'Hutatma' a web series that’s based on the book of the same name by Meena Deshpande. The web series begins with the introduction of the main characters, including the biggest character of them all, Mumbai. In Mumbai, as Vidyut, a young woman is getting ready to watch the Raj Kapoor starrer Shree 420, her father is reporting as usual to work in the mill, political forces are gathering across the city, demanding for a united Mumbai and Maharashtra. The first episode itself is intense and full of actions and reactions and makes for a compelling watch. The characters are introduced in a simple yet memorable manner, and audiences should be geared up for a gritty drama that’s based on how Mumbai and Maharashtra were carved out in the pages of history.
Director Jayprad Desai has done a great job of creating a decades old Bombay. It’s always difficult to create a period for cinema, but Jayprad has succeeded in it. With that, the series hits home hard the points that generations have now forgotten. On the performance side, Anjali Patil embodies the very spirit of the educated, jovial woman who’d be an integral part of a growing up Mumbai.
Just in the first episode, Hutatma stows out the fact that politics is never easy, and history could have changed with a flip of a coin. The very first episode shows off the various facets, political gain, capitalists versus socialists, and the common people who are stuck in between.
The cinematography was very neat with the lights that compliment well-suited production design. I loved how it never submitted itself to a higher tonal contrast which would have created drama by itself. The concise framing helped to bring out the narrative even better. Acting performances were clearly a stand-out among other aspects, by each and every one. The three young rebellions from the poster, performed by Patil, Tatvavadi, and Mahajan shine in their roles with sincerity. Even the veterans were reliable as ever. It’s an absolute treat to watch them perform weighty lines with absolute ease. Ashwini Kalsekar and Chhaya Kadam were fitting in their respective roles. The clear stand-out performances, for me, were by Sachin Khedekar and Kiran Khoje. Sachin Khedekar absolutely kills it whenever he’s on the screen. If he can do it with such a small role with very few lines and more silences, he will be scene-stealer in the further seasons.
Hutatma makes its place as a must- watch series.

The series will be directed by Debaloy Bhattacharya. The series is titled Charitraheen. The meaning of Charitraheen is 'characterless'.
The web series Charitraheen by Debaloy Bhattacharya is a story on immorality and infidelity. The story is set in today’s time. All the characters are portrayed to be ‘characterless’ in the story. The main aim of the series is to take the viewers and audience to a place where there are no barriers of judgement. The series will keep the viewers guessing about the next twist in the story.
This is a dark tale of these souls in a maze of love, lust, desire and betrayal where they are destined to be doomed.
The story surrounds the couple Kiran/Klranmoyee (NainaGanguly) and Harius/Haran (Gourab Chatterjee) and their complicated relationships with Satty/ Satish (Saurav Das) and Sabitri (Saayoni Ghosh), and others who get involved in this journey of love that goes too far. The journey traces these men and women as they try to come out clean. It is to see who finally gets nailed as 'Charitraheen' and what happens to the rest. It is an effort to categorise these characters in today's light. The cast of the series was revealed in a very interesting and unusual way. The director, Debaloy Bhattacharya, presents each member by flipping each page that shows the look of that star in the web series. NainaGanguly, well-known for her work in Bollywood, will be working in the Bengali industry for the first time in this web series. Well-known actors like Gourab Chatterjee, Saurav Das and Saayoni Ghosh make the rest of the cast. Overall, this series is worth watch if you want some plot and twist.

