Jayeshbhai Jordaar (Amazon Prime)

This heart-warming film starring Ranveer Singh as Jayeshbhai, the lead character, is a refreshing change from the same old romantic and/or crime thrillers dominating the OTT (over the top) media platform scene.

A comedy that touches upon pertinent social issues, such as a preference for male offspring, female foeticide, toxic masculinity and fights against the patriarchy, Jayeshbhai Jordaar is a feminist film, but without being too preachy.

Boman Irani plays Jayeshbhai’s father, Pruthvish Patel, a ruthless patriarch of the family and leader of his Gujarati village, who will have a son at any cost and who endorses female foeticide. Jayeshbhai finds out that his wife is expecting yet another girl and will do anything it takes to save her. He is assisted by his own young daughter (“Pehli dafa ghalati ho jaati hai”) in the process.

While the film makes a strong social comment for putting an end to female foeticide, this comedy is also very entertaining. Directed by debutant Divyang Thakkar and backed by Yash Raj Films, the comedy drama released in April but failed to translate favourable reviews to box office collections. Surprisingly, it’s doing incredibly well on Amazon Prime and has been generating quite a buzz and conversation since it came online.

Sometimes it’s nice to be able to catch films at home that one has missed out at the cinema theatre. Then, there are the films that have not done well at the box office but which have hit their stride on the streaming platform. Here are three films now available and worth watching at home…

Operation Romeo (Netflix)

This film keeps you hooked until the very end. Operation Romeo is a remake of the Malayalam film Ishq: Not A Love Story. It mainly explores moral policing and exploitation by those doing the policing.

The film has been directed by Neeraj Chopra (A Wednesday). Sidhanth Gupta plays the male protagonist Aditya, an IT guy. Vedika Pinto plays the female lead Neha, a university student.

They’re two students, in love and out on a date. It’s Neha’s birthday and Aditya wants to make it special. She’s taken permission from her hostel warden to be out all night. It’s all very innocent until they get caught canoodling in Aditya’s car in the dead of the night by what appear to be cops in plainclothes.

What follows then, their experience of getting caught that night, changes their lives and relationship with each other forever.

But this is no victim drama, there’s a twist in the end you don’t see coming. Operation Romeo is a revenge film where you understand the protagonists’ reasons for vengeance but find it difficult to endorse them.

In its own way, and without revealing too much, this film too is a comment on toxic masculinity, but in a way that’s not preachy.

Anek (Netflix)

This is another film that received a lukewarm response in theatres (“Too political for a casual watch,” says the director Anubhav Sinha) but is a big hit on OTT platforms. This goes to show we need to rethink our approach to define a film’s success entirely.

The film stars Ayushmann Khurrana in the lead as an undercover cop trying to bring ‘peace’ to north-east India. Anek revolves around the geopolitical issues surrounding the north-east region of the country. We see him interacting with and having conversations with rebels and the film overall focuses on asking some very tough questions. This political thriller isn’t an easy watch, it forces you to think and explore the political issues being depicted in the film. Anek is both intense and extremely entertaining.

Much like Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Anek didn’t do well at the box office and quickly became one of the most popular films on Netflix when it was released. Industry analysts are now saying that producers do not want to admit that the power of the theatrical medium has declined.

Add to that high ticket prices and with audiences discovering OTT platforms, especially over the past two years, it’s leading to lower footfalls in the cinema. Why go elsewhere when you can watch the film at home?

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 24th, 2022