OTT Round up - Akshay Kumar, Sara Ali Khan, Dhanush, Aanand L. Rai’s Atrangi Re Is Endearing, No New Releases In The Coming Week

Aanand L. Rai has made a film which is straight from the heart and for the family audiences out there, it makes for a clean entertainment for sure.

Akshay Kumar, Sara Ali Khan, Dhanush, Aanand L. Rai’s Atrangi Re Is Endearing (Image courtesy - @saraalikhan95/Instagram)

By Joginder Tuteja

Atrangi Re was the solo big release of the week gone by with its digital premiere happening at Disney+Hotstar on Friday. This one was a biggie by all means as Aanand L. Rai was bringing a film of his three years after Zero. Moreover, Sara Ali Khan had another OTT release on Christmas after Coolie No. 1 last year. Dhanush too had seen an OTT arrival in the form of Jagame Thandhiram while Akshay Kumar’s Laxmii had made it straight to the same platform, Disney+Hotstar last year.

Now that the trio has come together for Atrangi Re, there is family audience which has been wooed in a big way. A triangular love story with a difference, this one has Sara Ali Khan in a central role who finds herself in a relationship with Dhanush despite been madly in love with Akshay Kumar for a decade. What happens when both the men find themselves under the same roof and Sara has to make a choice, is what forms the crux of this Aanand L. Rai film.

There is a fairy tale kind of feel in this realistically set movie that is a musical by A.R. Rahman. While some of the sequences require suspension of disbelief, there are moments which are heartening indeed and stay with you. A story about pure selfless love, it has its special moments reserved for the climax which totally justifies the kind of casting that has been put together in Atrangi Re.

The film has found good traction amongst the critics and the audiences too are warming up to the unique narrative that the love story has to offer. Yes, the film is a tad too long and a 15 minute lesser running length would have allowed the drama to be even crisper. In fact a couple of songs could have been done away with. However performances are such that your heart goes out to the characters.

Sara Ali Khan makes you root for her and though at a couple of places stronger histrionics would have helped, by and large she stays consistent. Dhanush does really well and his Tamilian accent in mouthing Hindi dialogues goes in the favour of the character that he plays. Akshay Kumar brings in a lot of entertainment and while he has a larger part to play in the second half of the film (when compared to the first), he owns the climax which is heart-stopping.

Aanand L. Rai has made a film which is straight from the heart and for the family audiences out there, it makes for a clean entertainment for sure.

Coming soon

Surprisingly, in the last week of December, there is no new notable OTT release. Even though 2021 was a mega year in terms of digital releases across various platforms week after week with over 100 web series and movies coming in, the last 7 days won’t have any of it with newer releases coming in only in January now.

Release dates

No new releases

Watch this space for more updates.