The Secretive Seven

Jee Karda| Cast: Tamannaah Bhatia, Suhail Nayyar | Director: Arunima Sharma | Hindi | Prime Video

A soothsayer opens his eyes wide and tells a group of seven children what they should be wary of: your brother, he tells one; your father, he tells another; love, he tells a girl; sweets, he tells another. So on and so forth. In a great advertisement for astrology, each one of his predictions comes true, as his terrified subjects grow up, fall in love, get married, or not. There is a great effort to give everyone equal time in the eight-episode series, but it is clear that Tamannaah Bhatia is the star and she gets to do all the things she cannot in her cinematic avatar. So she smokes, drinks, is unfaithful; and wears tons of mascara in case we don’t get the point that she’s a good girl gone bad. There is a concentrated effort to give the series diversity: so there is a gay friend, a Muslim friend, and a single woman friend. You get the picture.

Why Watch it: For Tamannaah Bhatia, always a compelling performer

Reel Drama

Ayisha| Cast: Manju Warrier | Director: Aamir Pallikal | Malayalam | Prime Video | Hindi | JioCinema

N ilambur Ayisha was an actor who ended up as a housemaid in Saudi Arabia. Manju Warrier, who plays Ayisha, was at the height of her fame as an actor before she gave it up to marry fellow actor Dileep. When she returned to dance and cinema after 15 years, it was as if the pain of the intervening years had been washed away. In some way, playing Ayisha must have reminded Warrier of her life away from cinema. She brings her unique experience to the beautiful role of a caregiver who becomes indispensable to the matriarch of the household in Saudi Arabia. As they exchange ideas and dreams, they become friends. Apart from the cringing one may experience when the Saudi government is praised for its reformist attitude towards women, and the alarming item song that explodes on the screen, there is much grace and dignity in the movie, channelled through Warrier’s poised performance. It’s one of the few movies that chronicle the life of the Malayali migrant woman, the solidarity Ayisha finds with a fellow Malayali nurse, and the domestic politics which is used and abused to subdue the desperate women in the household where they work. The sacrifices the migrants make for their families, nurturing the families of others, is not something that is discussed much. Nor is the international community of domestic workers that Ayisha becomes part of, with Nigerians, Filipinos, and Indians all working in below par conditions.

Why watch it? For the story of invisible women who brave great odds for their families back home

In Case You Missed It

Bloody Daddy| Cast: Shahid Kapoor | Director: Ali Abbas Zafar | Hindi | JioCinema

It’s a story that’s been told several times before. Crooked policeman’s chase goes wrong but he manages to nab a bag with some very expensive drugs, his son gets taken from him, and the man who has done it wants his bag back. Said policeman has a fractious relationship with his son and not only because the latter has lactose-free chocolate milk and gluten-free bread with avocado. There are lots of flashy car chases, lots of bullets flying around in the air, and even more cuss words. Every actor wants at least one simple, stylish thriller in his oeuvre and this is Shahid Kapoor’s attempt to fill that gap.

Why Watch it? It’s a serviceable action film for those who like that

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