In the Driver’s Seat

Rennervations | Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anil Kapoor | Director: Zack Merck and Rupert Smith | English | Disney+

I’m a movie star,” says Anil Kapoor’s character when Jeremy Renner’s friend asks him how his hair manages to stay intact, perfectly groomed. That pretty much sums up the spirit of the series, which is about a great big global movie star taking his hobby of fixing decommissioned vehicles and doing something useful with it, while also having fun. In four episodes, Renner, who is also a construction veteran, chooses one problem at a time to solve with a bold face pal. For India, Kapoor is his mate, a star he’s known from shooting Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011). And the problem he wants to fix is toxic drinking water in a village in Rajasthan. Happy children’s faces, a race against time to fix a portable water filtration system in a repurposed truck, and a famous star to explain local issues. Much as it smacks of the white saviour complex, Rennervations is surprisingly watchable. It’s a little lesson in humanity for our homegrown stars. The other three episodes feature singer Sebastián Yatra, actors Vanessa Hudgens and Anthony Mackie.

Why watch it ? Jeremy Renner’s can-do chemistry with Anil Kapoor

Looking for Love

Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat | Cast: Alaya F, Karan Mehta | Director: Anurag Kashyap | Hindi | Netflix

Mohabbat se hi to kranti aayegi’, sings the DJ. Indeed. Love alone will spark a revolution. Are we a nation of zombies who can’t seem to understand that people should just be left alone to love who they wish to? Where two people of different faiths can never have a relationship? Where music and mohabbat will always be sacrificed at the altar of hatred? Anurag Kashyap is an acute observer of society and politics. A young man, Yakub, falls in love with a schoolgirl, Amrita, in Dalhousie. They happen to be of different faiths. In London, a young woman, Ayesha, becomes obsessed about a young man, Harmeet. They happen to be from different countries. Both Amrita and Ayesha are played by the brilliant Alaya F while Yakub and Harmeet are played by newbie Karan Mehta. Love jihad. Family honour. Shame. Izzat (honour). As always, these values lie in the women, and the minute they step outside the boundaries of what is accepted, they are deemed untouchable. Amrita, named for Amrita Pritam, has been given the Punjabi author to read since she was ten. Her family loved food, poetry, and freedom, until it didn’t. Everything changed, says Amrita, suggesting the rise of fundamentalism and its impact on ordinary people. “Be grateful we let you live here,” Amrita’s brother tells Yakub’s father, even as the latter protests: “You used to call me chachu (uncle).” Kashyap’s quirky little film is a love letter to young people wherever they are, small towns or big, to their dreams of living and loving the way they want to. The villains are clear. It’s us, the zombified adults, who can’t or won’t, understand them.

Why watch it ? A charming cameo from Vicky Kaushal as DJ Mohabbat, a fiery Alaya F, and Amit Trivedi’s haunting love anthem, ‘Mohabbat se Kranti’

In the Name of Islam

Faraaz | Cast: Aditya Rawal, Zahan Kapoor | Director: Hansal Mehta | Hindi | Netflix

It takes a mob to divide the world, but just one child to unite it. As Faraaz’s mother Simeen pays tribute to her son who lost his life in the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka in 2016, it is a poignant moment in a film that unfolds like an argument between a radical, weaponised Islam and an Islam that believes in peace and humanity. “I want my Islam back from you,” says Faraaz (Zahan Kapoor) to the terrorist Nibras (Aditya Rawal) who is holding him and fellow guests at the cafe hostage. Hansal Mehta crafts an intellectual thriller that is lent emotional heft by Simeen (an excellent Juhi Babbar).

Why watch it ? For impressive performances from Aditya Rawal and Zahan Kapoor

About The Author

Kaveree Bamzai

Kaveree Bamzai is an author and a contributing writer with Open

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