GHAR WAAPSI
If feel-good had a face, it would most likely look like Ghar Waapsi. A reminder of the kind of shows we grew up watching on Doordarshan and set in the same heart-meets-humour mould of Panchayat, this six-episode series is both relevant and relatable.
Shekhar’s (Vishal Vashishtha does an exemplary job) life in the fast lane working a corporate job in Bangalore is rudely aborted when he is retrenched and is forced to go back to live with his parents and siblings in his hometown Indore. At first, Shekhar resents everything about the small town he grew up in, from the over-familiar attitude of acquaintances to the constant interference from his parents. However, he realises gradually that living away from family has alienated him from them and he starts enjoying living the simple, uncomplicated life, savouring the time he has in hand to build relationships and bond with family, even as the rest of the world continues to run on the treadmill called life. But Shekhar lands a job in the big city soon and now he has to choose between being happy and being truly happy.
Created by Dice Media — the folks behind many a winner, including Little Things — Ghar Waapsi immediately draws you in with its lovable characters and lived-in milieu. Every character will instantly remind you of someone you know and many of the situations will feel nostalgically familiar to many like me who were compelled to leave our small hometowns for a ‘better’ life in the big city.
Released without much fanfare, Ghar Waapsi has slowly but surely emerged as a binge-watch, with the viewer investing fully in Shekhar’s highs and lows and those around him. The casting across the board is spot-on. Since its release, there have been whispers of how similar the premise of the show is to the 2013 Arunachali film Crossing Bridges. We suggest you give both a watch.
Available on: Disney+Hotstar
FOOTFAIRY
A serial killer with a fetish for women’s feet has struck Mumbai. He targets young women travelling in local trains, ambushes them when alone and after killing them, takes off after slicing their foot. Thrown into the case is CBI man Vivaan (the always dependable Gulshan Devaiah) who has to piece together the clues and race against time before the ‘Footfairy’ bludgeons his next victim.
Premiered on TV during the pandemic, Footfairy has just made its way to streaming and is finding a sizeable number of viewers. The intriguing plot coupled with some interesting twists and turns keep the audience invested, even as almost every player in the story emerges as a potential suspect. The open-ended ending, however, is a bit of a downer and though the post-credits hint at who it can possibly be, there are too many loose ends, many of which don’t tie up after the big reveal. Give it a shot on a lazy Sunday afternoon if you have nothing else to watch.
Available on: Netflix
KEEP BREATHING
A survival drama with surrealistic overtones, Keep Breathing — the story of a young woman battling the odds after she’s left stranded in the uninhabited wilderness after the small plane she was on crashes, leaving only her alive — may have sounded like a winner on paper, but the series is quite a slog.
Created as a limited series — which means it won’t have any more seasons — Keep Breathing follows Liv’s (Melissa Barrera) journey to not only stay alive in her ruthless surroundings, but in constant intercuts between past and present, also face her personal demons. A mother who abandoned her early, a father who died recently, a caring colleague-turned-paramour she has snubbed rudely... her time alone in the wild allows Liv to go back and weigh the decisions she’s made in life, even as the series blends realistic narrative and naturalistic technique and surreal elements of dream and fantasy.
Keep Breathing is built on an idea that’s interesting but it falters in execution. Liv’s ecstacy in ‘creating’ fire or fashioning a makeshift compass out of practically nothing, has too much of a been there-seen that feel. Too much of a Cast Away deja vu imbues Keep Breathing, and the only thing the series doesn’t give her is a football named Wilson. Her present holds a mirror to her past, and the constant back-and-forth, though intriguing at first, starts grating on the nerves after a while.
What also works against Keep Breathing is that for a survival thriller, it is appallingly inert. There are long stretches of nothingness, which make one wonder whether it would have fared better as a 90-minute film than a six-episode series stretched interminably.
Available on: Netflix
FATALE
Once in a while, I end up watching utter rubbish... knowingly. Despite a two-time Academy Award winner front lining the film, I knew Fatale would be no good, and I wasn’t disappointed on that count.
One of those assembly line-produced thrillers where an indiscretion (mostly a one-night stand) leads to a story of obsession, blackmail, lies and eventual murder, Fatale follows a predictable template and throws up no surprises. Hilary Swank seems to be having fun playing the baddie, but even her presence isn’t enough to make Fatale rise above the beats of a stale thriller. And why does almost every toxic relationship drama/thriller star Michael Ealy?
Available on: Netflix
