Mini Review : PaatalLok (AmazonPrime) and Betaal (Netflix)

PaatalLok
Creator : Sudip Sharma
Directed by : Avinash Arun/Prosit Roy (9 episodes, 2020)
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9680440/

Yeh system jo hai, dur se sadha gala kachde ka dher lagta hai.. lekin andar ghuske samjhoge na, well oiled machinery hai.. har purje ko maloom usko kya karna hai, aur jisko nahi pata hota uss purje ko badal diya jaata hai.. lekin yeh system kabhi nahi badalta. 

Four suspects are arrested on the highway while on the run and later its found out that they were planning to assassinate popular head of a leading News Channel, Sanjeev Mehra (Neeraj Kabi). The case is assigned to Haathi Ram Chowdhury (Jaideep Ahlawat), a cop from the outer Jamuna Par police station who has been looking forward to get one such high profile case that could change his career, but little does he know how everything is not what it seems and the further he investigates the more he finds himself lost. Its adapted from Tarun Tejpal's book 'The Story of My Assassins' which I haven't read.

Haathi Ram is on the lookout for proofs and past history of all 4 suspects, with a newly joined junior Ansari (Ishwak Singh) helping him out. Their camaraderie goes through ups and downs, sticking for each other with their developing friendship. PaatalLok works as a slow-burn thriller, as we slowly learn about every character. Was interesting to watch Sanjeev Mehra's character that is trying to stay in news and not be ethical while disclosing news, he very much resembled all the news anchors we see in real who only care about money. In one scene he aptly tells how the journalists and news people were heroes once and now they get trolled and killed. All the flashback scenes of the 4 arrested guys had tragic incidents happening, everyone had interesting stories but Mary Lyngdoh (played brilliantly by Mairembam Ronaldo Singh) one specially appealed to me with that emotional court-room last scene and her constant cry in prison, as she plays someone pretending to be a girl in the narrative to help the other 3 guys in the mission when she was actually a transgender.

There's plenty of scenes that are hard to watch, whether its rape of an elder lady, child abuse or a guy beaten for eating beef. The social commentary over our country is told at many instances which I assume didn't go well with a particular wing as they rated the show so low. One of the most hard-hitting scene for me was when the father of one of those 4 suspects tells Haathiram 'jisse maine musalmaan tak banne nahi diya, usse aapne jihaadi bana diya', his pain could be really felt in there. Then there's Ansari who is Muslim cop, a minority among rest police force resulting in some verbal attack at times.

Jaideep Ahlawat completely steals the show, though in last few years ever since that Gangs of Wasseypur character he did, I have always enjoyed watching him in most of the films. Even at the toughest of situations, his character Haathi Ram is hell bent on finding the truth, sometimes breaking laws to get the information. And Abhishek Banerjee was other highlight from the series, very less dialogues but those eyes full of menace and yet been soft with his love for the dogs! The female actresses get less screen time but Gul Panag as HaathiRam's wife (Renu) and Swastika Mukherjee as Sanjeev's wife (Dolly) do leave a mark. Renu's brother track was probably only boring thing in the series. While Dolly's love for dog despite knowing Sanjeev has allergy for it plays a very important and good part when we learn later that the dog is what that actually saved Sanjeev's life.

PaataalLok deals with many themes like greed, dirty politics, Islamophobia, caste, gender oppression and ofcourse dogs. The finale wasn't hard-hitting but lets put it this way that I very much bought the realistic appeal they give with nothing changing about the system and ofcourse the ending had to happen over a dog scene. If excessive abusive language and slow pace don't bother you then this a series for you. I would rate it quite high among other Hindi Series that I love like Mirzapur, Asur and Delhi Crime. Another season of Hathi Ram solving a new case would be fun to watch.

My Rating : 8/10



Betaal
Directed by : Patrick Graham/Nikhil Mahajan (4 episodes, 2020)
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10651790/

Pehle hamara desh churaya, phir hamari naukri churayi, sona churaya, zameen churaayi.. ab kutte ki jaat, hamare bhoot bhi chura gaye, behanchod! 

