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Showing posts from October, 2017

Amazon Exclusives - Hindi

Amazon has tied up with content creators in India to create many series for Prime video. I watched Laakhon mein ek and Inside Edge. Both don't compare to the international series but are far superior to what we see on Indian television today. Laakhon Mein Ek LMK has been created by Biswa Kalyan Rath who is one of the best stand up comedians in the country. You must watch his live shows. The kind of energy he has on stage is amazing. He is genuinely funny and his content is very, very different from other comedians. LMK is a 6 episodes series (less than 30 mins long, thankfully) about a 15 year old, Akash, whose parents send him to an IIT entrance coaching institute in Vizag. He got 55% marks in 12th and wants to join Commerce but this is India and everyone must atleast try to be a doctor or an engineer even if it kills them.  The series isn't anything new but it's a story that can't be repeated enough number of times. Worth a watch. I hope season 2 cover

MAMI 2016

I have been scouting recommendations on the internet and watching good movies screened at MAMI last year. Here are the ones I have seen yet. Will keep updating them in this post so it's easier to access. An Insignificant Man   Language : Hindi  Available for viewing on Youtube. This documentary was screened at MAMI last year and was quite popular. I couldn't catch it in the theatres when it released this year but now it is available on Youtube. Arvind Kejriwal's arrival in politics is very significant in the country. The way he brought Delhites to the streets and banded them together against corruption is nothing short of a revolution. He brought people hope and made them realise there is an alternative to two options- BJP and Congress that were available until then. Whether you like him or hate him, you can't ignore any of this. Do catch it. The Similars (Los Parecidos)  Language : Spanish Available for viewing on Netflix. It is set in the 1960s when

MAMI 2017

Mukkabaaz Language : Hindi Director : Anurag Kashyap This was the opening film at MAMI this year. Which means that it is screened right after the opening ceremony. I don't know when it will release in the theatres. Generally, it takes around 6 months after screening at MAMI. Mukkabaaz is based in a small town of UP where Shravan Singh (Vineet Kumar Singh) aspires to be a famous boxer and compete nationally. His coach is Bhagwan Das Mishra (Jimmy Shergill) who makes everyone run his errands instead of training them. Shravan Singh falls for Bhagwan Das's niece and everything changes. Does Shravan marry the niece? Does he become a successful boxer? How does he deal with Bhagwan Das? The movie is a typical Anurag Kashyap film with lots of expletives, realistic look at the game in rural UP mixed with first of its kind love story. It has lots of flaws but I only remember the hooting, cheering, clapping of 500 or so people at every scene. Montparnesse Bienvenue Language

My watchlist on Amazon Prime

I've read Neil Gaiman's book American Gods but wasn't impressed. He couldn't tie all the loose ends and the climax wasn't half as good as the build up. I wish he had written a sequel instead. The Amazon original series based on the books is stunning. It brings out the darkness in the book very well and keeps the viewer hooked. Hopefully, the climax in the series will be much better than the one in the book.  In fact, the series is far, far better than the book or atleast whatever I can remember of it. I am seeing this happen more and more where a series plugs all the holes in the book and the casting makes it far superior to the book.  Do catch this one. I discovered this series on Amazon Prime and am surprised nobody is talking about it. This is from the 70s when many newsrooms only employed women as researchers and they weren't allowed to write. They could never be reporters. Researchers were paid less than half of what reporters got pa