The show opens with a battered, bruised, barely-alive Saira (Tia Bajpai), barreling her way out of a locked shipping container on the Hong Kong docks. The scene sets the tone for the murder, suspense and revenge drama to follow. Saira is a happy-go-lucky orphan, working in a bank in Mumbai. She is wooed by a real-life Prince Charming; in her case, Rohan Mallik (Ruslaan Mumtaz), and they soon get married. A cataclysm disaster befalls her seemingly blissful world, when Rohan is killed in an accident. On closer inspection of the accident pictures, Saira realizes that things are not what they seem. All clues point to the fact that what was made to look like an accident was actually a murder. Things start going downward from there. To stop Saira from snooping around, a menacing goon with kohl-lined eyes, MK (Peeyush Suhaney), tries to threaten her into silence. When she resists, she is kidnapped, gang-raped, beaten up and left to die inside a closed car that is locked up in a container bound for Hong Kong. But our heroine survives and vows to revenge the murder of her husband and the atrocities perpetrated on her. Her quest takes her from a casino in Macau to a palatial house in Mumbai, and even into an arms-dealer’s den, in the outskirts of Mumbai.
Arbaaz Ali Moghul has done a pretty neat job of directing the series, while credit for the story goes to Vikram Bhatt himself. There are quite a few needless songs in the show, which tend to distract the viewer, rather than adding value to the proceedings. They were best avoided, in our opinion. But, the deed, as they say, is done, and nothing can be done about it. Tia Bajpai has done a commendable job as Saira. She adds credence to her character of a wronged woman, out to get revenge. She deserves credit for putting in a measured performance, in a role that could very well have been reduced to an over-the-top, screechy, shrew-like caricature. Vipul Gupta puts in a restrained performance as Mohit, though he could have infused a bit more vitality and verve into his role. Snigdha Akolkar was just about average as Amrita. Ruslaan Mumtaz just doesn’t cut it in a negative role. The sooner he realises that he’s tailor-made to play cho-chweet, chocolate-boy characters, the better for him.
All-in-all, the series is quite a decent watch. Despite being riddled with loopholes, the plot manages to grab your attention and keep it.

'Date With Saie' has a concept that immediately captures the audience’s interest – partly because its unique and partly because its relevant today. Saie Tamhankar, playing herself, meets a rich, young NRI businessman, Himanshu and the friendship blossoms. As time passes, Himanshu proposes to Saie, but she turns him down. Even as she unravels a ghastly truth and has him arrested, she thinks that it is all over – but there’s another truth awaiting her, that might just be the case of her death. Saie Tamhankar is an amazing actress and she performs her character well. She does seem a bit off in the initial episodes, but her performance zings up as the episodes progress. Saie is excellent both as the actress as well as the vulnerable celeb who must face a terrible danger. But the piece de resistance of the series is Rohit Kokate, who has truly arrived on the streaming scene with his manic act. Kokate slips into both his personalities with the comfort and confidence of a veteran. Giving him able support is Pravin Prabhakar, who’s performance is one of those unique knicks wanted to give such eccentric content a certain heft. Pravin stands out in every scene that he is in – even if he’s getting slapped across the face.
The most wonderful part is the screenplay. With such a heavy idea, the audience will look at it through a microscope – searching for a loophole. But at least the casual watcher won’t be able to come up with any. In fact, the director succeeds in creating a screenplay where the audience looks at the world through the eyes of a celebrity and gives the audience a casual look into the life of one. This is a thriller about a stalker. So, violence, gore, and a lot more thrill was par for the course.
While it does make the content viewable at the family dining room, hardcore thriller fans might be left waiting for more.
Date with Saie is a must-watch for thriller fans and could be one of the first that aspiring thriller fans can add to their viewing list.

