July brought us some strange birds from the streaming platform, like Tarla on Zee5 which did to the culinary queen Tarla Dalaal what Shakuntala Devi had done to the mathematical genius. They both demythicized the two larger-than-wife housewives-turned-global-celebrities shrinking them by several sizes.
To snap out of the cooking catastrophe, there was the heartwarming Sweet Karam Coffee on Prime Video. Just the pleasure of watching the legendary Laxmi( who once played ‘Joyous Julie’) back on screen, was incentive enough to watch three generations of women from a family take off on a road trip. Many road bumps ahead, but the intrinsic kinship among the ladies made this ‘Koffee With Karam’ a yum-yum.
But the month of July belonged to Kohraa on Netflix. Although the spoken language of the series was Punjabi, we didn’t have to read the subtitles to follow what the characters were thinking. Language is the least important component of cinema. Director Randeep Jha understands this. Kohraa was resonant with a haunting raga of guilt and retribution. Even the most minor of character left a lasting impact. But the star discovery of the series of was the leading man Suvinder Vicky as a cop wrestling with his past. When was the last time we saw an Indian actor give such a rousing performance?
Kohraa will be discussed for years to come; so would Amazon’s big-ticket feature Bawaal, though perhaps not for the same reasons. True to its title Bawaal created a furore over its strange parallel between a fractured marriage and Auschwitz. That apart, Bawaal had its merits: originality, sincerity and its heart beating at the right place.
This is more than we can say about Disney-Hotstar’s The Trial. The architects of this vapid courtroom drama should be put on trial for squandering Kajol’s talent.