Vikram Sirohi (Vineet Kumar Singh) arrives at a tribal village to demolish it and take the villagers to a safe new place which they deny to go to. The idea is to develop a project with the contractor, Mudhalvan (Jitendra Joshi) bribing the CIPD  squad leader, Commander Tyagi (Suchitra Pillai) who then instructs Vikram and his team to do the needful by filling in wrong information that the villagers are dangerous naxals, knowing Vikram is an honest soldier. Vikram and his team is stopped by Puniya (Manjiri Pupala) who warns that the place is cursed by Betaal/Colonel Lynedoch (Richard Dillane) a leader of 1857 British regiment. But Vikram and his co, ofcourse don't listen or we won't get the zombie episodes that follow. Inspite of very few jump scares, and fact that its only 4 episode series, Betaal still finds a way to fail and the search for a very good horror indian series continues.

Why would zombies beat drums, wait for almost entire episode and then attack the barrackhouse. And since when zombies got the features of Demons who can talk and also scare with slow turn of head. Then the funny sequences, one where Tyagi hairs turn white and reason told is 'shock' or dialogues like 'Hard Brexit' or a game of numbering so Sirohi can keep track of his team in the dark or a soldier killing the zombies while mouthing 'yeh bhagat singh ke liye, yeh jallianwala bagh ke liye' like seriously? or a bitten human soldier that spits out motive of Betaal. What works are the flashbacks Sirohi keeps getting about a small girl in his last mission as we are kept in suspense if he did kill her or not. The faces of the Undead army (Colonel and his team) with those big red eyes was another turn-off, and also some scenes were so dark it was hard to see what was happening. When Tyagi and few soldiers go inside the tunnel, or the 2 dead bodies that make noise of turning into zombies, were the only scenes that have scare element in the series. They do find a way to end series on a note of next season to come but they will have to really work on the writing. Even Vineet Kumar Singh act isn't satisfactory. Aahana Kumra acting was good who played Ahu Ahluwalia. Betaal is watchable only because its a short series and things do happen quickly enough, if only the story and horror was on right lines too.

My Rating : 3.5/10 

Mini Review : Criminal Justice (Hotstar) and Hostages (Hotstar)

Criminal Justice
Directed by : Tigmanshu Dhulia/Vishal Furia (8 episodes each, 2019), Tigmanshu Dhulia (2 episodes, 2019)
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9095260/

Kaisa laga yeh case haarke? 
Bahut badhiya, charamsukh aanand. I am looking forward to lose some more cases. Suna hai isse moksha milta hai.. 

Aditya Sharma (Vikrant Massey), a FirstCab driver, has a one-night stand with one of the passenger, Sanaya (Madhurima Roy). Later that night when he wakes up and tries to say goodbye to Sanaya while leaving, he realizes she's dead with blood on his hands. Aditya has no memory of the incident and he fears that he will not be able to prove that he is not guilty. Criminal Justice is inspired from HBO's 'The Night Of' show which itself was a remake of 2008 mini series. Initially the series keeps you hooked in because you are unsure who the killer is, and since the narration is linear, chances of Aditya being guilty is very much cut off. We get some very good court scenes kudos to Mandira Mathur (Mita Vasisht) who is a delight to watch in a no-nonsense strict lawyer and just wants to win,unfortunately she's part of 4 episodes only before her assistant takes up the case which I would had preferred rather going in hands of Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi). He steals the show (minus the stupid background theme) with his curiosity and gut feeling that he can't let a innocent do jail term. Madhav's scene with therapist is hilarious about how happy he feels to have lost a case, and also his chemistry with Nikhat Hussain (Anupriya Goenka) is one to watch. Jackie Shroff (played Mustafa) is also tailor-made for the gangster kind prisoner having power over everyone inmates and ofcourse using lot of 'bhidu'. Vikrant Massey wierdly doesn't make the mark like I expected, and main reason is he very much gets lost in the jail politics plot which is also why I felt the series diverts away too much. I personally won't say they shouldn't have shown that aspect, but they clearly went overboard with it, had they cut it to say 8 episode series with some crisp editing then it would had appealed the way it should. I do however enjoyed that scene where Mustafa stops Aditya in time from killing the rival cell-inmate Layak (Dibyendu Bhattacharya), telling that innocent should stay innocent. In the previous episodes leading to that scene, I had this feeling that by the time Aditya would be proven innocent for Sanaya's murder, he might already had become a murderer inside the jail, so that was a good twist. Some of other supporting actors however felt miscast and the emotional manipulation through background music is done way too much to my liking. Also, why would you not show the crime scene in the last episode when the real culprit is found. Criminal Justice works mainly for the court-room scenes, and performances of Pankaj Tripathi and Jackie Shroff but its atleast 2 episodes too long to sit through.

