The Couch Review

Unpaused(2020)- Review Unpaused is an anthology film consisting five different segments of different stories. The first one, Glitch, set in the future where the world has transformed owing to Covid- 1 9 and its variations like Covid-22/Covid-30 (referring to the year of the new virus’ inception). It tries to imagine what the world could be like if this dreaded virus stays with us for a long time. It primarily focuses on two young adults trying to kindle their relationship in this new AR/VR world. Ahan (Gulshan Devaiah) is paranoid & fearful or hypo (possibly meaning hypochondriac) as people like him are referred to. On the contrary Alizah (Saiyami Kher) is a brave and bold women. Initially puzzled by how they were matched by the dating app dislike each other, but with time a love story follows. Unlike the old times, religion/family/society type of issues are not hindrances that stop the romantic ‘happy ending’ for the couple, but new type of challenges that ensue with evolution

Jawaani Jaaneman(2020)- Review Jawaani Jaaneman is comedy-drama film revolving around Jaswinder Singh (Saif Ali Khan) or better known as Jazz. Jazz employs a free going and carefree attitude, and works with his brother (Kumud Mishra) as a property broker in and around London. Jazz is not too big on serious relationships and avoids commitments whenever he can. At night he parties with his close friend Rocky (Chunky Pandey), the pair maybe getting old but their spirits still remain youthful and continue to live the lifestyle they have been accustomed to, into their 40’s. Jazz is disinterested in having a traditional ‘Indian family-life’, and has a slew of one-night stands. Little did he know on one of the several rendezvous with women, he has fathered a child (Alaya Furniturewala), the existence of whom he learns after almost two decades when she comes to London looking to get acquainted with him. Jazz, being in his 40’s is barely able to keep up with his womanizer-carefree lifestyl

Serious Men(2020)- Review Serious Men is yet another attempt by Netflix to create a quality film independent of the traditional production houses, in Hindi for the Indian market as they did with Roma in Mexico. But this film too can be added to the failed attempts list of Netflix. Serious Men centers around Ayyan Mani (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a smart and intelligent man yet uneducated and by his own accounts unprivileged, and his attempts to make sure his son has all the ‘privileges’ that he was not fortunate enough to have and make sure his son lives a better life than he did. As simple as the above task seems, Ayyan makes it a little too complicated with a few white lies and rule breaking. The story lacks depth and is a further reminder that, in the modern era of Indian entertainment films only with renowned actors will still fail if the film doesn’t have a good story and a strong screenplay. As has been the case for some time now Nawazuddin’s acting is unquestionable which brings

Special Ops(2020)- Review Special Ops is a story about Himmat Singh’s(K.K. Menon) quest to find a terrorist who was directly involved with the 2001 Indian Parliamentary attack and at the same time trying to prove his existence to the Indian authorities. With the prologue displayed in the initial scenes, the series kicks off, which is set years after the event in question. In that time Himmat’s hair has turned to grey from sombre and he is now heading the government agency he worked for but he has still not been able to find the terrorist nor has he been able to successfully prove his existence. The story continues with Himmat and his team trying to capture the mystery man, all while still trying to prove the existence of whom. The series follows the now so common sequence of the protagonist reliving his story while retelling it in front of a camera/person. Nonetheless, because of the short amount of information to be shared from the past, the unoriginal storytelling style would no

Scam 1992(2020)- Review The Sony Liv production, biographical drama based on  The Scam: Who Won, who Lost, who Got Away  by Su c heta Dalal and Debashish Basu, takes us through the journey of infamous stock trader/businessman Harshad Mehta. The series starts in 1992 at the height of Harshad Mehta’s success, with TOI reporter Sucheta Dalal being informed by a whistle-blower about discrepancies in the books of SBI, allegedly due to the actions of Harshad Mehta. With the initial tease of the intriguing story of the ‘scam’, the series cuts back to the late 70’s where a young and unexperienced Harshad Mehta and his family are finding it hard to make ends meet in the city of Mumbai. After displaying the initial struggles of the protagonist the story kicks off with him being introduced to the stock market and trying to learn the tricks of the trade to turn his fortunes around. With the quick and sharp learner he is, Harshad takes no time in acquiring the skills of a seasoned trader and h