Only once in a while does a film release that is so beautiful, so engrossing, so intelligent and so well crafted, that it becomes impossible to avert your eyes from it. The Lunchbox is one such rare film that must be seen to inhale its genius and beauty.


The beauty of this film lies not in the story but in the telling of it which sweeps you off your feet and transports you into a world where words and a Dabba(tiffin-box) pulls two strangers together. One of them is Sajan Fernandez (Irrfan), a widower who is on the verge of his retirement. He is a lonely man who is isolated from the world at his own will as if he no longer wishes to be a part of it. The other stranger is a married woman, Ila (Nimrat Kaur), whose husband has lost interest in her. She wants to be a part of his life but he seems to not care. In a bid to win her husband's heart, Ila, one fine afternoon cooks his favorite meal but the local Dabbawala's of Mumbai makes a beautiful mistake by delivering the tiffin to Sajan's office.
The letter thus acts as a catalyst for a timeless romance between these two lonely and desperate souls. But this is not a Rom-Com even though the plot sounds like it, far from it. Writer, director Ritesh Batra cleverly uses this simple plot and weaves a beautiful, grieving, and witty tale of lonely hearts. Apart from these two central characters, two more characters are caught in between this romance. One is the voice of a neighborhood woman, Deshpande Aunty (Bharati Achrekar) who lives above Ila. She never appears on-screen but she acts as a fairy godmother to Ila. Another is, Aslam (a terrific Nawazuddin) a trainee who will replace Sajan. He is a fellow who becomes friends with Sajan. Irrfan Khan delivers his best performance as a loner widower. His simplistic performance speaks volumes. There's a scene in which he eats food all alone while reading a book. That scene alone will break your heart. It is a revelation. Matching shoulders with his tall talent is the debutant Nimrat Kaur, who plays Ila with a rare innocence that it becomes impossible to not root for her. She presents Ila with beautiful dignity and makes herself one with the character. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a revelation in the role of Aslam. He is the sole character who provides some comic relief to the story. It is his presence that ultimately saves the film from becoming dull. Ritesh Batra debuts with a rare romance that leaves you with a lump in your throat while making you smile throughout the film. I am going with 5 stars. A masterpiece indeed!

Only once in a while does a film release that is so beautiful, so engrossing, so intelligent and so well crafted, that it becomes impossible to avert your eyes from it. The Lunchbox is one such rare film that must be seen to inhale its genius and beauty.


The beauty of this film lies not in the story but in the telling of it which sweeps you off your feet and transports you into a world where words and a Dabba(tiffin-box) pulls two strangers together. One of them is Sajan Fernandez (Irrfan), a widower who is on the verge of his retirement. He is a lonely man who is isolated from the world at his own will as if he no longer wishes to be a part of it. The other stranger is a married woman, Ila (Nimrat Kaur), whose husband has lost interest in her. She wants to be a part of his life but he seems to not care. In a bid to win her husband's heart, Ila, one fine afternoon cooks his favorite meal but the local Dabbawala's of Mumbai makes a beautiful mistake by delivering the tiffin to Sajan's office.
The letter thus acts as a catalyst for a timeless romance between these two lonely and desperate souls. But this is not a Rom-Com even though the plot sounds like it, far from it. Writer, director Ritesh Batra cleverly uses this simple plot and weaves a beautiful, grieving, and witty tale of lonely hearts. Apart from these two central characters, two more characters are caught in between this romance. One is the voice of a neighborhood woman, Deshpande Aunty (Bharati Achrekar) who lives above Ila. She never appears on-screen but she acts as a fairy godmother to Ila. Another is, Aslam (a terrific Nawazuddin) a trainee who will replace Sajan. He is a fellow who becomes friends with Sajan. Irrfan Khan delivers his best performance as a loner widower. His simplistic performance speaks volumes. There's a scene in which he eats food all alone while reading a book. That scene alone will break your heart. It is a revelation. Matching shoulders with his tall talent is the debutant Nimrat Kaur, who plays Ila with a rare innocence that it becomes impossible to not root for her. She presents Ila with beautiful dignity and makes herself one with the character. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a revelation in the role of Aslam. He is the sole character who provides some comic relief to the story. It is his presence that ultimately saves the film from becoming dull. Ritesh Batra debuts with a rare romance that leaves you with a lump in your throat while making you smile throughout the film. I am going with 5 stars. A masterpiece indeed!

