guha, who had determined with British co-producers BBC Studios that he will write an original story. Kay Kay Menon as Shekhar was simply phenomenal. THE BROKEN NEWS 2 / ZEE5 / VINAY WAIKUL A brilliantly plotted adaptation of a foreign show, the series superseded its first season in every way. The trio of Jaideep Ahlawat, Sonali Bendre-Behl and Shriya Pilgaonkar were magnificent in the fast-moving and convoluted drama that examined the role of the media and its ethics and their influence on society. UNDEKHI 3 / SONY LIV / ASHISH R. SHUKLA Like Maharani 3, here was another rare multiple- season series where the graph kept going up. Laced with unforgettable characters and unforgettable twists, the series brought the happenings in the earlier season to a finite and logical conclusion, though it could move ahead into Season 4. And Harsh Chhaya’s character of Papaji is now nothing less than iconic. Honorable mentions: GULLAK 4, TANAAV 2, LIFE HILL GAYI & MIRZAPUR 3 Disappointments: MITHYA 2, CITADEL: HONEY BUNNY, GYARAAH GYARAAH, PANCHAYAT 3, IC 814: KANDAHAR, MITHYA 2 & YEH KAALI KAALI ANKHEIN 2 By RajivVijayakar Ananya Panday was outstanding in Call Me Bae. Manisha Koirala in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.