Set in Goa, the show follows the activities of a Russian drug lord whose turf is threatened by enemies outside and within. Starring Kalki Koechlin, Amit Sial, Gulshan Devaiah, Mandira Bedi, Jim Sarbh and Tom Alter, the series, directed by Neel Guha. Spread over 11 overlong episodes, Smoke examines the chaos that ensues after two members of Moshe Barak’s cartel are murdered in what is taken to be an open declaration of war by a rival gang. Instead of fighting back, the ruthless Barak says he will strike a deal with the rival Duman network, so that they can split profits and avoid more bloodshed. However, it turns out that there are far too many players clamouring for a piece of Goa’s drug pie. The Russian gangster has to contend with rivals from across India and the world – including Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Kashmir – and even his own aides. To complicate matters, Barak’s gang is also being closely watched by the police force, led by the no-nonsense Pereira (Satyadeep Mishra). Other recurring characters include Neil Bhoopalam’s deaf-and-mute chef Savio, and Luke Kenny in a mysterious role.
The show groans under the weight of a cluttered plot and has more characters than it can do justice to. It also doesn’t help that some of its actors have played similar roles in earlier web series. Mishra, who played a corrupt cop in Zero Kms – which too centres on drugs and crime in Goa – looks like he walked out of one set and on to another, shifting his moral compass along the way. Girish Kulkarni, who played sinister minister Bipin Bhonsle in Sacred Games, dons the politician’s hat once again in Smoke, this time as the tough-talking chief minister of Goa who intends to clean up his state. The darkness of the series is also unrelenting, with the body count of the first episode alone clocking in at five. The palate is almost always gloomy and the background score alternates between sinister and psychedelic. The show also lacks heart, a character or a sub-plot that could provide intermittent respite from the macabre and raise the emotional stakes for the viewer. Devaiah is the only actor who fully commits to his role and adds a dash of humour to his guileless mercenary, bringing some much-needed levity to the show. He is well matched by Amit Sial’s Pushkar, a mercurial gangster and the son of Barak’s business partner, Bhau (Prakash Belawadi). Koechlin, who plays Tara, a DJ and Barak’s mistress, seems lost in the plot. Most other actors do a passable job, but they are unable to elevate the sagging plot. Smoke does take more coherent shape sometime halfway through, but it never becomes edge-of-the seat thrilling or nail-bitingly suspenseful. It chugs along from one deception and plot twist to another, becoming mildly engaging and mildly intriguing, but never adequately fulfilling. A glimmer of a pay-off is offered in the 90-minute-long season finale, however – if one manages to stick around that long.

A story of 4 friends- Prerna, Siddharth, Jigyasu and Rajan– who meet after 5 years of their graduation on a pre-planned Goa trip. This reunion turns into refreshing the memories from college, filling up the blanks, overcoming issues together and all in all having fun.
The story seems realistic, not unlike some flashy friendship/travel shows with grandeur and lavish scenery and characters, these characters seem real and more relatable. The cameo appearances blend in nicely in the plot, contributing to the story seamlessly. The series will take you back to your good ole’ college days, proving to be a nostalgic trip down the memory lane. The transition between the past and present scenarios seems too abrupt; it lacks the fluency between the scenes, leaving viewers floundering to catch up with the plot for a few moments. The storyline is amazing, but somehow they fail at executing it properly. For a fun filled, realistic and nostalgic watch, Cheers – Friends. Reunion. Goa. is an apt choice.

On occasion of their father’s (Ayub Khan) birthday, Kunal (Gunjan Utreja) invites his sister Rohini (Chhavi Mittal) and her husband Rishi (Karan Vipin Grover), at a family vacation/get together at their property in Kasauli. Rishi is hesitant to go as his father-in-law has always been a little hard and biased against him. But when all excuses fail and he has to go, a fun family vacation ensues, where Rishi proves to his father-in-law that he is an honest man who deserves respect.
A fun, hilarious take on how intervening families can get and the biased treatment one always gets when it comes to in-laws, The Family Vacation is as real and as light, it can get. The cheesy jokes and lame puns are supported by funny background noises, for e.g. baby’s crying voice or cock crowing, which enhance the comic moments even more. It never feels like the actors are trying to drag the comedy factor too far, it just seems natural and authentic, rather than forceful. All the characters have excelled in their screen timing, performing their roles astonishingly well, making it an entertaining watch. Chhavi Mittal and Karan V Grover have the same emotional connect that they had in the earlier videos. They have an easy-going chemistry that lights up the screen. With the addition of the likes of Ayub Khan and Deepika Amin, the going is only going to be better for this SIT Original. Chhavi Mittal has created a good concept and has good potential. Around 10 minutes long, this 6-episodes series doesn’t feel too much or too less, leaving you satisfied and making it worth your while. The start of the season can feel a little too abrupt, but apart from that, the series is perfect.
A light, entertaining, hilariously realistic family piece. A definite break from the mediocre sob-story family drama shows.