My Rating : 5.5/10



Hostages
Creators : Omri Givon, Yezira Ivrit, Rotem Shamir
Directed by : Sudhir Mishra (10 episodes, 2019)
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9094282/

Hona toh aapko narak mein chahiye, par filhaal aap.. 

Anand's villa daily-life comes to a standstill as four masked men take the family hostages with Dr Mira Anand (Tisca Chopra) told to kill CM next day who is supposed to do a surgery on him. She has to make a choice between her family and CM. Another inspired/remake series, with same title from Israel's show done in 2013. Starting two episodes sets right tone, we are told right at end of 1st episode that SP Prithvi Singh (Ronit Roy) is the leader of the masked men, but the motive behind this is revealed very slowly later on in the show. The way Dr Mira Anand keeps finding ways of getting out of Prithvi and its team radar to find evidences who these masked men are or try to let her children run off, made me think if she would had been much better team member of Prithvi and co. Atleast I would had liked a scene kept before they invade the Anand family or a flashback, as to on what basis they chose team and what planning they did because they sure looked like total rookies who kept giving chances for Anand family to get away. One of the guy among them especially had a bad temper and made it tougher for Prithvi all the time to have a look at him along with Anand family, which again begs question 'why did he hire him? Show a backstory maybe to justify'. The end you could predict from very 1st episode, but what is funny to see is how easily a CM's body gets replaced with a random body and no one notices or finds out. Then there's other sub-plots, Mira's son trying to please girl from school by hacking papers, her daughter is pregnant to a guy who broke-up with her and her husband has been hiding many things. None of those plots felt engaging enough. And the tussle between Mira and Prithvi also gets repetitive after a while. Both Tisca Chopra and Ronit Roy give in very good performances, yet not enough to save what is a very silly and a series going nowhere with all the loopholes and a non-satisfying ending.

My Rating : 4/10 

Mini Review : Pokemon Detective Pikachu and Gerald's Game (Netflix)

Pokemon Detective Pikachu
Directed by : Rob Letterman
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5884052/

I push people away and then hate them for leaving.. 

Hearing news of his dad's car crash, Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) returns back to his hometown Rhyme City where humans and pokemon's live together. Tim meets a talking pokemon, Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds voiceover) who wants to be a detective and help him find his father. In roughly 15-20 mins, Pikachu's character gets in the narrative and from thereon the film is carried through his shoulder with very witty and fun one liners or his reactions to the situations been thrown as they try to dive further into the mystery surrounding Tim's father. But I can't say same about the rest characters or the story that is quite weak and the predictable as you can easily make out who the villain is. Its the various Pokemon's intereactions that you enjoy, be it pikachu or the pokemon of Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton) or the one who talks through guess what I am saying game. Lucy and Tim sub-plot is very cliched, and their adventure leading to answers isn't satisfactory. Pokemon Detective Pikachu turned out to be quite underwhelming, but having said that Ryan Reynolds makes sure I atleast had a good time. Definately expected better movie from what the trailers had suggested.

My Rating : 6/10



Gerald's Game
Directed by : Mike Flanagan
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748172/

Everybody's got a littler corner in there somewhere, a button they won't admit they want pressed. Year after year, I barely gave you a glimpse of mine.