The web series is directed by Samar Sheikh the talented filmmaker who has roped in an interesting star cast which includes actors like Vivaan Shah, Pooja Banerjee, Aman Uppal, Deepti Sati, Shirin Sewani and Gulshan Nain in the lead role. 'Only For Singles', a web series that has six young men and women traverse through urban life and just the beginning of their problems is a place to stay. One of them, Ranjeeta, owns a building and has two flats – which are an impromptu host to the six people. Of course, problems crop up.
RJ (Deepti Sati) has five friends, Mickey (Vivaan Shah), Raapchik (Shirin Sewani), Appu (Pooja Banerjee), Harman (Gulshan Nain) and Riyaz (Aman Uppal). The six live in two flats of her dad’s building. Partly because they don’t have money to pay the rent and partly because Riyaz can’t get a home in Mumbai because of his religion. As the six traverses through urban life, they experience and handle heartbreak, rebellion, love, friendship and come to terms with their life. This, in a nutshell, is how the story pans out. There are many more interesting subplots. Harman gets an audition call for an underwear ad. The one big requirement is a big “package”. Rapchik too is tricked into shooting a porno. Singles have multiple issues, several of which have been dealt with here in good measure. Naseeruddin Shah’s son Vivaan is good as Mickey. But to be honest, they could have him debate internally about choosing between Appu and RJ. Any true blue guy will at least think twice if his hot ex-gal comes back. Just telling RJ to move on does not really cut ice. Deepti is swell as RJ. She seems to have got the lion’s share of work, in terms of playing with different emotions, while the others only have set character briefs. Pooja fits the prototype bong. We would have loved to see her in a more glamorous look though. Shirin, Gulshan, and Aman impressed us equally.
'Only For Singles' is a breezy, light hearted view with some at par performances. The best thing about the series is that it tackles all the problems that millennials face – right from not getting a house on rent to not being taken seriously by parents – in a simple, light screenplay. This is a series with a young vibe and will cater to a young audience. The writer, Chirag Mahabal, conjures up a quick story that’s as light as they come.
'Only For Singles' is one for the young generation. So watch it now kudos.

Dice Media dropped the first season of their new web series, 'Home Sweet Office'. The web series is about two cousins, Shagun and Adhira, setting up a wedding planning gig. One of the first clients they get is Adhira’s ex-boyfriend, Akhil. Both the problem – that of setting up an ex-boyfriend’s wedding, and the concept – planners – are first world, and this could be the tone of the series going ahead. The two lead protagonists are played by Adhira Agarwal (popular digital face Barkha Singh) and Shagun Agarwal (Malayalam film actor Isha Talwar).
Apart from the initial idea of two women taking up a contract for the wedding arrangements of an ex. Barkha Singh as the woman scorned who must set up her ex’s wedding gives a good performance. Isha Talwar as the cousin-with-the-business does a decent job as well.
Home Sweet Office dives deep into the typical middle-class Delhi household. It explores different aspects of the work-from-home dynamic, which is so popular in today’s millennial audiences, to see how these two worlds collide, creating hilarious, and often awkward, situations.
The whole series is an exceptional one and showcases a different concept. It is shown in the simplest form and offers better learnings to take home from this series.

The web series is based on practice of Nikah Halala. According to this law, after the triple talaq if the couple wishes to remarry her husband, she has to marry another man and consummate her marriage and only then she can get married to her first husband. It stars Deepika Singh,Ravi Batia, Shafaq Naaz and Eijaz Khan. The story of 'Halala' revolving around a couple’s compromise on love, a fearless woman’s journey and the fight within her and the society. Afza and Raahil who are married happily, but life has different plans for them. Once in anger, Raahil gives triple talaq to Afza but later regret. He ask their elders to remarry Afza but they told him if he wants to remarry her, Afza have to do Nikah Halala and after divorce, she can remarry Raahil. Raahil told Afza that his cousin Zaid will do Nikah with her as an only option left. Halala’s casting was an intricate process that concluded with veteran and the young talent alike, all set to portray their acting skills, all over again, on the new medium and thriving platform. Ullu’s Halala has the popular and talented actress-dancer Neelima Azeem who essays the role of a mother in the show, Shafaq is set to play the show’s lead while Ravi and Eijaz will play her husbands and Deepika will portray the role of a lawyer in the awaited series.
This series is a worth watch.