'Zero Kms' flirts with the dark, dangerous world of human trafficking. Brave would be a grossly underwhelming word to describe the channel’s foray into an issue which is largely ignored in the realm of popular conscience. Human trafficking exists, we all know that, but have we really bothered to understand the murky machinations of this shadowy industry that thrives in almost all countries of the world, but especially in our country? No, because this issue is almost always swept under the carpet, or spoken about in hushed tones at best.
Each episode of the series opens with a disturbing piece of statistic flashed on the screen, regarding human trafficking. Next to come, at the start of each episode, are immensely more disturbing visuals– the very first episode shows a young girl’s tongue being surgically cut off. Other episodes show a bevy of girls, blood-stained bandages covering their mouths, being subjected to scrutiny; nubile young girls displayed as provocative sex objects and many more of the same ilk. The disconcerting opening sets the tone of the events to follow, and we spend the better part of the 18-22 minutes of run time, with gooseflesh, hand to the mouth and heart in the throat. Arjun, played by Tanmay Dhanania, is the protagonist. He’s just been released from jail, after ten years of incarceration for murdering a police officer. The truth is something else, and far more evil. Arjun had been framed by DCP John Pinto (Satyadeep Mishra, in his most menacing avatar yet), to blackmail Arjun’s brother, police officer Shyam (Mukul Chadda), into toeing his line. Pinto is the face of an international human trafficking ring that does the most despicable things one can contemplate. While in jail, Arjun is mentored by a martial arts maven called Guru. Guru, if you haven’t guessed by now, is played by none other than the prodigious Naseeruddin Shah. Guru is something of an enigma. The lessons he gives Arjun are deeply sublime and inscrutably brilliant. His training and teachings transform the lanky Arjun into a lean, mean, fighting machine. At his best, Arjun can kill the most vicious of men with his bare hands. Once out of jail, Arjun realizes that Shyam is in deep trouble. And before he knows it, Shyam is murdered and Arjun becomes the prime suspect. Shyam has left a series of clues for Arjun to decipher, which will lead him to crucial evidence against Pinto and his goings-on.
Zero Kms doesn’t waste time on niceties, cutting to the chase straightaway. Throats are slit with alarming regularity– every episode features at least one– and there are copious amounts of blood and gore. A ruthless hit-man called Julius goes on a killing spree with such nonchalant viciousness that it makes one’s hair stand on end.
There are also several really exasperating aspects to the show that are hard to warm up to the constant dialogue Arjun keeps up with himself, the quick camera cuts, swinging between past and present, the innumerable flashback scenes; the lack of urgency in Arjun’s actions– Zero Kms would have been infinitely sharper and tauter without these, in our opinion.
The haunting visuals will linger in your mind’s eye till late in the night; the pulsating music will continue to ring in your ears, until you will it to go away and a good night’s sleep will have gone for a toss. But if you still insist on watching it in the darkness of night, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

With four very different females in the lead roles, the show tries to provide a glimpse into the life of a modern, urban, upper class, upper caste, privileged woman in India. This glimpse is so narrow, that they cannot even get these characters right. Anjana, Damini, Siddhi and Umang are all living in SoBo (South Bombay), which should be called SoMu (South Mumbai) according to Umang, who hails from Ludhiana. These women are shown to be fighting biases about gender and sexuality, even as the makers of the show do little to hide the show’s own stereotypes. The chubby girl is the virgin. The bisexual is the overtly sexual one who’s constantly hooking up with someone. The divorced mother is the one who’s never explored masturbation. And the career-minded startup owner is the obsessive-compulsive loner.
Women with this level of privilege, still face gender-based issues in India. From workplace discrimination and online harassment to safety on the streets, the show had great potential to portray a realistic version. Nevertheless, these characters are shown as one-dimensional caricatures of themselves. The show seems more like Sex and the City with Indian characters, rather than an Indianised version of the same. Four More Shots Please redeems itself from being a wasted opportunity in the last 4 episodes, when it grows organically, and frees the women from fulfilling their specific cliches.
You find yourself rooting for Umang when she falls in love with a woman, and feel her pain when her girlfriend is not ready to come out of the closet. Umang, who has run away from her traditional family to brazenly live her sexuality, cannot bear the suffocation of being in the closet again. On the other hand, her girlfriend’s need to hide her sexuality on account of being a public figure is also understandable. Umang’s former girlfriend, who didn’t have the courage to be open about her sexuality, is shown to be struggling with her marriage and family life.
Perhaps the show’s biggest flaw is its failure to bring out the most basic problems of its target audience: urban Indian women. There are nice moments too but they are few. It’s heartening to see women drinking, cussing and taking the onus of pleasure on themselves. But these are not the only things that define and make ‘real’ women.
Four More Shots Please is something that is rather worth missing than giving a try at all.