The greatest love stories are the ones that make you root for the lovebirds, however, contrasting their destinies may seem to you. Romeo and Juliet, Laila and Majnu, or even Rose and Jack from Titanic, all the three love stories make you pine for the central characters to live together happily ever after. Joining this list is Varun and Pakhi, the central characters of Vikramaditya Motwane’s epic period romance, ‘Lootera’. Lootera is a rare gem of a film that mingles all the aspects of filmmaking seamlessly to give us a beautiful and scathing romance.
Set in post-independence India, Lootera is about Varun Srivastava, a charming young man who claims to be an archeologist, who knocks at the door of an aristocrat named Soumitra Roychaudhary in search of an age-old attic. There he meets the daughter of Soumitra named Pakhi. Slowly over evening walks and painting lessons, Varun and Pakhi fall in love with each other. However, their destinies take them to different places. The story is simple but the screenplay beautifully merges the simplistic story with beautiful and dignified details that makes the film all the more beautiful. The film focuses on the inner dilemma of the characters rather than stuffing the narrative with external information. At the surface, Lootera may seem like a simple period romantic film, but there’s a whole treasury of emotions and nuances stuffed inside it. The film thus asks its viewers to peel its layers to find greater meaning into each characters’ motivations. There’s a proud aristocrat whose heart breaks into a million pieces, a loyal friend, a cocky inspector, a sympathetic manager and at last a hanging leaf. With a beautiful screenplay by Vikramaditya Motwane, Bhavani Iyer, and Anurag Kashyap, Motwane makes another winning film. Each frame of Lootera appears to be a painting and each shot speaks volumes. Lootera has been scored by yet another genius whose work seems to be getting better with time, Amit Trivedi. He weaves beautiful songs into the narrative which elevates the experience of watching the film. Coming to the performances, Ranveer Singh as Varun gives a beautiful and subdued performance, speaking more with his body language and pained eyes than with dialogues. Sonakshi Sinha gives her best performance as Pakhi, a torn writer struggling with respiratory disease. With all this, Lootera is on its way to becoming a cult classic in near future.
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Weaving politics in a show can be a tricky thing because more often than not, creators get so caught up in stuffing politics into their stories that they completely forget to work on the story or characters which can make the show very bland and deaf-toned. This is why Paatal Lok is such a refreshing series which not only reflects the political state of the nation but also weaves a compelling and thrilling narrative that never becomes tiring. Paatal Lok on its surface is a compelling investigative thriller that rises above the mediocre narrative tropes and gives us compelling characters and world-building. It is when you are ready to see through the façade, that the show presents its true politics and reflects the sorry state in which we are living. Caste, class, gender, violence are all some of the major themes of the show and forms the major chunk of the show’s conflict.
Paatal Lok, created by Sudip Sharma, borrows its scathing and bleak narrative from David Fincher and Indianize it in a very clever yet subdued manner, never revealing more than what’s needed. This elevates the experience of watching the show. Paatal Lok follows Hathiram Choudhary, who has been allotted a high-profile case, which involves scary criminals and petty politicians. As Hathiram starts digging more and more into the case along with his sub-inspector, Imran Ansari, the plot thickens and deeply buried secrets start pouring out. Paatal Lok has been written over four years which reflects in the form of various details that the show wears on its sleeve. The show presents an India that is being eaten alive by a selected few who are thirsty to exploit it in every form. Politicians, elites, senior officers, age-old traditions, are all part of the game and reflect the immorality that runs in the veins of India.
Paatal Lok has been directed by Prosit Roy in collaboration with Avinash Arun. Both have done an exceptional job in creating a gripping tale full of unforeseen twists and turns. Jaideep Ahlawat, who plays the foul-mouthed Policeman named Hathiram Chaudhary, delivers a career-defining performance. From his dialect to body language, to his expressions, everything is pitch-perfect. The rest of the cast is also on top of their game. Gul Panag, Ishwak Singh, Neeraj Kabi, Swastika Mukherjee, and Abhishek Banerjee all appear in leading roles and have delivered great performances which makes the show to have one of the best ensembles acting ever. Paatal Lok is a rare gem of a show that deserves to be celebrated in the way it merges politics with compelling storytelling.