A couple Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) and Jessie (Carla Gugino) decide to go to a remote lakehouse trying to get their marriage back on track, but a tragedy happens when Gerald has a heart-attack and dies with Jessie handcuffed on bed. With no neighbours or people around, Jessie must find a way to survive and get help or let herself free of the cuffs. I liked the starting of movie, director doesn't waste time coming to the main part of story, as Jesse is all alone tied to bed, door open with a stray dog eating her dead husband and a scary 'Moonlight' figure appearing at night suggesting Jessie won't survive long with the hallucinations she was having. Her imaginary conversations with herself, her husband, and flashbacks of her father that involves child abuse makes for a interesting watch. But after a while it gets tiring, I would have liked to see some more struggle or attempts made by her to free herself, the isolation situation should had been explored more and also the scare element was less as the diversion to past with husband or father during childhood affects the screenplay. Oh but when at end she does free herself through wrist cut, that was one hell of a hard scene to watch, made me pause movie for few minutes before I could start watching rest movie again. My other biggest complain was, why did they try to give closure to 'Moonlight' story, had they ended say 10-15 mins earlier and left it to audience to guess whether he was real or unreal, it would had made the film look lot good. Carla Gugino shines in her performance, specially when she is talking to herself, also enjoyed Bruce in those conversations where he tells about human desires. An adaptation of Stephen King novel, Gerald's Game makes for a good one time watch despite the mentioned flaws.

My Rating : 5.5/10

Mini Review : Upload (AmazonPrime) and Shikara

Upload
Creator : Greg Daniels
Directed by : 

Kacie Anning/Greg Daniels/Daina Reid/Jonathan van Tulleken (2 episodes each, 2020)

Jeffrey Blitz/David Rogers (1 episode each, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7826376/

The best days of your life could be after its over..

Spoilers ahead.. 

What if you could choose your afterlife, like options of traditional normal death or get upload where you enjoy a afterlife with all your past memories, same personality, interact with other uploaded people or even spend time with alive real people through VR technology, and can have sex through special suits, basically enjoy a whole new version of life with not much of responsibilities. Upload Season1 goes through all of that, its not really a complete adventurous or laugh ride, but quite emotional at times. Nathan (Robbie Amell) who has just died and joined the 'Lakehouse Horizon', his chosen Upload begins to explore the place and is helped by his Angel, Nora (Andy Allo) who is a supportive alive girl working as a customer helper and always shows up when someone says the word 'Angel', very much like Genie of Aladdin. The intial episodes are fun to watch as we see some wierd rules, breakfast vanishes from tables if you come late after 10am, you could change weather outside through a switch button, painting done with direct drag and drop, a dog used to intereact as therapist and a waiter having many selfversions to do various other jobs at same time. But Upload uses all this more like small breakups, main focus is mostly on the death mystery of Nathan, if it was plotted? And Nathan's equation with his girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards), who you can call is very much on path of Rosamund Pike from 'Gone Girl' watching the way she is desperate for Nathan even when he wants to break-up. My favourite part of Upload is the chemistry between Nathan and Nora, that eventually leads to lot more. But in the end, I didn't get why would Nora not know that Nathan didn't cut her off but it was his data that ended, shouldn't she be having that knowledge? Loved the cool fun sequences between Luke (Kevin Bigley) and his Angel, Aleesha (Zainab Johnson). Dylan (Rhys Slack) also provides some hilarious moments like the one where he goes to the steal market with Nathan and Luke, trying to get a hack to grow up by some years and become manly, since you never age up at Upload place. Its by no means a 'wow' kind series, but if you are looking for a quick short series that is light-hearted with some mystery and don't mind bit of Sci-fi then Upload is for you.. with the episodes mostly in range of early 30ish mins, its a easy binge and chances are you would like me stay interested to give 2nd season a go too when it arrives.

My Rating : 6.5/10



Shikara
Directed by : Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10930586/

Har pal teri yaad sataati rehti hai, aati jaati har ek saans yeh kehti hai.. ek din tumse milne wapis aayunga, kya hai dil mein sab kuch tumhe batayunga.. 

