We recommend: The best new movies and TV series
Dunki: This is the third SRK release of the year! Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, Shah Rukh Khan plays a soldier named Hardayal Singh Dhillon—aka Hardy—who in 1995 helps four friends from a small town in Punjab escape to England. They first try the proper route—by getting a visa. When this fails, they opt for the far more dangerous one—the dunki route through which illegal immigration still happens today. The story has a non linear narrative and has a bit of romance, a bit of comedy and a bit of action! The actors playing the four friends are—Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal, Vikram Kochhar and Anil Grover.
Our take: We are super excited about SRK x Raju Hirani jodi and believe this one will be a sure hit. The movie released this Thursday.
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom: The second instalment of Aquaman is finally here. This movie picks up four years after our superhero played by Jason Mamoa becomes the King of Atlantis by taking his half brother Orm’s (Patrick Wilson) crown and defeating Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). In this one, he recruits Orm again to save his kingdom and the planet from Black Manta and his mythical magical force called the “Black Trident”. Oh and Amber Heard returns as Mera, Atlantis’ Queencand Nicole Kidman as Atlanna, Aquaman’s mother and fierce warrior.
Our take: This one's strictly for the fans of DC Comics’ Aquaman. The movie is now out in theatres.
Percy Jackson and The Olympians: Here’s a reboot every millennial has been waiting for! For those who don’t know, Percy Jackson is a series of YA fantasy fiction inspired by Greek mythology about a 12-year-old boy Percy—son of Poseidon—and his two best friends Grover and Annabeth do their best to prevent a war between the Olympian gods that could destroy the Earth as well. This series covers the plot of the first book—The Lightning Thief—with the trio played by Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri.
Reviews are mixed. The Guardian says: “Strong performances from our central duo aside, the show has plenty of charm.” OTOH USA Today says “the series does a poor job of explaining” the plot and that “the story hardly seems to have begun, and then suddenly you're halfway through.” Our take: We grew up reading and watching Percy Jackson so we are definitely excited for this one. The series dropped on Disney+ Hotstar on Wednesday.
Rebel Moon: This is the much anticipated first part of Zack Synder’s magnum opus which he calls a cross between Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’ and George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’. The plot is a predictable sci-fi fantasy formula where a young girl named Kora (Sofia Boutella)—a former imperial soldier is on the lookout to build a team to take down the greedy, evil empire called the Mothership. What is interesting: the limited resource is wheat!
Fair warning: the reviews are very bad. The Guardian says “Snyder’s would-be magnum opus is merely boring.” Collider writes “The worst part is the material has plenty of potential that goes unrealized.” But it also kindly lists what works—“costume design, production design, and special effects are efficient”. Our take: No lies, we might end up hate-watching this. The movie was released on Netflix today.
Maestro: Bradley Cooper is back with his second directorial venture, and also stars in this film which is a biopic of the great composer Leonard Bernstein and the rocky relationship with his wife, Costa Rican actress and activist Felicia Montealegre Cohn (Carey Mulligan).
The reviews are good and praise Carey Mulligan and Cooper’s performances. The Guardian writes that this film “gets to the heart of the sacrifices great artists feel they need to make”. New Yorker meanwhile notes how this movie is really Felicia’s story and Carey Mulligan “walks away with the movie”. Our take: We love a good biopic and are big fans of Bradley Cooper, this will be a must watch during our holiday break. The movie is out on Netflix.
Berlin: This is for all the ‘Money Heist’ fans. A spin-off from the global phenomenon, this series follows Berlin, the future Spanish Mint robber, in his younger days. Berlin is planning a heist of jewels worth millions of euros. Him and his gang plan to steal 64 jewels in one night at an auction in Paris.
Our take: We’ve been curious about Berlin’s past ever since we got hooked onto Money Heist, and this promises to be equally entertaining. The series will be streaming on Netflix from December 29.
Gyeongseong Creature: This one is for Kdrama fans! The series is a mix of historical drama and a zombie-apocalypse survival drama set in 1945 when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. The best part: The cast are the ‘A’ listers of Korean drama industry—Park Seo-jun (from ‘What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim’ and ‘Itaewon Class’ fame) and Han So-hee (‘My Name’ and ‘Nevertheless’ fame), along with Claudia Kim (from ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’), Kim Hae-sook (from ‘The Thieves’) and Wi Ha-jun (from ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Little Women’).
Our take: South Koreans really know how to tastefully take zombie apocalypse and historical dramas so this one is definitely on our ‘to watch’ list. The first part of the series dropped on Netflix.
Kho Gaye Hum Kahan: From the makers of ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ and ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’—quintessential movies about youth and friendships—comes this movie by debutant director Arjun Varain Singh. It stars Ananya Pandey, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Adarsh Gourav in lead roles and is about friendships and relationships between the three and their significant others—in the age of social media where there is a contant need to perform on and off the internet.
Our take: We are intrigued by the casting choices and think this will be a realistic feel good movie about the current generation. The movie will start streaming on Netflix from December 26.
