Smiling in Gold-plated Coffins

Extrapolations| Cast: Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller, Adarsh Gourav, Indira Varma, Kit Harington | Director: Scott Z Burns | English | Apple TV+

The world is hurtling towards disaster. We know it, but we seem unable to stop. Extrapolations opens in 2037 and ends in 2070, showing us a future that is all-too-real—except perhaps America electing a woman president. Cities are flooded, forests are on fire, entire species are dying, and yet there are billionaires willing to go to any lengths to further their own fortunes especially because it is easy to negotiate when one’s house is on fire. Humans have set foot on Mars, cancer has been cured, and solar energy is everywhere. People wear oxygen masks while out in the streets and gumboots when visiting flooded synagogues. It’s too hot even to hate anyone in a world where temperatures are rising every year. Burns is the writer of Contagion so the scale of research contained in the series is outstanding. The storytelling is urgent, as the subject demands, and the global cast, including India’s Adarsh Gourav, is a delight. Not every character gets the perfect story arc but the tales stack up pretty impressively. Popular culture can play a big role in creating a climate of consciousness and Extrapolations stays just on the right side of paranoia in doing so.

Why watch it ? To see that we need to change the way we consume

Funny Daddy

Pop Kaun?| Cast: Kunal Kemmu, Saurabh Shukla | Director: Farhad Samji | Hindi | Disney+Hotstar

There is a father who reacts ten seconds late to everything, played by Johnny Lever. There is another who dwells in malapropisms, played by Saurabh Shukla. There is a son who is not Lever’s son, Kunal Kemmu, a highly underrated actor who has excellent comic timing. There is a grandfather who is used only for toilet humour. And another played by Rajpal Yadav. Add to it Chunky Pandey and the late Satish Kaushik and it’s somewhat funny. A sample of the humour: “Aap bolo (Say aap),” says one character. “Shut aap,” says another. It’s inane, but induces a laugh. Or even two.

Why watch it? To see some of the country’s finest movie comedians in one space and usually in one set

Action Stations

Hunter: Tootega Nahi, Todega| Cast: Suniel Shetty, Esha Deol, Rahul Dev Director: Prince Dhiman and Alok Batra | Hindi | Amazon miniTV

A rogue police officer with a swagger, another officer who intimidates witnesses and suspects by breaking flowerpots, and yet another officer who is sleeping with an ex-wife of the officer on the run. There is a brutal murder and 18th-century policing involving hands and fists meets 21st-century internet hacking. Some actors age better than others. Suniel Shetty is one of them, laconic, but still, at 61, swift in his kicks and speedy. It’s a police procedural mixed with a family drama, and remains watchable till the end.

Why watch it? Good action, tight visuals, ageing muscles being stretched to the limit

Amazon miniTVApple TV+Disney+HotstarExtrapolationsHunter: Tootega NahiPop Kaun?streaming businessTodega