OTT Round Up - Feels Like Ishq Is Good, 14 Phere Is Decent, Hungama 2 Is A Poor Show; All Eyes On Mimi And City Of Dreams 2

Shilpa Shetty and Paresh Rawal starrer Hungama 2 turns out to be a two-and-a-half hour long snooze fest with practically just one scene leading to some laughs.

(Source- Netflix's Twitter, Shilpa Shetty's Instagram & Vikrant Massey's Instagram)

By Joginder Tuteja

This has been a heavy weekend for the OTTs, what with one anthology and two movies arriving on various platforms. While Feels Like Ishq arrived on Netflix, 14 Phere and Hungama 2 released on ZEE5 and Disney+Hotstar respectively. The good part is that each of these offerings is aimed at the family audiences.

After Ray, which was made of four 1 hour long movies with mainstream actors leading the show, Feels Like Ishq sees the coming together of six short stories lasting 30 minutes each. Majority of these have absolute newcomers or relatively new faces leading the cast, and there is nothing starry or filmy about any of the offerings. The anthology is a mixed bag with two good stories, two average and two poor shows.

The ones which work are those directed by Anand Tiwari [Star Host] and Tahira Kashyap Khurana [Quaranteen Crush] which sees the coming together of two strangers and falling in love. The Interview by Sachin Kundalkar and She Loves Me She Loves Me Not by Danish Aslam are decent with some moments. However, Save The Da(y)te by Ruchir Arun and especially Ishq Mastana by Jaydeep Sarkar are absolutely poor shows with no real graph or developments.

14 Phere showed some good promise when its promo was unveiled. With Kriti Kharbanda coming together with Vikrant Massey, there were some Tanu Weds Manu kind of vibes that were generated. While the actors have done well, the narrative is a mixed bag. While the scenes between the lead couple work, somehow the supporting cast - despite being good - isn't effectively utilized in the storytelling. Also, for a film which seemed like a romcom in the offering, there is quite some drama in the proceedings, especially the one centered on honor killing.

Hungama 2 is shockingly poor. Though one could sense that Priyadarshan had started losing his touch in films like Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal and Bumm Bumm Bole, some of his last few outings, it is astonishing to see how Hungama 2 turns out to be a two and a half hour long snooze fest with practically just one scene (featuring Rajpal Yadav in the pre-climax) leading to some laughs. Much hyped comeback of Shilpa Shetty doesn't add much value as her scenes are erratically placed. Pranitha Subhash is decent but Meezan Jaffery just doesn't hold the scene.

Coming soon

Coming week is set to be exciting as well with two distinct offerings on the OTT platforms. While Mimi arrives on Netflix, City of Dreams 2 is releasing on Disney+Hotstar.

Mimi marks the OTT debut of Kriti Sanon. The leading lady has seen a promising journey so far and it is good to see her leading the show in Mimi which has Pankaj Tripathi in a very important role. The promo of this Dinesh Vijan production promises a film which would be a mix of light hearted and heartwarming moments with adequate bit of sensitivity in the narrative. The film also brings together the Luka Chuppi team together with Laxman Utekar as the director. Promotion and marketing is gooa and on the same level as that of a theatrical release.

On the other hand much awaited second season of Nagesh Kukunoor's City of Dreams is set to release as well on the coming Friday. The Applause offering had seen some very good response for the first season that had been released in mid-2019. There are hardly any web series made on the political scene of the country and this one is fortunately the kind which carries good depth. The second season is pretty much beginning from where the first one ended and there are good expectations from the Atul Kulkarni, Priya Bapat and Eijaz Khan starrer.

Release dates

Mimi - Netflix - 30th July

City of Dreams - Disney+Hotstar - 30th July

(Joginder Tuteja is a trade expert and film critic, and loves to talk and write about anything that is related to films. Views are personal)