Netflix Tudum is the most-awaited global fan event hosted by the streaming giant. The “India Spotlight” section of the virtual event was held half an hour before the main Netflix Tudum global event, and it was everything that fans wanted from it. The India Spotlight was hosted by Ali Fazal and Radhika Apte.
The most time at the half hour India Spotlight section was devoted to Kartik Aaryan‘s highly anticipated thriller film, “Dhamaka“. It was as good as a trailer withl almost two whole minutes of compelling sequences from the film satiating the curiosity of fans. Kartik Aaryan plays a TV news anchor Arjun Pathak, who’s caught in a deadly race for survival on live TV with a terrorist. Tudum did not give any release date for Dhamaka, but the teaser was compelling.
Next, Tudum: India Spotlight gave a reasonably long glimpse into Sanya Malhotra and Abhimanyu Dasani’s long-in-the-making Meenakshi Sundareshwar. Apparently, it is a story based on long-distance marriages and the trials and tribulations it entails. It was a fun look at the film. The much-talked-about rom-com Plan A Plan B had stars Riteish Deshmukh and Tamannaah Bhatia engaged in entertaining banter on their first tinder date at a restaurant. She is a match-maker, he is a divorce lawyer, and when the twain do meet, will it be love for them or disaster? The movie looks interesting, going by its introduction.
We got short glimpses of Madhuri Dixit‘s digital debut, ‘Finding Anamika‘, and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Khufiya. The latter is a spy drama, based on true events that occured in 2004, about a mole in India’s premier intelligence agency, who sold secrets to the enemy. We only got to hear and not see Tabu’s R&AW agent in the ultra-short teaser.
Raveena Tandon’s “Aranyak” got a place in the spotlight too. It seems like an interesting drama, and is apparently on the concept of werewolves. Parambrata Chatterjee and Ashutosh Rana made their presence felt in the glimpse.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali spoke about his ambitious pre-Independence drama “Heeramandi”, how it came to be, and how Netflix got on board the project. There was also a small trailer of the upcoming final season of Little Things, with the two practical lovebirds discussing marriage and kids. A musical mashup between the cast of Kota Factory and Mismatched was fun.
Finally, South fans got what they wanted the most – a longish glimpse into Minnal Murali, Malayalam Cinema’s first superhero. It wasn’t a trailer for the film, as fans had hoped for. It was more of a chat with Tovino Thomas, star of the film, and its director, Basil Joseph, and how the film came into being. There were a few scenes from the film, but nothing substantial. Guess Malayalam movie fans will have to wait a bit longer for a full-fledged, well-crafted trailer for Minnal Murali.
Over-all, it was a good half hour of peeks into Netflix’s upcoming India offerings.