Told through a span of 30 years, its about a couple, Shiv Kumar Dhar (Aadil Khan) and Shanti Dhar (Sadia Khateeb), two kashmiri pandits who have survived after been told to leave their home in 1990 along with lakhs of other kashmiri pandits. There's something about Kashmir, its locations and views that always draws you in, and I totally loved the wedding sequence with no shor sharaba kind shaadis we are accustomed to in North side of India especially. But the film touches a serious topic and yet the political angle is almost totally edited out, or the cross border terrorism. Just few clips of original footage doesn't seal the deal as I would had preferred to see all the details for someone who ain't aware of this side of history. And if the intention was to present a romantic movie on backdrop of Kashmiri Pandits incident, in that scenario too Shikara fails because the lead pair are very inconsistent in their performances, which never invokes any feelings in me like for instance the end scene in the boat or that key scene when Aadil is emotional and narrating a shayari with no background music while returning back to his home Kashmir after a long time. If you do enjoy their acting then the film will still work for you, doesn't for me!

My Rating : 4/10 

Mini Review : Street Dancer 3D and Panga

Street Dancer 3D
Directed by : Remo D'Souza
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9648672/

Dance ka rule number.1.. never be number2. 

Two rival dance groups, one from India whose leader is Sahej (Varun Dhawan) and other from Pakistan who is lead by Inayat (Shraddha Kapoor), both of them unite for a cause to help immigrants on streets reach their home by winning 'Ground Zero' named dance competition. Biggest issue for me was the overdose of dance, I understand its a dance based movie but the amount that keeps coming right at your face gets so tiring and its not like they are showing us out of the world dance moves. The India-Pakistan rival track is overdone too that eats up lot of 1st half, I did like the Kohli bit thing that both Sahej and Inayat do. Talking of the dance competition, most of the rounds I just couldn't make why this particular team won or why did the other one not win, some blame has to go to poor editing. I did enjoy the semifinals dance act though its ruined by the redone track 'Bezubaan' which doesn't work like the last two times. Finale act again was problematic, the bhangra theme just lacked that 'wow, I wanna watch this dance again' feel, however did enjoy the 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara' track. And it was funny to see a dance competition that says it has no rules, and is looking for only crazy, does that happen in real too, if so I am glad I don't give a damn to such shows on TV. Coming to performances, Varun irritates but its his character thats kind of selfish, and the banter with Inayat kinda of bored me. Loved his anger dance during the track 'Dua Karo'. Shraddha Kapoor character was very weakly written too, I still found her good and it was also nice to see her not paired as love interest with Varun. Enjoyed Nora Fatehi dance moves in 'Lagdi Lahore Di', my favorite track from movie. Prabhu Deva wows you with nostalgia when you see him groove on 'Muqabla' which is for a change good re-created classic song. Street Dancer 3D (I saw in 2d on laptop) suffers due to lots of mentioned reasons, I would not say its a bad film still, its easily a one-time watch movie but had they worked more on the immigrant track, kept less of Ind-Pak banter, lesser dance scenes in 1st half, proper editing of competition, then we might have got the kind of dance movie it should had been.

My Rating : 4.5/10



Panga
Directed by : Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8983166/

Kabaddi mein raid karna, theek ladke ke rishte ko thukraane jaisa hota hai.. 

Its about a forgotten Indian kabaddi champion, Jaya Nigam Sachdeva (Kangana Ranaut), currently married to Prashant Sachdeva (Jassie Gill) and mother of son, Aditya (Yagya Bhasin), who decides at age of 32 that she wants to make a comeback to the sports. Like her earlier movies, director presents the narrative in a light entertaining mood. We get to see Jaya as a caring mother who also works at the ticket counter of Railways for whom she used to play once in the kabaddi team. There are many such real life examples, where comeback at late age happens, and that too successful ones, few examples are even mentioned in film when Aditya is trying to convince his dad to ask her mom to give it a try. There's even a hilarious song which is completely opposite of 'Haanikarak Bapu' from Dangal, as here its the son making her mom daily wake early and do jog/exercises/follow diet plan to get back into the shape. Its the kabaddi portions that lets the movie down, as it appears that they kept focus more on Jaya's perspective and doing so they do succeed in me rooting for Jaya, the mother in the kababbi final tournament but Jaya, the kabaddi player ends up been just a one moment glory which felt more filmy than real. The whole track of Prashant and Aditya struggling to cope with Jaya away at training place could had been skipped totally, and same with the routine montage of training for a big sports event. The kabaddi team captain having problems with Jaya also felt very forced to add un-necessary drama. I am clearly on different page than what director wanted to show, and I am not even a fan of Kabaddi but thats just how it was, I never felt those emotions you feel for a player/team winning the final in other sports films. What mostly works is the family drama, and the dilemna/worry Jaya always has about her family when deciding to give Kabaddi another chance. Coming to performances, everyone was good, Richa Chadha shines in supporting act and I enjoyed that dialogue reference she makes about Kabaddi tackles to arrange marriage proposals. Kangana Ranaut is in super form, which I felt missing in some of her last few films. Neena Gupta is sweet and lovely in small role. Yagya Bhasin is adorable and gives some of best moments in the film. Panga is most likely gonna entertain and make you happy, maybe motivate you too in someway, but it surely misses the mark for me.

