OTT Round Up - Mumbai Diaries 26/11, Bhoot Police, Kya Meri Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai, Candy Make It An Eventful Week At OTT, Haathi Mere Saathi This Weekend

Mumbai Diaries 26/11 has turned out to be the right combination of class and mass appeal, with a medical drama been shown with the backdrop of 26/11 attacks.

OTT Round Up - Mumbai Diaries 26/11, Bhoot Police Make It An Eventful Week (Image courtesy - @primevideoin, @arjunkapoor - Instagram)

By Joginder Tuteja

It was an eventful week for the OTT, what with as many as four notable releases on various platforms - Mumbai Diaries 26/11 [Amazon Prime], Bhoot Police [Disney+Hotstar], Kya Meri Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai [ZEE5] and Candy [Voot Select]. While a couple of these are web series, the other two are original movies.

Mumbai Diaries 26/11 has turned out to be the right combination of class and mass appeal, with a medical drama been shown with the backdrop of 26/11 attacks. A fictional story set against factual tales, this Nikkhil Advani and Nikhil Gonsalves directed web series has found appreciation from all quarters due to its dramatic and thrilling appeal. Moreover, performances are uniformly good too, especially with Mohit Raina leading from the front and Konkona Sen Sharma bringing further weight to the proceedings.

Bhoot Police was released a week earlier owing to the Ganesh Chathurthi festival. Originally slated for 17th September arrival, the Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez and Yami Gautam starrer is streaming already and makes for a good family watch. A horror comedy that has been mounted on a good scale with polished production values (courtesy producers Ramesh Taurani and Akshai Puri), this one is a good time-pass entertainer that cuts across all age groups.

Another family entertainer is Kya Meri Sonam Gupta Bewafa Hai which too has emerged as a time-pass affair that can be given a breezy and comfortable watch. An easy on eyes film that doesn't put a strain on brains and can be watched by the family audience, this Jassie Gill and Surbhi Jyoti starrer adds on to the long list of small town affairs films that have come out of Bollywood in the last 4-5 years. What's notable is that many of these have premiered digitally on ZEE5, which has the maximum reach in the interiors.

As for those who like their drama to be dark and intense, there is Candy which has released as well. A murder mystery with elements of thrills and supernatural integrated well into it, this Ronit Roy and Richa Chadha starrer is not for those who are looking for some smiles and laughter. Instead, if you are in for an intriguing affair that keeps you thinking right through along with the twists and turns that take place in the narrative, then Candy does make for an interesting watch.

Coming soon

This week would see the arrival of an original film and an anthology on the OTT. While Haathi Mere Saathi arrives on Eros Now, Ankahi Kahaniya releases on Netflix.

Haathi Mere Saathi has been ready for quite some time and was in fact supposed to arrive earlier this year when the first wave of pandemic had settled down. However, it had to be pushed ahead when the pandemic returned. The Rana Daggubati and Pulkit Samrat starrer is the kind of film which is made for the big screen and hence it's a compromise to see it gearing up for the small screen instead. A family watch which deals with environment preservation and love for animals, this high drama affair could well make for an engaging watch.

In the series of multiple anthologies that have arrived on Netflix in the last couple of years, Ankahi Kahaniya is the latest addition. There is one mid-length film each directed by Saket Chaudhary [Hindi Medium], Abhishek Chaubey [Udta Punjab] and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari [Bareilly Ki Barfi] who aim to tell a love story each, albeit with a difference. While Kunal Kapoor and Zoya Hussain feature in one such story and Rinku Rajguru and Delzad Hiwale pair up for the other, Abhishek Banerjee goes solo, albeit with a mannequin, in this seemingly twisted affair.

Release dates

Ankahi Kahaniya - Netflix - 17th September

Haathi Mere Saathi - ErosNow - 18th September

Stay tuned for more updates.