Betaal - A Netflix Series That 'Had' A Lot Of Potential

On May 24, Netflix released it's Indian zombie horror series, Betaal. It is Produced by one of the leading production houses of our country, The Red Chillies Entertainment and the fact that Shahrukh Khan and Gauri Khan themselves have produced this series makes it worth more noticing. It is directed by an American director, Patrick Graham. 

My first view of  Betaal is that it does have a scintillating premise. The first episode was just intriguing to watch. A regiment of army known as the 'Baaz Squad' led by commander Tyagi has been appointed to relocate the tribal people from Nilja village where building a Highway has been proposed in order to connect these tribals from the civilization. But the people refuse to let go of the village tunnel stating that the tunnel is haunted and that horror may unleash upon those who try to invade it. I like how they have tried to make use of the legend of Betaal and to fuse it with the revolt of 1857. We get to know that the tunnel is said to be possessed by the ghost/zombie of Colonel John Lynedoch of which we are told later. The knee jerk reaction of this story would be that it looks fine , promising and with a lot of potential but sure this does not last long. The Naxal and Liberal angle that this series tries to produce is fascinating but its also an undeniable fact that its meant to attract uncalled controversy. 

The lead character in the series is Captain Sirohi which is played by Vineet Kumar Singh. He and his team is appointed to move the tribals away from the tunnel and the village so that they do not hinder the construction work carried out by the contractor Mudhalvan. The contractor plays the role of a greedy capitalist who has come to the site with his wife and a daughter in her early teenage. They succeed in digging off the tunnel's mouth open and the first few scenes following that is a treat to watch. You don't know what's in there and the people who came back out of the tunnel are either wounded or dead. It was the high point of this series and after that every thing just goes downhill. Everybody rushes to an abandoned British barrack after they are attacked by bullets. From this point things get as weird as it can. The zombies coming right out of the tunnel are shooting them with centuries old arms and ammunition. You can keep suspension of disbelief but this is just senseless; Nevermind, everyone goes inside the barrack, unknowing of the fact that the people who are contaminated will be perilous to them. Mudhalvan gets hold of a book containing the rituals and and the legend of Betaal. He figures out that he can make a pact with colonel Lynedoch by handing him his daughter(Saanvi) in exchange of powers and finally we get the point of the story. The Little Girl has to be saved in order to stop Lynedoch!! Otherwise, after sacrificing her, he would be set free into the open.

Much bloodletting happens in between, you know the stuff like people turning into zombies and then killing people and then more people turning into zombies and killing more people. This way many people die in between but frankly you do not care about them because the story does not develop the way that you care about them. Towards the end, the leftover people devise a plan to replace Saanvi with an effigy so that Lynedoch takes it instead of her. Just when a soldier says "Kya Chutiya Plan Hai" and I was like same!! Anyway our hero gets possessed by Lynedoch and carries Saanvi to sacrifice her but Saanvi is a smart girl and she blows off the tunnel which had detonator in it. Phew! Right?? No. It comes out that destroying the tunnel wasn't such a good idea as it would set him free open. But wasn't that also the point of sacrificing Saanvi? He could have destroyed the tunnel himself? And this was not it, the end seen shows the zombie army of Lynedoch coming onto huge ships with ammunition to rule over India. The series is concluded with senseless bunch of ideas that came across the director. It just damages all the potential that the series had. 

Talking of the characters and the acting, women leads shine in every way, the character of DC Ahluwalia played by Aahana Kumra is one of the few performances you enjoy. She is fearless and can actually make a distinction between right and wrong unlike our lead Captain Sirohi who is just unsure of everything throughout the story. I can understand the need of a flawed protagonist but someone who is confused throughout the narrative does not do any good. Another character which I liked was Puniya (tribal woman) which is played by Manjiri Pupala; she was fierce and uncompromising throughout. She guides the army men out of the atrocity with her knowledge and tactics. The girl Saanvi also does a good job in playing an innocent girl who is aware of her father's greediness and calls him out for framing the innocent tribal people. All in all it is an average series which rises up your expectations and then crashes it into the ground.

Is Jojo Rabbit Based On A True Story ?

Jojo Rabbit, written and directed by the celebrated director Taika Watiti is a peculiarly tasteful movie. It is also an atypical subject for a director like him. He is mainly known for his quirky humour  and wild storytelling. I would describe this movie as a mix of genres despite of the fact that it is largely comic. You will see it change genres from comic to horror to drama to war and this hotchpotch seems to work greatly.This movie has also won Oscar 2020 for the best adapted screenplay and was nominated in many other categories.

