Top 5 shows/movies to binge-watch this weekend!
MyPick
Small Talk
The Chair (Netflix):
Sandra Oh (Cristina Yang of Grey’s Anatomy and more recently Eve Polastri in Killing Eve) is an immensely gifted actor who proves once again in Netflix’s The Chair why she’s won two Golden Globe awards and several Primetime Emmy nominations so far. In The Chair, she plays Prof. Kim who has just been appointed the first female chair of English at Pembroke University. The English department is in the doldrums with falling enrollments except for select faculty like the charming but going-through-a crisis Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass). The rest of the cast ranges from a talented Black professor Yaz McKay (Nana Mensah) to Joan Hambling, who feels being a female and near-retirement makes her the most expendable, especially when her office is relocated to the innards of the university basement. Those scenes in the basement and her complaints to the discrimination office are hilarious. Holland Taylor as Hambling is absolutely brilliant and thoroughly entertaining. The interaction between the faculty members and the tightrope that Prof. Kim has to walk between her love interest Dobson and the Dean is a treat to watch. The series has so many nuances – from anti-Nazi sentiments and ageism to the freedom and liberty of students on campus. Another noteworthy performance is of Prof. Kim’s adopted daughter Ju Ju (Everly Carganilla) who is a child genius in often startling and unsettling ways. Carganilla has done a most wonderful job and every scene she is in is riveting!
Shershaah (Amazon Prime):
The late Captain Vikram Batra, whose bravery during the Kargil war contributed to India winning the 1999 Kargil War with Pakistan is truly the stuff legends are made of. Turning his life into a biopic was merely a matter of time and director Vishnu Vardhan has done a good job of it. Siddharth Malhotra plays Cap. Batra with a lightness of touch and boyishness which is endearing. The revelation to me was Kiara Advani, who plays Cap. Batra’s love interest Dimple – her expressive eyes convey her emotions so adroitly. The movie is reminiscent of Lakshya, LOC Kargil, etc, and has the usual suspects – a jawan going on leave who is killed, a dour superior office who soon unbends towards Cap. Batra, the good Kashmiris and the terrorists. Is the treatment jingoistic? Not overtly. Does it make you swell with patriotism and pride? Absolutely!
Poldark (Sony Liv):
This is five-season series based on novels of the same title which has dropped on Sony Liv and is so worth a watch, not least for the swarthy Aidan Turner. Turner acts as Ross Poldark, a soldier returning to England from the American War of Independence in the 18th century, to find that his true love is done waiting for him and his inheritance is in shambles. He finds love again as he works hard to make sense of his life. Watch this as much for Turner’s dark and brooding acting as much for the panoramic Cornwall landscape.
Short films on Disney Hotstar:
I love this concept of short films brought to Hotstar by Royal Stag Barrel Select – no more than 11-18 minutes duration, with top-notch actors, centered around a single, hard-hitting idea. Some of the shorts I enjoyed immensely were: Rogan Josh, Ouch, The Bag, Everything is Fine, Chutney, etc.
Mimi(Netflix):
Mimi tells the story of a young woman Mimi (played brilliantly by Kriti Sanon) who agrees to become the surrogate for a foreign couple. The ‘agent’ who facilitates this is played by Pankaj Tripathi who has turned up an outstanding performance once again. I love the acting and the story, but the treatment of subjects like Down’s (very fleeting and erroneous) and adoption (completely false) are the jarring elements. But it is definitely worth a watch for depicting a small-town life and attitudes in a humorous, endearing manner.