Sadly, there are no major Indian originals for this week. Sony Liv’s middle-class family drama Family Aaj Kal seems to be the only option for those looking for Indian titles. It is set in a typical middle-class family where the daughter falling in love with a cab driver sets the family in panic mode. On the other hand, plenty of international titles are hitting the screens this week, including K-drama Parasytes: The Grey, Scoop, and How to Date Billy Walsh. In Parasytes, you’ll see extraterrestrial creatures sucking off life from humans to increase their power. Scoop will take you back to BBC’s infamous interview in 2019 with Prince Andrews, in which he was questioned about his relationship with a sex offender.
Prime Video’s How To Date Billy Walsh will do the tricks if you are in the mood for something with high-school romance.
For young ones, Hotstar is dishing out the animated musical comedy Wish, in which a young girl wishes on a star, unaware of what’s in store.
Many post-theatrical OTT releases are lined up for the week, including Miss World 2017 winner Manushi Chillar’s patriotic drama Operation Valentine and the heist thriller Farrey (set in a high school).
New episodes for Hotstar’s pirate-heist drama Lootere are set in Somali and Shogun.
On the international shore, you could go for The Fable — where a hitman has taken a year-long hiatus from killing – or the superhero manga series Go! Go! Loser Ranger in which a foot soldier steps up to make a change once and for all.
With that, here are the top OTT releases of the week.
Top OTT Releases This Week
Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya
Where: Prime Video
When: Now Streaming
National Film Awardee Kriti Sanon (Mimi) plays a robot in this light-hearted rom-com, who goes by the name SIFRA, short for Super Intelligent Female Robot Automation alias. She is being tested in the U.S. for her ability to behave like a human.
As part of the testing, Dimple Kapadia’s character invites her nephew Aryan (Shahid Kapoor) to the States and introduces SIFRA as a normal person to him. Oblivious to her real identity, Kapoor falls for the robot—as expected—kickstarting a complicated romance.
The film has plenty of peppy and romantic songs!
Parasyte: The Grey
Where: Netflix
When: Now Streaming
In Yeon Sang-ho’s Parasite, mysterious creatures from outer space start living off humans to gain power. As humans start getting murdered and outnumbered by parasites, they must come together and wage a war to save humanity.
Meanwhile, a few characters are pulled in opposite directions as parasitic forces try to take over their human side. Get ready for plenty of gut-wrenching scenes and thrills in this sci-fi thriller.
The show is a live-action adaptation of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s manga. Jeon So-nee, Koo Kyo-hwan, and Lee Jung-hyun are seen playing pivotal roles.
Scoop
Where: Netflix
When: Now Streaming
In 2019, BBC did a controversial interview with Prince Andrews in its programme Newsnight, in which the British Royal was questioned extensively about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who had died in custody three months earlier.
Philip Martin’s Scoop gives a detailed account of how the BBC landed this infamous interview. It focuses primarily on booker McAlister, played by Billie Piper, who used to wrangle interviews for Newsnight. The rest of the team’s contribution isn’t extensively covered.
The movie version of the interview is the same as the actual one. A special shout-out to the makeup artist for the actors’ uncanny resemblance to their counterparts.
Scoop has been adapted from a memoir by Sam McAlister and can be streamed in more than 15 languages.
Family Aaj Kal
Where: Sony Liv
When: Now Streaming
Meher hails from a typical middle-class family and finds herself at a tricky crossroads when she falls for Gaurav (Prakhar Singh), a cab driver. Her family – comprising of her mom (Sonali Sachdev), dad (Nitesh Pandey), and brother (Aakarshan Singh) – is shocked at this discovery and is dead against the same. How the traditional values clash with the idea of this kind of romantic relationship forms the crux of the series.
If the plotline reminds you of Raja Hindustani, don’t bother. The series isn’t half as melodramatic as the Aamir Khan starrer and is a light-hearted take on opposition of such kind of a relationship, besides the fact that Karisma Kapoor (Murder Mubarak) was uber rich in the film and Apoorva is as middle-class as she can be!
Also, if you are wondering if the show has the same vibes as Gullak (since both are from Sony and are set in middle-class families), don’t keep your hopes too high.
How to Date Billy Walsh
Where: Prime Video
When: Now Streaming
Amelia (Charithra Chandran) and Archie (Sebastian Croft) have been best friends since childhood. Like all typical teenage love tropes, one of them—that’d be Archie here—is hopelessly in love with the other but hasn’t dared confess yet.
Things take an interesting turn when a new foreign exchange student named Billy Walsh enters the high school, and Amelia starts fancying him. As she turns to her best friend, like always, for advice on the matter, Archie tries his best to give her the wrong advice to keep the two away.
As luck would have it, his tactics bring Amelia and Billy Walsh closer instead. Will Amelia finally recognise Archie’s love for her or find her Prince Charming in Billy?
