Drishyam 3: The Conclusion Review- The Unusual Suspect
Director: Abhishek Pathak | Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Jaideep Ahlawat
For 11 years, Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn) has outwitted the police, defended his family and captivated audiences. In Drishyam 3: The Conclusion, he veers from the Malayalam original towards a different conclusion which continues confounding a new set of pursuers. The victim’s mother Meera Deshmukh (Tabu) now lives in a bubble of dread, while her husband, Mahesh (Rajat Kapoor), tries to reach out in a final attempt to catch the slippery Vijay. But Vijay is a storyteller and knows that what we tend to see is often what is shown to us. Drishyam has always been a family drama as much as it has been a class war, the conflict of an ordinary upstanding family versus an elite family with a son drunk on his parents’ power. Shot is blues and greys, in colours that promise many versions of truth, Drishyam 3 makes the best use of Devgn’s minimalistic acting, Tabu’s deep-seated sorrow, Kapoor’s frustrated but honourable husband, and new entrant Jaideep Ahlawat’s enigmatic presence. Like the forever rain which accompanies the movie, there is a pleasure in welcoming Salgaonkar and company back in our midst, to continue with the suspense. In Ahlawat’s words: dhak dhak dhak dhak.
War Review: Creamy Layers of Lie
Creator: George Kay | Cast: Dominic West, Sienna Miller | English | JioHotstar
Dominic West has a history of playing lying husbands, and Sienna Miller looks every inch the movie star. Their new series War references tech bros and Hollywood breakups, pitting a storied law firm against a scrappy start-up as Miller’s Carla Duval takes her billionaire husband West’s Morgan Henderson for every penny he has, and he has lots of them. Morgan has a history of sleeping around and Carla tests his allegiance by honeytrapping him with a friend (Rose Williams as Flora, looking very different from her Sanditon avatar). This is the kind of series British TV does best: lowbrow dressed in haute couture and clipped accents with a series of highbrow actors from Celia Imrie to Archie Panjabi. Old money, class differences, new values. War is a vision to behold and with episodes dropping every week, it has you begging for more. Messy marriages offer a vicarious pleasure and watching sharp legal minds feast over the remains of a relationship yields a voyeurism that is difficult to compete within a world full of fractures.
#Love: Lessons in Chemistry
Matthew (Arjun Das) believes in chemistry and Tara (Aishwarya Lekshmi) has faith in compatibility. He is a nepo baby investing in a dating app that favours men; she is a self-starter who pours her savings into another app which finds mates based on compatibility. They challenge each other to find their soulmates online but of course end up falling for each other. The Tamil series #Love (Netflix) is predictable but pretty and pleasant, miles away from the self-referential romances churned out by Mumbai cinema.
The Royals: A Royal Shuffle
Sini Shetty is set to take on The Royals following Bhumi Pednekar’s exit after Season One. Shetty—a former Miss India—has been cast along with Gurfateh Pirzada, currently on a hot streak with roles in The Revolutionaries and Lust Stories 3, making it a potential juicy triangle with the male lead, Ishaan Khatter. Nora Fatehi also returns, playing Khatter’s forever-ex.
Chalrey Chalarey Wal: Back To Folk
A Saraiki folk song has got a new life with a cover version by a young Pakistani medico, Shanzy Sial. The song is ‘Chalrey Chalarey Wal’, the melody of which was previously copied for “Na Kajray Ki Dhar,” sung by Pankaj Udhas in the Hindi film Mohra.
Ageless Romance
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit dropped on JioHotstar on October 2 and fans have rave reviews about the age-gap romance between Justin (Nivin Pauly) and Ashley (Mamitha Baiju). Here are some of my other age-gap favourites:
Jane Eyre (2011): In this adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic, Rochester (Michael Fassbender) is broken and Jane (Mia Wasikowska) is innocent. She believes she can fix him but he is harbouring a terrible secret.
Lost in Translation (2003): Bill Murray plays Bob, a fading movie star, and Scarlett Johansson is Charlotte, a philosophy graduate. Will their connection last beyond Tokyo? The whisper in her ear and the kiss seem to suggest it will.
Sabrina (1954): Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn) believes she is in love with the younger brother (David, a playboy) while the older one (Linus, a corporate titan) simmers silently for her. Finally, Hepburn chooses Humphrey Bogart’s Linus, over William Holden’s David and we are all for this Billy Wilder classic.