Arre India, launched it’s webseries 'Tathaastu' on 20th February 2019. A startup named Tathaastu started by Dev Ashwati brings on the concept of problem solving in real life using the personal assistant app. “Get your craziest wish/problem to the weirdest wishes/problems fulfilled and solved” all at one place. Starring with Rajendra Chawla in as Ahuja, SurbhiDhyani in as Radhika, Pranay Pachauri in as Damodar Kondapali; shortly called as DK, Aekansh vats in as lolly, Pragya Paramita in as Shruti. Solving a small petty complication to a weird problem of tik-tok addiction by a teenager. A complete office drama series with hilarious jokes, crazy minds and weird demands by their customers. Shivankit Parihar in as Dev Awasthi Tathaastu who heads the started a startup Tathaastu, which is a personal assistant app that solves people’s problems, fulfills craziest wishes etc. “only one wish at a time”. Episode one deals with a problem by investigating a case of taimur’s stolen priceless potty seat. In the same fashion they solves series of upcoming problems of marriage where the groom’s family gets to know that there is a fault in the stars and wants to cancel the marriage. So the future bride and the bridegroom runs to tathaastu for help. They comes up with a creative idea of which DK and his team creates a hallucination that there is a cockroach in daya chand chips which isn’t actually and tweeted it, this made the company’s shares under loss. The future bridegroom then calls his dad that because of rejection of that girl, everything happened and made his dad realize that she is a luck stone for his family. This is how tathaastu solved there second problems. The actors seem to have sleep-walked through their roles, that’s how lacklustre the acting is. Pranay Pachauri, the guy who plays DK, apes Hrithik Roshan and quite blatantly at that. The whole series was completely entertaining, exhilarating and exuberant for the audience to enjoy.
This webseries is streaming on MX Player and Arre India. It is a well conceptual comedy series. Watch it only if you have time to kill and nothing better to do.

'Gullak' is about a family staying in the North of India, the Mishra family comprising of the husband, Santosh Mishra, wife, Shanti Mishra, and their two sons. The elder son, Annu is a civil engineer and trying for a Government job, while the younger son, Aman is still studying. The father works with the electricity department and the wife is a home-maker – creating a blueprint for the middle-class families of India. The ongoing in the miniseries is what can be termed as the everyday life of a family in India. That’s a refresher from any of the big ticket, big scenario webseries that we are looking at today. The performances by everyone in the cast is so painfully real that the audience wants to go ahead and give them a hug. It’s difficult to point out who does a better job or which character is more important.
'Gullak' succeeds in many departments, but probably the best thing about it is its self-containment. The writing is precise and meaningful, so much so that the the end product is utterly believable, genuinely funny, and amazingly refreshing. Fortunately, the show's crisp writing and intelligent direction are supported by some brilliantly self-aware and downright delightful performances of the lead actors. Geetanjali Kulkarni, in her rendition of a subjugating yet caring mother/wife, hits the bull's eye, while Jameel Khan, playing a calmer, more sensible husband to her, is fairly convincing. Vaibhav Raj Gupta and Harsh Mayar, as junior Mishras, are also equally enjoyable.
The series is a nod to the unsophisticated middle-class lifestyle and artless ethos of a stratum that forms the bulk of society. It is a nod to the life of people like you and me – mediocre, but elevated to magical by the unconditional love of family; people who collect memories, not riches, in the piggy bank of life.
Splendid stuff this! Go watch it now.