                                              

The story revolves around Jojo Betzler ( played by Roman Griffin Davis ) who is a boy of 10 and the setting is of World War 2, Germany. Jojo idolizes Adolf Hitler and dreams of  being Hitler's personal guard one day. He also has an imaginary Hitler always guiding and walking around him, played by the very Taika Watiti. Jojo joins the rigorous training of army but faces a lot of difficulty there as he is frail and also gets bullied by the bigger boys. However he is still very admant on serving Hitler. To his surprise, one day he finds a Jew girl living in the attic of his house and also realizes that she is being hidden there by his own mother( played by Scarlett Johansson ). Being Oblivious of Jews, he is terrified of her. Now this phase is very intelligently portrayed by the director as he incorporates all kind of the then prevailing stereotypes about Jews in a clever way. Jojo pursues to write a book on Jews including all of their deepest darkest secrets which mainly includes things that one would find about fallen angels in the Bible; like ( they have horns, they sleep upside down like a bat and that they have the ability to read each other's mind). Making them as much inhumane as possible. Soon Jojo's mother dies as she was a part of the resistance against war and the war begins. I have to say that the war is one of the most impactful sequences of the movie. The way Jojo walks down the street with all kinds of horrible things happening around him is a spectacle. I personally find the particular scene very heart wrenching where the German personals send little kids with grenades and firearms to the frontline as if they are some toy soldiers in a game. But still Watiti manages not to end the story on a very dark note.

                                             

The movie is adapted from the book 'Caging Skies' written by the Belgian New Zealander novelist Christine Leunens. Taika in an interview said that he had come across this book through his mother. As she was reading this book and suggested him to read it. He also said that when he read the book it felt like a movie to him and hence he decided to make a movie on it. However, the actual book is very different from the adaption. Taika gives his own premise and touch to the movie making it less serious and light hearted than the book. Although the writer said that "we both love a fine balance between humour and comedy" I feel like their humour is very dissimilar. Jojo in the book is much mature both in age and thought. The story is however fictional but is inspired from a true event. The writer said that she came up with the thought of writing on this theme because of the war stories that she heard from his grandfather. She in an interview says- "memories from (my) grandparent's generation, from my parent's generation. Really horrific memories, they've become a part of my memory." She also met a French woman who gave her the story in the book. The french woman's family had hidden a Polish man in their house during the war, she fell in love with the man and later when the war ended, she got married to him. Although the writer decided to give a bleak end to the story of the book where Jojo and Elsa's relationship ends in despairing circumstances; after Elsa finds out that Jojo had been lying to her for the past 4 years that Germany won the war only to not let her go.

   

Never Have I Ever: A Non - Spoiler Review

Never Have I Ever, directed by a very popular Indian American director - Mindy Kaling, was released on Netflix on April 27 this year. This show as told by Mindy Kaling in one of her interviews to Netflix was inspired by her own childhood. This coming of age teenage drama might sound analogous to other teenage centric shows but it truly stands out in many ways. 

The story is set in Sherman Oaks, California and revolves around Devi Vishwakumar which is played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan who was selected out of a crowd of 15000 people who auditioned for this role. And it truly shows why she bagged this once in a lifetime opportunity of starring in a Netflix Original as a lead role. Moving onto our topic, Devi is an intelligent, quick-witted and sassy Hindu girl of San Fernando Valley who had a terrible fresh year in high school for a number of reasons. To make up for the devastating  and dreadful last year, Devi devises a plan for her and her Girl Friends Fabiola and Eleanor to get out of their misery. The interesting thing about this series is that it is not only from the viewpoint of Devi but also her two friends. Fabiola is a mixed race girl and Eleanor is Chinese American, together this group of girls are called the UN by a group of people, which is totally racist but that is what this series tries to show as a problem area in a light hearted way. The only motive for trio for the sophomore year is to get popular or a little extreme in the case of Devi that is to "pop her cherry" in her words.

Devi often struggles with her Indian identity in an attempt to be American enough. She absolutely envies her cousin Kamla who according to her is very Indian as she says to "Open the TV" instead of "turning it on". However Devi is still a lovable character as she doesn't let her temporary emotions to make her stride too away from her indianness. Many people may feel like there are too much stereotypical references of Indian Culture in the series, which is true to a degree as well and one can totally feel it in the scene where Nalini (Devi's Mother) describes Kamla to her would be in-laws as a domestic woman who is good in cooking and is vegetarian without even letting her talk about her research program at the university. Another scene which includes a congregational meeting of Indians, shows 'problematic aunties' who have a habit of picking on anyone and everyone which kind of gets over the top while watching. Keeping aside a few of these instances, the series is well written and directed and doesn't let you think even for a second that it is all the same like other teenage dramas. It has an authenticity when it tries to convey Indian thoughts and understanding.

