OTT Series You May Have Missed

Chippa(Netflix)

Director

Safdar rahman

Cast

Sunny Pawar,Masood Akhtar

Plot

At midnight on his 10th birthday, a boy scours the lesser-known Kolkata streets in search of a father he’s never met, carrying a letter he can’t read.

Chippa(Netflix): Very few of our films cast children in  the   main role. It is  a pleasure to see little Sunny Pawar  who stole the show from Dev Patel in Lion, roaring again in a small film with a big heart.In Chippa  again,  young  Sunny Pawar is lost  in Kolkata.This time the city  of  joy doesn’t look  as irradiant as  it did in Lion. The  frames are  palely lit and the narrative’s texture has a  drab feel to it.Also, Sunny playing a street urchin  named Chippa meets only kind-hearted people on the deserted night streets Kolkata.

A ten-year  old boy  roaming all alone in  Kolkata all night? One trembles at the thought, But writer-director Safdar Rahman is an optimist. He  lets his little hero loose in a Kolkata filled with  football-playing, drinking, reminiscing  Kolkatanas  of every age.Out little hero negotiates his way  through the  langorous labyrinth in search of a father who has sent him a letter in  Urdu after ten years  of absence.

“Tu mussalman hai  kya?” a drunken potential  driver asks Chippa. Wisely the boy doesn’t reply. This  street survivor knows when to hold his peace, and when to speak  up. When  a kindly newspaper  hawker takes Chippa home and tells him to  go upstairs and meet his wife, the boy improvises  his  introduction to the lady  with  a  sly compliment. This boy  is  charmer trapped in a film that doesn’t match up to his charms.

 I looked  for  more such  moments   of  epiphany in  the  picaresque  plot. This is a story so  free of artifice  that it doesn’t feel like  a film at  all.Ten-year old Sunny Pawar holds  the  film together as  though to the camera  born. Playing the little boy in wonderland  Pawar is wise, cocky, innocent and clever all at once. Chippa is worth our time for Pawar’s  authoritative performance. The  rest  of the cast except  Chandan Roy Sanyal who comes  very late,  comes and  goes without creating any lasting  impression.With more meat rather than  gravy in  the plot Chippa  could have  what Mira Nair’s Salaam Mumbai was and what  Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire could never be.

Broken But Beautiful  Season 2(Zee5)

Seasons

123

Created By

Ekta Kapoor

Cast

Pooja Bhamrah,Harleen Sethi,Vikrant Massey

Plot

Broken is Veer and Sameera’s story where their hearts were left broken and damaged after they lost their love. Destiny has brought love in to their lives again, will they give it a second chance?

Broken But Beautiful  Season 2(Zee5): Even if you are  sucker  for  Mills & Boon  mush, this  second season  is as  exhausting as  a second  helping of  an over-sweetened dessert. To bring  the broken-hearted couple back is merely  an excuse to separate them  for as long as possible, while they date other people and  exchange sentiments stolen  from whatsapp forwards.

So we have Sameera  being speed-wooed  by  a distant cousin Ahaan whom all of Sameera’s friends(including a gay hairdresser) have  a crush on. But Sameera has other plans for her heart.Don’t ask what they are.  Okay, here’s a hint: until the  end  of the season she will  be cynical about love until the FS(with the  empty coffee cup, so emblematic of   the  emptiness simmering at  the  core of this pretty  but shallow take  on urbane relationships) observes that Sameera no  longer needs therapy as she’s gotten over Kartik.Good. But has the series  gotten over Sameera trying to flush   unrequited  love out of her  system? Going around in  dizzying circles  Broken But Beautiful Season 2  is like  a love song that  has  overstayed  its welcome.

The  dialogues are  a facsimile of smartness. “I am glad you’ve changed. But be careful what you change  into,” warns Sameera’s dogmatic friend. Going from Season 1 to 2  Broken But Beautiful shows  no sign of change.