True crime is an extremely tricky genre for popular media such as films and shows for the simple reason that the crimes these shows portray have left such a scathing footprint that it becomes morally wrong to portray it through a non-biased lens. A creator thus has to take a balanced and objective stance while making a true-crime show. This is what Richie Mehta does with Delhi Crime, his 2019 Netflix show. Richie, the writer, director behind the show, takes one of the most horrible crimes in this decade, the famous Nirbhaya case that shook the entire world, and tells its aftermath in the most brutally honest way possible. The show does a great job of keeping the narrative balanced and simple, which makes it very easy to digest even though it deals with such a horrible crime.
The series captures the investigation process that followed the rape case and how the Delhi police captured all the culprits responsible for the assault and death of the victim. Vartika Chaturvedi, played by Shefali Shah, is the Deputy Commissioner of Police who has been tasked to solve the case before all the culprits escape from the city. She thus assembles a team of cops and starts investigating. Through the investigation, the show reveals the intricate details of the crime and also portrays the pain and anger the whole nation was going through. Various protests across the city took place in real life that has been aptly captured in the series as it is without any overt dramatization of it. Nothing in the series seems hyped or dramatized; such is the writing of it. Richie told in an interview that he had been writing the show for over three years and it shows in the series. The screenplay is very well researched and written in a very compelling style that makes the show, a taut and compelling thriller.
Delhi Crime has an ensemble of great actors who are at the top of their game. Shefali Shah gives a career-defining performance as the strong and clever DCP who is shattered after witnessing such a tragedy and is doing everything she can to track the culprits down. Rajesh Tailang, who appears as an inspector called Bhupendra Singh, perfectly plays the role of the rough and tough cop, struggling to run his home with his meager salary while giving his everything to the police department. Other terrific actors like Rasika Dugal, Adil Hussain, and Avijit Dutt, all give some of their best performances which elevate the experience of watching the series.
Delhi Crime is devoid of any over-the-top subplots, musical interludes, or overtly stylistic approach which makes the show seem like a documentary in terms of realism. It is a terrific show which deserves all the more attention just for the fact that it is brave enough to show the events just as it is without any emotional manipulation as happens quite often with other shows.

It’s a rare feat for an artist to match their artistry with their ambition. There have been numerous examples where either one succeeds the other. A good example of this would be Anand L. Rai’s 2018 outing ‘Zero’, an ambitious film that was bogged down by a highly contrived narrative. Unfortunately, the second season of the highly anticipated show ‘Sacred Games’ falls into the same category. It’s ambitious, imaginative, timely, and brave, yet it falls into the ploy of conventional storytelling and character tropes. It never rises above the virtuosity of its concept. Everything is done on the surface and much has been left to dig inside the brilliant characters that it puts on the screen.
The plot continues from where it was left in the first season. The day is 13 and the clock is ticking. The present time shows Sartaj and his team, now also including his rival Majid (Played effectively by Aamir Bashir), searching Mumbai for clues regarding the attack mentioned by Gaitonde over a telephonic conversation to Sartaj while the flashbacks show how Gaitonde was rescued and turned into a pawn in the master-plan of Guruji. It’s a plot stuffed with a lot (examples- lynchings, Hindu-Muslim segregation, and politics) and everything happens at a break-neck speed which prevents the viewer from investing in some of the subplots. A perfect example would be the lynching scene of a young Muslim boy. It’s a brave and timely addition to the main plot and its shot in a nerve-wracking way but there’s no emotional heftiness added to it which prohibits the subplot to blend in seamlessly. Yes, you still care about Sartaj and want to figure out the master-plan of Guruji but that is the doing of the brilliant first season rather than a byproduct of this season.
But that’s not to say that all is lost, far from it. There are lots to love too. Some new characters do shine. Like Jojo, played ferociously by Surveen Chawla. Jojo runs a successful brothel but wants to end her life due to some tragic incident. She fails every time as she lacks the courage to do so. She has been given some of the best scenes which further adds remarkable layers to her presence. One more such character is Majid, whose character arch is some of the best writings of this show. The way his character has been developed is what I wanted for all the other characters. One of the main reasons why this character works is the incredible performance delivered by Aamir Bashir who infuses Majid with incredible vulnerability. Saif Ali Khan reprises the role of Sartaj, an anxiety-driven and recently divorced police officer who loses himself while solving the mystery of attacks. Saif is as good as ever portraying the fear and vulnerability of the character with subtlety and care. He makes Sartaj, a breathing embodiment of the human tragedy that this show relies upon. Nawazuddin also reprises his role as Ganesh Gaitonde and delivers one of his best perfromances. His character is that of a robust, confused, revenge-driven gangster who becomes part of a game much bigger than himself and Nawazuddin gets each of the mentioned aspects to bang on. He completely hides his real self and becomes Gaitonde. It's one of his best performances and keeping in mind the kinds of role Nawazuddin has pulled off in the past, that's saying something.