My Rating : 6/10 

Mini Review : Angrezi Medium and Baaghi 3

Angrezi Medium
Directed by : Homi Adajania
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8907986/

Aadmi ka sapna toot jaata hai na, toh aadmi khatam ho jaata hai.

Champak Bansal (Irrfan Khan) will leave no stone unturned to get his daughter Tarika Bansal (Radhika Madan) get admission in a good university of London is the basic premise of Angrezi Medium. There are some lovely moments in starting portions of movie when Champak tries to convince Tarika to study in India only, a scene where he tries to see if she would cheat when handing the exam paper or when he is happy that she got 85% knowing that means she won't have to go to London before the phone call of principal spoils the fun for him. He basically plays a dad that wants to make her daughter happy but doesn't want her to go far away from him either, the kind of confused state he himself says he always has been since childhood. The drunk scene where Tarika tries to cover it up by blaming it back on her dad was very funny. Unfortunately the light fun moments come in way too many gaps, something that wasn't the case with 'Hindi Medium'. What really lets down the film is there are too many sub-plots that make no sense or the drama just never engages you. For instance, the court-room sequence over the shop name dispute, Ranvir Shorey that suddenly comes then vanishes and then returns in narrative, the daily midnight daaru talks and conflict involving Manu Rishi Chaddha. Deepak Dobriyal and Tillotama Shome who were main highlight of last movie, looks so pale in comparison here. Even Dimple Kapadia-Kareena Kapoor feel wasted except for that one scene at the dining table. Pankaj Tripathi is funny in his single scene cameo. Very much like 'Jawani Jaanemann', the father-daughter relationship is left unexplored, rather we get bits of Tarika's new lifestyle or a non-funny Pakistan cricketers name angle. I specially would have wanted more out of Radhika Madan's character who is such a fine actor. Still a decent film but since its the last film of Irrfan Khan, you would have wished it was better than what we get. Having said that, the last shot of Irrfan with his smiling face out of car window, may just get you emotional.

My Rating : 6/10



Baaghi 3
Directed by : Ahmed Khan
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8366590/

Mujhpe aati toh main chorh deta hoon, mere bhai pe aati toh main phod deta hoon.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Ronnie (Tiger Shroff) travels to Syria to find his brother Vikram (Riteish Deshmukh) who got kidnapped while on his assignment as a inspector to catch terrorist Abu Jalal (Jameel Khoury). When you see the start of movie, the bits of Ronnie as a kid, the kind of fake acting you can clearly see through, that is how the entire movie pans out. As grown-up now, Ronnie is always saving Vikram whenever he is in trouble, and yet its Vikram who becomes a cop when insisted by Ronnie. Its like sending your own brother in hell, knowing one day he will have to fight himself and probably die. But then thats how this script of film is, we do in climax get a scene where Vikram gets superpowers and kills Abu Jalal. The first scene of movie shows Ronnie shouting in pain name of Vikram suggesting maybe he got killed before we go into flashback. That was one well directed shot because I did buy into it, and later when the truth of that scene was revealed, I wanted to see if Vikram does eventually die in the climax or not. That was my only bit of interest in the whole film, and for a moment when they try to show Ronnie dead at the end, I thought damn they took a big leap of faith but nah, there Ronnie gets up and finished Abu Jalal totally. The action scenes are total ridiculous, not one scene I can label as even decent. Vijay Varma in a small cameo and Jaideep Ahlawat are only saviours in terms of acting in the movie. Background theme is good but its old one only and one can hear it on youtube rather. This was already a very average franchise from the 1st movie and its only getting worse with every new film that comes out. And I fear for Tiger Shroff who is teaming up again with same director for his Heropanti2 whose poster was rip-off from John Wick. Nothing more to say for a film that is guranteed to feature in my worst movies of 2020 list..