The casting of the series is also near perfect with teenagers who actually look like teenagers instead of adults playing the role of teenagers which is the case for most of the shows out there. Another interesting angle of the show is rivalry, which happens between and Devi and her nemesis Ben and its totally refreshing to watch. The rivalry can be called as yielding rather than a consuming one. As an Indian girl , there are far many instances on which I relate with Devi than I expected to be. The run time of the series is also just right which does not make watching it a tedious task. You should definitely give it a go if you're into comedy dramas because I felt that it was worth the time I invested on it.

A Discovery That K-Drama Has Been To Me.

Let's face it! We are all trapped into our houses and there is really not much to do, at a time like this Netflix has been a boon to us. But lately I started to find Netflix boring as well because things were kind of repetitive for me and I eagerly wanted to find something new. Just then I found a really cool poster of a series which also happened to be a Korean one. Oh yes, I judged a series by its poster. Nevertheless moving on, I clicked onto that poster, which was undoubtedly one of the best decisions I made this lockdown. Now let me start with the fact that you are going to find all the below mentioned series on Netflix and all these series have an IMDB rating of 8 and above. Let me also add that do not be afraid of exploring something new just because it looks alien to you, this has stopped me from missing out on so much great stuff around me, I don't want the same from you. So without further ado let's get started.

Hotel Del Luna:

This was the very first K-Drama that I ever watched and let me tell you it's one of the best in the list as well. Hotel Del Luna which is located in the middle of Seoul is no ordinary hotel. The customers of this hotel are ghosts who have some unfulfilled desires without the realization of which they cannot cross the Samdo river and reach heaven. They live in a state of limbo and this hotel caters to their needs until and unless they are ready to cross the Samdo river. The owner of the hotel Jang Mal Wol is compelled to run the hotel until she accomplishes her own very motive to cross the Samdo river for which she is waiting for the last 2000 years; which means that it is time for the male protagonist to make an entry. The plot of the series revolve around the backstory of the owner Jang Mal Wol and what are the circumstances due to which she is compelled to run the hotel. It also consists of many sub plots telling the stories of some of the hotel guests (ghosts) which takes the excitement of the series to the next level. I would highly recommend you all to watch this series as it has to offer a lot and you will not grow bored out of it.

Crash Landing On You:

Next up the list is this masterpiece. Have you ever considered about the fact that two countries which are presumably enemies could be analogous in many ways. Just like India and Pakistan which share a large part of their culture, language and food and yet are indifferent about it. Yoon Se-ri, who is a business tycoon of  South Korea, literally crash lands in North Korea after she goes for a paragliding session. To her wonder she realizes that she is banged up abroad. She meets a North Korean soldier Ri Jung Hyuk who decides to help her out instead of handing her to the authorities. He disguises her as a North Korean and makes her live in his house as her fiance just when a high ranking officer grows suspicious of her. The story revolves around how Ri Jung Hyuk goes to crazy limits in order to send Yoon Se-ri back to her nation even after he falls for her. The female protagonist also has a hard time going back because of how close she gets to the people of the village she was residing in and to Ri Jung Hyuk. The drama also gives an insight to the lives of commoners in North Korea who are just like the people of any other nation and are living in a stigma. This Drama changes the way you perceive a nation like North Korea.  

My Love From The Star:

This K-Drama is one of its kind and one of the most popular dramas of South Korea as well. Cheon Song-i who is a famous actress stumbles upon this new neighbour who is a very strange and unceremonious man. Later she finds out that he is also the professor of the university she recently got admission into. Being a celebrity, Cheon Song-i gets into trouble quite regularly, however her neighbour Do Min Joon reaches to help her out every time quite mysteriously. She falls in love with him and wins his love back, only when she discovers that he is an Alien stranded on earth from the last 400 years. And he has to go back soon as he won't be able to survive any longer on this planet. Thankfully, a comet will pass earth soon which completes its orbit every 400 years and is the only chance for Do Min Joon to return home where he can live longer. But Do Min Joon is ready to sacrifice his only chance to return home just to spend a few more months that he has on planet Earth with Cheong Song-i. The plot of the Drama is intricate and engages you till the very end as you cannot guess what will happen in the end.