The series is for an OTT platform ZEE5. Produced by Banijay Asia and Opus Communication, it will be a series of episodes based on 12 stories written by Ruskin Bond.
The first four episodes will be based on popular stories - The Ghost in the Garden and The Wind on Haunted Hill, and Wilson's Bridge and The Overcoat - to be directed by V.K Prakash and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury respectively.
Shot in the surreal cinematic locations across India, with mystic, magical, occult, psychic and supernatural elements, Parchayee - ghost stories by Ruskin Bond will redefine paranormal story depictions. Unlike usual horror plots which are sprinkled with envy, fear, anxiety and vengeance, these stories will take you into their world of mystery, secrecy and leave you craving for more. The first episode of the series is about a young boy who lives with his Grandmother, and whose father is mostly out on the seas. The young boy’s life takes a twist when he dreams about a strange woman who’s committed suicide by hanging herself from a nearby tree. In real life, there’s a scare about a kidnapper who’s trying to kidnap boys and girls from the school that he goes to.
Parchayee is based on Ruskin Bond’s stories, so the episode has a good, retro feel to it – and that’s a welcome change. After all, there’s very less children’s programming on the streaming platforms and ZEE5 has done a good job by bringing such content to the streaming platforms. The story is a typical fantasy tinged story based in the real world and would be interesting to parents as well as children. The performances are good, with the little Kabir Sajid bringing the childlike innocence to the going-ons. The others, Farida Jalal, Swanand Kirkire, Kurush Deboo and Bachchan Pacheria are solid actors and deliver the goods.
In all, this is nothing like the typical horror stuff we are more familiar with, but is more of a light family series with many fine performances by the cast, that surely deserves a watch, especially if you are already well-familiar with the world of Ruskin Bond.

Kunal Kemmu plays Abhay, the titular character who’s the head of a Special Task Force. The Special Task Force is tasked with finding out the truth behind a series of disappearances of children in a village. Abhay and his team must fight corruption, ineptitude, cultural morass and several other aspects of human behaviour to find the real killer.
The very fact that someone decided to make a police procedural in India is commendable. That the series is inspired from real life crimes – without going for the over the top way it is handled on TV is better. Kunal Kemmu does a good job of playing the tough cop with a difference. Sandeepa Dhar plays a part of the STF, and she does a good job as well. Of course, only one episode is up for streaming yet, so there’s no word about character graph, etc. The pilot episode also hints at this series being a copy of the police procedurals or the west, where the main investigators have personal problems – which they must break through so they can concentrate on the job.
The series has been touted as being inspired from real events, so the audience might feel cheated. At least the first crime that is depicted has enough material for a whole, full blown series. That the creators decided to dedicate just one, pilot episode will leave true crime disappointed, as well as leaving fiction crime buffs unsatisfied.
Overall, Abhay is an interesting concept that will win over crime buffs.

Romil and Jugal (R&J) is a modern-day Indianised adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and quite evidently, the protagonists have been named after these characters. They are neighbours – cool dudes coveted by girls, but they are different. They like men. Jugal (Manraj Singh) is someone who has come to terms with his sexuality long ago in his early teens, and has made attempts to brush girls aside since then. On the other hand, Romil (Rajeev Siddhartha) is still struggling to accept himself, and pretends to be interested in girls due to obvious reasons. But destiny has planned to bring them together, and as you would expect it, hell breaks loose.
The fun thing about this series is, it has all the elements of a typical Indian series or movie – romance, melodrama, music and dance, angry parents. But it does not get you bored. It is different, and progressive, to say the least. It is wonderful to see how entertainment has moved on from treating homosexuality as a comic relief.
R&J looks like one such attempt to change people’s minds for the better through a manner that the Indian audience buys – Bollywood style.
There are these elements of North-South Indian antagonisms to make it more spicy, but due to some divine blessing, the parents are already progressive enough not to make that an issue. Even more pleasantly surprising, in one scene Jugal’s father reprimands him for not kissing a girl because doing so would have gotten him in the good books of her father, who happens to be his (Jugal’s father’s) boss. You heard me right. Utopian. Facepalm. You would only wish you had a father like that, but not if you are gay. No matter how liberal or educated they are, Indian parents will never accept in one go that their children might have different choices. And the fact that it is completely natural.
Now the story is pretty clear and it just remains to be seen whether they have a happy ending, or end up in a tragedy like Romeo and Juliet. Well I know it already. Maybe you can find out for yourself. In the end, what is to be understood is that, some people are born in a way that might be beyond our comprehension. But so are we to them. They still love us, and live with us. They accept us for what we are and know that it is not something contrived. I hope this series will help, so called straight people to get more empathetic to the whole idea.