Kohraa, Jubilee, Trial by Fire: As the web series films of 2023, Shubhra Gupta picks the best of the year | Web Series News

It’s Kohra
Just look at ‘Kohraa’, my best show of the year. A brilliant collaboration between Sudeep Sharma, Randeep Jha, Diggi Sisodia and Gunjit Chopra, it used murder as a anchor to create a compelling character study in a very specific time and place. The five-part series opens with a body in a fog-laden field in a Punjabi village: the discovery leads to seemingly disparate people connected by dark secrets, a parallel thread of drugs and mobsters. In the large ensemble – Suvinder Vikki, Barun Sobti, Manish Chaudhary, Varun Badola, Harleen Seth, Rachel Shelly – the former towers over the rest.

Anniversary
Vikarmaditya Motwane’s Jubilee is a joy: a detailed, loving, penetrating nostalgic re-creation of a time (late 40s and late 50s) when the Hindi film industry was being shaped by its powerful studio moguls and zealots. Temptresses, noble heroes and black villains. A brief slice of pre-independence becomes a full-fledged bread, expertly sliced ​​and diced by Motwane and writer Atul Sabharwal, as we return to Aparshakti Khurana as a star in waiting, Prosenjit Roy as a star maker, Aditi Rao Hydari as a womanizer. Who Loves and Loses has Ram Kapoor as an oil man with money, Wamika Gabi as an ambitious benevolent minx and some fresh faces in Nandish Singh Sandhu and Siddhant Gupta.

Trial by fire
Hosted and directed by Prashant Nair, along with Randeep Jha and Avani Deshpande, Ordeal by Fire takes us back to that dark day in 1997 when a theater fire in South Delhi claimed 59 lives. Abhay Deol and Rajshree Deshpande play a real-life Krishnamoorthy couple who lose both their teenage sons in this senseless, completely unthinkable tragedy. That this was no mere accident, but brazen criminal negligence on the part of both theater staff and owners, was the burden of Shekhar and Neelam Krishnamurthy’s long, hard-fought battle with one of India’s most powerful construction conglomerates. Deol and Desfpande are stars in their challenging roles. Their endless struggle and perseverance over the years is moving and inspiring: their fight is not over yet.

Kaala Paan
Kaala Paani, directed by Amit Golani and Sameer Saxena, is fictional yet terrifyingly real. In the near future, in the picturesque Andamans, a deadly disease spreads among humans for which there is no cure. But even worse than the killer virus is the for-profit corporation whose destruction has set off a rebellion in nature: you can trace the few bumps that hold the whole together in this beautifully shot, immersive cautionary tale against human greed.

Passion Stories (Mirror)
One segment in the otherwise forgettable Lust Stories 2, The Mirror, should be a full-fledged movie. Directed by Konkona Sen Sharma, starring Tillotama Shome and Amruta Subhash, this is a full-frontal exploration of desire and class and how it collides and clouds perception in people who feel at the mercy of other people’s needs. There is nuance here, as well as insight, and the mirror in which one of them confronts his repressed self is up to all of us.

special designations
Railway men: YRF’s first web series ‘Railway Men’ is based on the true story of a group of brave Indian Railways employees who saved hundreds of lives on the night of the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984 with good performances by Kay Kay, Dividendu. and Babil Khan.

Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo: Homi Adajania’s crazy, crazy caper about drug cartels in colorful Rajasthan outposts run by badass women – Dimple Kapadia, Angira Dhar, Isha Talwar, Radhika Madan – with the former leader from the front. Most of the men here are willing to be wuss. I am waiting for the second season.

Fraud 2003: The show, helmed by Hansal Mehta and directed by Tusshar Hiranandan, in which the impressive Gagan Dev Riary plays Telji, an insecure seal paper forging instructor, isn’t as interesting as ‘Fraud 1992’, a show based on a more charismatic con man, Harshad Mehta. But Riary makes us watch.

Calcutta: Directed by Sumit Saxena, Kaalkoot is a small-town crime procedural about a cop who comes to terms with his own shortcomings. Vijay Varma delivers his best performance in a busy year (Dahaad, Lust Stories 2), with Yashpal Sharma and Gopal Dutt in a super supporting cast.

Rainbow Rishta: From Jaydeep Sarkar, Shubhra Chatterjee and Hriday E Nagpal, it features first-person accounts from several couples on the LGBTQ spectrum as they navigate life and love in a society that opposes same-sex relationships. The tricky territory of dating, finding a place to live and, yes, even getting married, it’s all there.

School of Lies: Created by Avinash Arun, set in a private boarding school in the hills, it’s about lies, truths and half-truths and how people resort to telling their stories, especially when it comes to keeping up appearances. An effective ensemble of children and adults (Aamir Bashir is excellent) twisting and turning to survive and thrive.

It is enough to watch the second season “rocket boys”In which Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh, Regina Cassandra, Saba Azad are as good as they were in the first. “Made in Heaven 2” It stayed as close to the bittersweet notes of its first season as possible, even if its controversial Dalit wedding chapter almost took attention away from the main acts: Arjun Mathur and Sobhita Dhulipala, Jim Sarb and Kalki Koechlin are as striking as they were. Earlier and this time real-life trans person Trineta Haldar, who also features in Rainbow Rishta, adds to the Zoya Akhtar and Rema Kagti show. And Mona Singh, as the retiring but good-natured accountant who keeps a sharp eye on our wedding planners, is a standout.

It’s been a good year for original Indian web series.