Ms Marvel (Disney+ Hotstar)
Ms Marvel has concluded its first season, which started brightly but then petered out. We wrote in our review: “Kamala is played by spunky young actress Iman Vellani — quite a find — as a hardcore superhero-fangirl, one who gushes over Captain Marvel obsessively till she stumbles upon her own fantastical powers. The first two episodes are an absolute treat.”
Also read: 4 memoirs for context on Iran’s hijab protests
Dear Friend (Netflix)
Jannath (Darshana Rajendran), a psychologist, lives with her husband Arjun and their friends Vinod (Tovino Thomas), Shyam and Sajith. The group does everything together: pitching their healthcare start-up to investors, playing elaborate pranks on each other and going out on weekends. This sunny slice-of-life story about Malayali millennials finding their way in Bangalore morphs into a tense, slow-burn mystery when one of them goes missing, making the group rethink what friendship really means.—Angela Mathew
Evil (Voot)
‘A priest-in-training, a psychologist and an IT guy team up to hunt ghosts’ may sound like a set-up for a tired joke, but it’s the basic premise of Evil, a sorely under-watched show made by the prolific Robert and Michelle King of The Good Wife fame. Evil, currently in its third season, is essentially episodic—each chapter focuses on our ghost-hunting team investigating what seem to be supernatural events like hauntings, demonic possessions, miraculous recoveries from near death and prophecies to find out if they could have a rational explanation—but also has a totally OTT overarching story-arc involving demonic ‘houses of evil’ and a psychopathic adversary determined to mess with our team. Evil is bizarre, weird and hilarious—and while it doesn’t take itself too seriously, it can offer sharp commentary on everything from social media influencers to video games and overworked delivery guys. Why it’s not watched by more people is baffling.—Shrabonti Bagchi
The Road (Netflix)
The Lebanese film by Rana Salem follows an unnamed couple living in Beirut. She’s quit her job and seems either distracted or unhappy; he works a patch of land and is an audio-visual artist by night. They undertake a road trip to the mountains: on this journey, there are flashbacks, memories and halts at abandoned, dilapidated houses. Fifty-eight minutes into the film, you see the couple smiling for the first time. There is very little dialogue, plenty of ambient sound, and frequent cuts to black. It is left to the viewer to piece the story together—you get a hang of it somewhat only much later in the film, provided you are still watching.—Nipa Charagi
A documentary about singer Sona Mohapatra. We wrote in our review: “The bulk of Shut Up Sona, directed by Deepti Gupta, shows how Mohapatra deals with the challenges of being a solo female artist. She calls out IIT Bombay’s college festival for never having had a female headliner in 30 years. She argues with members of the Sufi Brotherhood on TV after they file an FIR against her for disrespecting Sufi music by performing in Western clothes. She rails against a music industry that is still a 'boys club'. Mohapatra’s anger is justified but the film spends too much time on her coming up with social media campaigns and quippy responses to trolls.”—AM
Also read: Step into the imaginarium of architect Samira Rathod
