Ex Stream Benefits: Looking At The Best And The Beast On OTT In April
April’s OTT releases had mixed results. Kapil Sharma’s return on Netflix lacked innovation, while Chamkila received critical acclaim but fell short in audience engagement. Manoj Bajpayee’s Silence 2 disappointed, contrasting Tanve Azmi’s standout performance in Dil Dosti Dilemma. Read on!
Ex Stream Benefits: Looking At The Best And The Beast On OTT In April
T. S. Eliot was right. April is the cruellest month, at least for the OTT repertoire of the month, where the poor Kapil Sharma jokes (old wine in a new bottle) were the best we could wrest. In his new avatar on Netflix, Kapil does nothing that we haven’t seen him do before.
Zoom did have an informal conversation with Kapil Sharma after watching the first three episodes, and he promised a notable improvement in the coming weeks. “Aap sirf dekhte jaaiye.” We will take your word for it, Kapil. And yes, the Aamir Khan episode did seem like an upscaling. Let’s see how the show goes in May.
The big OTT movie premiere of the month was Netflix’s Chamkila, which got raves. But it didn’t quite get the audience that it expected and did not necessarily deserve. Although this was easily Imtiaz Ali’s best work since Love Aaj Kal (Imtiaz and Punjab seem ‘mad’ for each other), the storytelling’s moral compass didn’t know which way to go.
Manoj Bajpayee had a huge setback in Zee5’s half-baked abomination (why is the OTT platform synonymous with shabby products?) Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout. There is little room for anyone to feel human, not even an actor of Bajpayee’s calibre. He walks around, looking like a man, looking to know why he is where he is. No, we don’t need to feel sorry for our hero. His hands are full of a case that is all over the place.
Performance of the month: definitely not Manoj or even Diljit Dosanjh. But Tanve Azmi. My favourite made-for-the-OTT show of April was Amazon Prime’s Dil Dosti Dilemma, which was street food cooked at home. It had all the crowd-attracting ingredients but was done in a wholesome, digestible way. The idea of a spoilt brat from a well-to-do Muslim family, Asmara (Anushka Sen), being grounded by her liberal parents and forced to stay with her humble but amiable grandparents for two months was riddled with rich-poor cliches. But somehow it succeeded in getting over the plotholes. Tanve Azmi deserves a lot more than she is getting.
Pothole brings us to plotholes in Zee5’s Kaam Chalu Hai, which is written and directed by Palaash Mucchal. Rajpal Yadav couldn’t make head or tail of his role as a grieving father trying to get justice for his daughter’s death. Sometimes, a kind heart is just not enough.
All eyes are now on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi. Would it be the all-encompassing success that Netflix hopes it will be?
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