My Rating : 1.5/10 

Mini Review : Sex Education Season2 (Netflix)

Creator : Laurie Nunn
Directed by : 

Ben Taylor (4 episodes, 2020)

Sophie Goodhart/Alice Seabright (2 episodes each, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7767422/

I was so caught up in trying to do the right thing. I lost track of what that actually is. Its you. Its always been you. 


Spoilers ahead... 

Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) tries to explore his new relationship with Ola Nyman (Patricia Allison) while still continuing the sex clinic secretly at the high school with Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey). Meanwhile, Maeve still got feelings for Otis that she didn't tell him, as she deals with her drug addict mom and a new neighbour Isaac (George Robinson). Things are about to get absurd when Otis learns his mom Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson) is dating his girlfriend's dad Jakob Nyman (Mikael Persbrandt). And there's Otis best friend Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa) who learns that the new guy at school, Rahim (Sami Outalbali) has fallen for him but Eric is confused since he can't forget Adam Groff (Connor Swindells). Also, there is Aimee Gibbs (Aimee Lou Wood) who goes through a sexual assault on bus that starts affecting her daily life. While Jackson Marchetti (Kedar Williams-Stirling) struggles to cope with the pressure put on by his moms and recovering from Maeve's heartbreak as he finds a good friend in Viv Odesanya (Chinenye Ezeudu).

Sooo much is going on in this rom-com series that has sex education as backdrop. For me 1st season was very fun despite it having many cliche or typical romantic moments. They start with Otis having erect problems, which is fun and good that they don't really overdo it, quickly moving to how Otis is constantly struggling to take relation with Ola to next level in terms of sex. You very well know its matter of time before Otis is back with Maeve.

I quite loved the Jackson track, how he finds a new alternative career choice with help of Viv. Also, I like Jean-Jakob together so it was kind of sad to see Jean let him go away though there's definately the scope they might be back next season. With Eric's plot I believe in what Otis says to him that loving a guy like Adam who bullied him for many years is a very odd thing. Many times I feel for Adam but then its hard to say if he has really changed. With Rahim, I have same opinion as Eric's mom had, you could just see Eric was never himself and tried too hard to be someone else. Quite a complicated plot involving these three, as Rahim said in the end to Eric.. that Adam may hold his hand but may not catch him. Have to wait and watch.

Adam's dad Michael Groff (Alistair Petrie) is probably most irritating character of show, good to see him told to take break, I would either want nothing of him in next season or some kind of change happening in him. Aimee Gibbs was fun to watch again, she kind of reminds me of Phoebe from Friends, the way she talks or behaves sometimes. That play on Romeo-Juliet take I would say I would never ever wanna see it again, which I am hoping was the intention behind the way its shot, as its the point of view of Lily Iglehart (Tanya Reynolds) who plays a very wierd student at school. Songs mostly are well used, love 'Sexy boy' when a dirty talk leads to sex between two teachers or the emotional romantic 'Mystery of love' that fits both Jean's story and Eric remembering  Adam. 'Bashed Out' and 'Thank You For The Offer' were my other favourite tracks.

This season had very less of Otis-Maeve together, and the bitter ending of that stupid Issaac (I just can't control anger towards him) makes me wonder if we might have to wait another whole season to see them unite. Because there might be a track of Otis and Ruby Matthews (Mimi Keene) develop thanks to the way Otis handles the party he throws going full drunk and saying shitty things. 

From gays to lesbians to bisexual to pansexual to asexual, this season covered all of that, along with the therapist advices on sexual problems, but Sexual Education yet is a teenager based rom-com that delivers on many levels and has many stories to bind together still in future. I don't think I can seperately rate both seasons, so its very much on same wavelength.  Please please, surprise me with Isaac admitted his mistake or Maeve somehow knowing about it rather than making us watch them get into any kind of relation!

My Rating : 7.5/10