'PM Selfiewallie' is a political satire where Tanya Bansal is an NRI from New York, who gets kidnapped during her first ever visit India. She happens to be the granddaughter of the Indian Prime Minister, Priyavarda Thakur. The story circles around the crazy adventure Tanya embarks after she is given the responsibility of leading her country to greatness.
As mentioned earlier, the very idea of a political comedy based in India is novel and therefore wins brownie points. The episodes that screened show potential. The timing of the punches and jokes is on point. There are many things that keep the audience engaged. One, is the whacky screenplay – at one point the protagonist takes a selfie with who could be the President of India, another time she takes a selfie with an alleged terrorist – and the other is the OTT but charming performances of the cast. The portrayal of Tanya Bansal as a ‘not-so-intelligent’ girl has been pulled off in a wonderful by Nityami. She’s joined by Pranay Pachauri, Anjali Sivaranaman and Shaan Grover.
PM Selfie Waali, for all its humour, is a new concept and it will take a while for older audiences to get used to the concept of a political comedy. Some of the dialogues might be too harsh for an audience reeling under injustice in real life. Otherwise,the show has made a good effort to portray the Indian Political scenario, but the effort could have been better by using a more practical way of approach.

Ronny Pathak is a 26-year old directionless individual who likes to think of himself as a youth leader who is living a life based on a lie. For the world, he is the nephew of the MLA or the Vidhayak, when in real life, he does not share any relation with the MLA other than his surname. He is a jobless 26-year old who has no responsibility towards his family. Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare, This is a story about Ronny Bhaiya’s life adventures as he gets stuck in many situations because of the lie that he is living with. If you have been an avid viewer of Zakir Khan’s sets, you would know that more than his content, it is his storytelling that leaves the audience in splits and it was probably this quality of the artist that encouraged Amazon Prime Video to sign off on a show that lets Zakir be the storyteller. Zakir Khan has proved that he his not just a great stand-up comedian but also an equally good writer. Zakir Khan has also proved that he can do well in the acting domain as well. This show has tried to portray different emotions of people from a small town. Zakir Khan’s script has covered almost every emotion including comedy, laughter and even tears. Zakir Khan’s comic timing adds to the already hilarious quotient of the series.
The show is an exaggerated version of his stage act and while one would imagine that an extended ‘Sakht Launda’ act would be impressive, it falters right from the start. In the comedy space, no one enjoys loyal fandom as much as Zakir and the show hugely relies on the same fan base to generate its viewership. Zakir Khan has been successful in proving the point that the unending and overly dramatic TV soaps can be replaced by something quirky and out-of-the-box.

The Reunion is a story about four friends, who lost contacts after school. The main protagonists are Arya, a creative head at Myntra, a major fashion label, Deva, an HR consultant, Dev, Deva’s husband, who is chasing his start-up dream and Gaurav, a stand-up comedian with new found fame. The series brings back our own memories from school, lost friends and all the moments from that innocent time in life. The series is a complete package of laughter, tears, romance, and arguments.
Anuj Sachdeva as Dev has the most to do in terms of expressions and scope. He is the dissatisfied, unhappy, looking-to-break-free guy. However, when with friends, he switches off from his unhappy married life, and enjoys the most. He drinks, breaks out into jigs and dance moments. But his fights with Deva open up even in this ambience. Shreya Dhanwanthary as Deva seems harrowed in the presence of Dev and feels upset at the way their love life has shaped up. A lady who does not want to open up, talk and solve things as she has always wanted her way!! This is her thought process, with her husband and with her once-best friend, Aarya. Shreya does a decent job in the role. G seems the most uncomplicated guy, full of energy, joyous all the time. Veer Rajwant Singh is funny, his expressions top-notch. Sapna Pabbi as Aarya convinces us in the role. She’s happy and free-going , but looks quite complex with respect to her friendship with Deva. Amidst them, we have a girl who has mothered two kids, and listens to the never-ending drama of her mother-in-law.
The location and the setting of the series is wonderful, like places close to nature, the school, etc. The dialogues are in relevance with the viewers’ mindsets. They convey what most of the viewers are feeling. There is an equal balance between comedy, romance, and logic, and all these aspects are portrayed through different perspectives. The story portrays our dreams, fears, and problems through the conflicts and the issues central characters face with each other and with themselves. The series produced by Nikhil Gandhi and Azure Entertainment and co-produced by Lakshya Raj Anand will surely bring a smile on the faces of everyone, who has had happy times in the past with friends. Karishma Kohli, who has directed this series has does a good job too!
Yes, the series does take us to our good old college times, and makes us think and ponder about our friends… It also got us dial a friend from college times and have a hearty chat…
The series will definitely to take you to a walk down the memory lane. It is a complete package and is perfect for binge watching when you miss your school a little too much.