Cult Movies Meet Cool Tech

Citadel: Honey Bunny | Cast : Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Varun Dhawan, Kay Kay Menon | Creators : Raj & DK | Hindi | Prime Video

She can load a shotgun, plant tracking devices on top scientists by charming her way through science conferences, and kick sleazy directors where it hurts most. She can smile, she can lie, she can be playful. And she can fight, with a little help from stuntman Bunny aka Rahi Gambhir. She is Honey (Samantha Ruth Prabhu), a struggling actor, but also the princess (although illegitimate) of a small southern state whose father wants her out of sight. She is a survivor and teaches her daughter Nadia (who grows up to be Priyanka Chopra’s character in the original Citadel) to be a fighter. The show oscillates between 1992 and 2000, between Nainital and Belgrade, and off-Nainital and Mumbai. At stake is a programme named Armada which can destroy the world. There is a secret agency led by Guru aka Baba aka Vishwa, played by Kay Kay Menon, who has a predilection for adopting bright orphans and turning them into devoted agents. He is also prone to making statements like “destruction is the only way to attain true and everlasting peace”. None of this is too serious you know because the object everyone is looking for is stored in a video cassette cover of Shaan, Ramesh Sippy’s cult 1980 movie. That is not the only ’80s movie referenced in Raj & DK’s nudge-nudge wink-wink cinematic universe. There is also Gair Kaanooni, the 1989 Sridevi and Govinda movie, and a soundtrack from earlier movies. Samantha is a star, kicking, shooting and knifing her way through the series, and is its moral centre, while Varun Dhawan is an able lieutenant. Far more soulful than the other two Citadels in the franchise, its creators Raj & DK are in total control of the narrative as it jumps back and forth in time. In Samantha, from the time of second season of The Family Man, they’ve redefined the action heroine, who fights not merely for her daughter’s future but also that of mankind. All the while with a goofy side that lives for the movies. Who wins in the conflict between the family you have and the family you choose? If everyone thinks alike, then what happens to freedom? These are just some of the issues that get addressed along the way.

Why watch it? For Samantha, the newest action hero on the block, and her mini-me, her daughter, played by Kashvi Majmundar

Politics That Looks Perfect

The Diplomat Season Two | Cast : Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Allison Janney | Creator : Debora Cahn | English | Netflix

Russians don’t bomb cities. They poison people or throw them off a terrace. There is much more of an echo from real life politics in Season Two of The Diplomat which takes off from the end of Season One, when a bomb went off in central London blowing up three Americans and a British MP. With Keri Russell playing the US ambassador to England and Rufus Sewell her troublesome husband, the series is impeccably cast, even if watching Russell feels vaguely reminiscent of the extraordinary spy series The Americans. Could it be that the British prime minister bombed his own warship and is in cahoots with a Russian mercenary to help his own case? And if so, what do the Americans do about it? And what exactly is the role of the American vice president (played by Allison Janney)? It’s Homeland-lite with a twist of The West Wing.

Why watch it? It is a surreal version of the way the world is currently, with better hair and cooler dresses

About The Author

Kaveree Bamzai

Kaveree Bamzai is an author and a contributing writer with Open

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