Black Warrant

The dynamics of prison life — dictated as much from outside as it is dominated from within it — made Black Warrant an immediate clutter-breaker in a streaming era unfortunately being increasingly defined by cookie-cutter content. Based on former Tihar jailer Sunil Gupta’s look at life inside the (in)famous prison, a microcosm of the world in itself, Black Warrant was propped up by Vikramaditya Motwane’s incisive storytelling and stellar acts from Rahul Bhat, Siddhant Gupta and, in particular, Zahan Kapoor.
Watch it on: Netflix

Khauf

Horrors — real, imagined and unspeakable — jostled for space in this gripping series about a young woman (a haunting Monika Panwar) who moves into a working women’s hostel in Delhi, which hides a history of violence. Haunted by her past, she battles inexplicable forces within the room’s confines and beyond, with the show often blurring the lines between factual, supernatural and metaphorical to make for an arresting watch that combined slow-burn chills with chilling social commentary.
Watch it on: Prime Video

Black, White & Gray: Love Kills

Avant-garde and wildly original, this six-episode series, which seemed like a regular poor-boy-falls-in-love-with-rich-girl story with forces striving to drive them apart, was an altogether different beast, distinguished by a daring meta-narrative which turned the so-called tenets of the true-crime genre on its head. Undoubtedly, the most ingenious piece of writing seen on Indian screens in a while, the series expertly walked the thin line between real and dramatised, with the unreliable narrator trope being put to effective use. Strong central performances from young actors Mayur More and Palak Jaiswal anchored this story marked by dizzying inventiveness and a solidly beating heart.
Watch it on: SonyLIV

Paatal Lok S2

Living up to the hype brought on by a stellar first season, Season 2 of Paatal Lok upped the stakes, delivering a solid drama that proved to be a worthy sequel. Set in the Northeast, specifically Nagaland, with a tenuous socio-political environment as its backdrop and a cocktail of betrayal, deceit, double-cross and revenge adding more layers to the narrative, Paatal Lok was once again brought alive by Jaideep Ahlawat’s Hathiram Chaudhary, a seemingly downbeat cop who refuses to give up. Authenticity and sensitivity formed the bedrock of Season 2, with the show’s always effective blend of visceral emotion and vibrant action taking this season home.
Watch it on: Prime Video

The Ba***ds of Bollywood

Aryan Khan, in his directorial debut, came up with a winner. The Ba***ds of Bollywood — an irreverent look at the film industry and the lives, loves and loyalties attached to it — packed in enough humour, honesty and heart to make for a devilishly delightful watch.

Swinging between spoof, satire, self-referential and self-awareness, Shah Rukh Khan’s son came up with a series that was cheeky, and in parts courageous, making for a wild ride into the bad, mad, rad world of Hindi cinema. The cameos were a win, with many bits of The Ba***ds of Bollywood — Emraan Hashmi to Duniya haseeno ka mela — becoming an indelible part of pop culture (and Insta Reels and memes) this year.

Watch it on: Netflix

The Family Man S3

Blending humour with heart, marrying honesty with ingenuity and melding the geopolitical with the personal in the way only it can, Season 3 of The Family Man may not have had its familiar bite — that inconclusive ending was a definite downer — but Manoj Bajpayee as Everyman agent Srikant Tiwari remained immensely watchable, supported ably by a strong ensemble cast. Jaideep Ahlawat found himself back in Nagaland, but this time as the antagonist, with creators Raj & DK embellishing the fictional framework of this season with the story of India now. Humour, action, emotion... Season 3 had it all, but we want more, and look forward to the fourth season.
Watch it on: Prime Video

The Hunt — The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case

A taut and tense series tracing the intense manhunt after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, The Hunt, directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, turned out to be much more than a police procedural, managing to effortlessly walk the tightrope between being objective and emotionally gripping. It had a narrative that finely balanced publicised facts with dramatisation, subtext with context, and walked successfully on the thin line between justice and retribution. Amit Sial led the way, with strong acts from Sahil Vaid, Bucks and Vidyut Gargi, among others.
Watch it on: SonyLIV

Perfect Family

Quietly dropping a few weeks ago, Perfect Family tinged intense drama with hearty humour to take a look at a regular dysfunctional family being forced into seeking therapy. Peopled by some of the best names in the acting business — Manoj Pahwa to Seema Pahwa, Gulshan Devaiah to Girija Oak, with Neha Dhupia also turning in a solid act — this highly relatable series, backed by actor Pankaj Tripathi, delivered some important life lessons and blatant home truths, but without hammering it in. Far from perfect, Perfect Family, however, struck a chord, forcing us to hold a mirror to ourselves, but with a lightness of touch.
Watch it on: YouTube