Search: The Naina Murder Case | As Incurious As They Come
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This Rohan Sippy-directed outing makes Konkona Sen Sharma look bad, and any person worth a Letterboxd account would know this is not good news, writes Ishita Sengupta.
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| | | Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Mukul Chadda, Surya Sharma, Shiv Pandit | | | | THERE ARE GOOD SHOWS and bad shows. Then, there are shows like Search: The Naina Murder Case , which resist classification not because they are too nuanced for binaries but because they are too frustrating to arrive at such conclusions. Although divided into six episodes, the Rohan Sippy-directed outing feels endless, and it is the jarring lack of ambition, that leaks into every clog, turning out to be its biggest flaw. If I still haven’t been clear, let me just say this: The Naina Murder Case makes Konkona Sen Sharma look bad, and any person worth a Letterboxd account would know, this is not good news. The other bad news is that Search: The Naina Murder Case, like an endless stream of Hindi series lately, is an adaptation. There is a precedent for this, and it has mostly been poor. The Pankaj Tripathi-starrer Criminal Justice is a retelling of the British show of the same name; the Kajol-starrer The Trial has its roots in the American drama; The Good Wife and Sushmita Sen’s Aarya have their roots in the Dutch crime drama Penoza. These are only some examples. Most of these undercut the complexities of the source materials to make them more palatable to the audience back home. By doing so, they streamline possibilities and block their own potential. Your pop culture fix awaits on OTTplay, for only Rs 149 per month. Grab this limited-time offer now! Sippy’s Search: The Naina Murder Case, adapted from the acclaimed Danish procedural drama The Killing (Forbrydelsen; 2007), is the latest instance. The dismal results hurt because Sen Sharma, one of the finest actors of this generation, is given the shortest end of the stick. But in a rare moment of equality, so is everybody. |
| | Lord Curzon Ki Haveli: Annoyingly Pretentious Film That Goes Nowhere
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Anshuman Jha's film represents the worst of independent cinema, where a single intriguing idea is stretched till the point of no return.
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| | | Cast: Rasika Dugal, Arjun Mathur, Paresh Pahuja, Zoha Rahman | | | | ANSHUMAN JHA'S Lord Curzon Ki Haveli is the kind of film that says a lot about how it was made. This, of course, is conjecture, but hear me out: a group of actors have met for a weekly hang. Conversations soon segue into discussions about mainstream cinema and how disappointing things have been. Outside, the sun has set, and inside, the room is filled with a haze of smoke and moody yellow lighting. Posters of Alfred Hitchcock and Satyajit Ray adorn the wall; the bookshelf in the corner has a section dedicated to plays by Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett. Emboldened by fluids, one of them suggests a radical departure. He will make a film that will show others how it is done. The rest, equally fortified, chime in: yes. I’d like to believe that better sense has prevailed since then, but it was too late to back out. The result is Lord Curzon Ki Haveli If this sounds like a sly, then this isn’t one. I am sure frustration has birthed many independent films, and their competence has only proved the audacity. Jha’s Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, however, is not that film. It also, in many ways, represents the worst of independent cinema, where a single intriguing idea is stretched till the point of no return and portrayed with an arrogance that comes to define the intent. The showy title is a good example, but not the only one. — I.S. |
| | The Smashing Machine: Thriving Between A Rock & A Hard Place
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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson finally plays the role he was born to play — that of a champion wrestler and near-invincible strongman — only to challenge his stardom with a painfully human(e) performance, Rahul Desai writes. |
| | | Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader | | | | AS AN INDIAN CRITIC pummelled into submission by the hagiographic reverence and sanitised beats of homegrown biopics over the years, a film like The Smashing Machine is always a bit of a culture shock. What do you mean the hero is not really a hero? What do you mean he’s willing to be emotionally naked, broken, vulnerable, ugly, difficult and unreasonable on screen? What do you mean he’s a victim of his own decisions and not wronged by the world? What do you mean he’s not an inspirational story with a message? Benny Safdie’s sports biopic has a mixed-martial-arts protagonist who’s a serial winner with a drug addiction problem, a mansplaining habit, a toxic relationship that weakens him, a punctured comeback arc, and, eventually, he’s barely even the protagonist. It has Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson finally playing the role he was born to play — that of a champion wrestler and near-invincible strongman — only to challenge his stardom with a painfully human(e) performance. Stream the latest films and shows with OTTplay's Power Play monthly pack, for only Rs 149. Based on the life and career of MMA fighter Mark Kerr, The Smashing Machine takes some getting used to. It is defined by its confessional language. What’s fascinating is the paradoxical relationship between the subject and the storytelling. The Rock’s Kerr has the aura and physicality of a future legend, yet the film treats him as a striver and journeyman with everyday frailties. The camera shadows him inside the eye of the hype-storm, where it’s so still and ‘normal’ that he’s a self-styled underdog. You can never tell that he’s a big deal; that he’s an American pioneer of the sport; that he’s a monster in the ring who’s so intellectual and introspective with his words that it almost feels like a coping mechanism to justify the pain and abuse. The actor portrays Kerr as an imposter of sorts: his purism for his craft becomes a front for working-class desires. For all his self-help-coded reactions, his commitment wavers more than he’d like to admit. He’s a difficult partner, a bit of a narcissist, a hard athlete to manage, and a man who’s convinced that the onus is perpetually on him to be better. Some of the most striking moments feature Kerr breaking down like a baby once the performative veneer — the pressure of masculinity and mental fortitude — is dropped. |
| | The one newsletter you need to decide what to watch on any given day. Our editors pick a show, movie, or theme for you from everything that’s streaming on OTT. |
| Each week, our editors pick one long-form, writerly piece that they think is worthy of your attention, and dice it into easily digestible bits for you to mull over. |
| In which we invite a scholar of cinema, devotee of the moving image, to write a prose poem dedicated to their poison of choice. Expect to spend an hour on this. |
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