Inside Many Minds

Zindaginama | Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Tanmay Dhanania, Prajakta Koli | Presenter: Applause Entertainment | Hindi | SonyLIV

mental illness doesn’t merely destroy individuals, it destroys families. Equally, the cure lies in the family, but seeking professional help is essential. Considered a stigma by many even now, it takes conversations in popular culture to remove misconceptions and misinformation. From schizophrenia to gaming addiction as a coping mechanism for loneliness; from gender dysphoria to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, the six stories in this anthology deal with serious issues with a light but not frivolous touch. Add to that a fine lot of actors to perform the roles written and directed by various people, with clinical help from Mpower—a Neerja Birla initiative—and you have a series that is meaningful and moving. Two sisters lying together in a hospital bed after one of them suffers from anorexia; a broken-hearted young man trying to cope with loneliness; and a young man scared of surveillance, covering his window panes with newspapers—the series covers a gamut of issues and offers some solutions as well.

Why watch it?  It is not every day that streaming offers solutions and moves you as well

Everybody Wants This

Nobody Wants This | Cast: Kristen Bell, Adam Brody | Creator: Erin Foster Netflix | English

Fleabag had a hot priest, Nobody Wants This has a hot rabbi. All love stories need obstacles, and different faiths provide the best stumbling blocks.
An agnostic podcaster who talks about sex for a living and a great-looking rabbi who oozes responsibility. It’s a match made in marriage hell, given the Jewishness of the latter, his clingy mother, and his even clingier
ex. The two meet at a dinner party, fall in love almost instantly, and then come across a series of issues they’ve to negotiate, starting with the rabbi’s impending promotion, which would entail that he marry a Jew; an interfering mother; a gossipy brother; a wrecking ball of a Bar Mitzvah; and several opinionated friends and family members. The ensemble cast is brilliant but the stars of the show are Kristen Bell, a serial dating app veteran who has relationship issues, and Adam Brody, a gentlemanly rabbi who looks great. They have an old-fashioned banter typical of 1940s Hollywood movies, and it goes rat-a-tat. Dominating in-laws, joined-at-the-hip siblings, different Gods—hey, it might as well be based in India rather than California.

Why watch it? Isn’t it wonderful to have the rom-com back?

 

Adam BrodyentertainmentKristen BellOTT seriesShreyas Talpadestreaming businessTanmay Dhanania