By Joginder Tuteja
For some inexplicable reason, the Friday gone by was seen as the hottest date for the arrival of as many as four offerings simultaneously on various OTT platforms. Though there have been two or three web series/films coming together on the same day, to have as many as four of these clashing on the same date and that too when it is not a holiday or any other celebratory event is surprising to say the least. However, it did happen indeed on 26th February with The Girl On The Train, Hello Mini 2, 1962: The War In The Hills and Jamai 2.0 Season 2.
Let's talk about The Girl On The Train first. The Parineeti Chopra starrer is a thriller on the same lines as director Ribhu Dasguptra's other thriller TE3N. Just like the Amitabh Bachhan starrer, even this one saw mixed reviews coming its way. While some have liked the twists in the take, others have found it to be way too dark and at times depressing with certain twists being incomprehensible. What is common though is appreciation for Parineeti Chopra with many even calling it as her best performance till date.
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Released on Netflix, this one had seen decent promotion coming its way due to which at least there was awareness around it. For those hunting for their regular dose of thrillers, there is something in the offering. That said, there is a word of caution that one needs to have suspension of disbelief while catching all the drama unfold.
The second season of Hello Mini, which is playing on MX Player currently, takes off from where the first season left. A psychological thriller with a good dose of erotica in there, this one is adult entertainment in the offering by the makers who have taken forward the entire stalking theme to the next level. This time around, the central protagonist (played quite effectively yet again by Anuja Joshi) gets trapped into the challenges thrown to her from the world of dark web, something that further messes up her life that has already seen many twists and turns.
There is a loyal fan following that Hello Mini had found for itself when its first season arrived in 2019 and for those there is good entertainment in store since the story moves ahead in a manner where there is already a promise of the third season as well. One waits to see how does Applause Entertainment take this one forward from here for the OTT platform MX Player.
A huge disappointment though awaited audiences in the form of 1962: The War In The Hills. With a premier OTT platform like Disney+Hotstar backing it up, Mahesh Manjrekar stepping in as a director and Abhay Deol & Mahie Gill top-lining the cast, one would have expected something really terrific coming from this web series. Especially so since it is based on the Indo-China war of 1962 that has taken legendary proportions over the decades.
Shockingly though, this 10 episode web series comes across as a really amateurish attempt and one fails to believe that Mahesh Manjrekar is truly at the helm of affairs. Though the battle sequences due to the outdoors shoots still are relatively better, what is hugely disappointing is that these turn out to be just fillers as theP series in fact revolves around the characters and their back stories which occupy around 75% of the screen time. Moreover, they are all unknown actors and though a couple of them are still ok, rest all just go through the motions. Skip it!
As for Jamai 2.0 Season 2, it is a ZEE5 offering which is the refurbished version of the story of Jamai in a refurbished format. For those who know the core story from the first season, it this one makes for an easy watch as it continues into the second season. A 'masala' entertainer with some twists and turns that are expected out of a web series belonging to this genre, this one certain gloss to it which is not a common virtue for all the web series on air currently. Moreover, performances by Nia Sharma, Ravi Dubey and Achint Kaur are competent too.
Coming soon
While there has been an overload of web offerings over the week gone by, surprisingly there is no major OTT release in the coming week. It would have been better though had a couple of outings planned their releases this week so as to avoid overcrowding. Of course, the week after this would again see quite a few offerings on OTT and we would be bringing all the details around that pretty soon as well. Stay tuned!
(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)