Recent Trailers You May Have Missed

I like how trailers are exciting because they give us a preview of movies to look forward to; but at the same time can be really, really misleading as well. For instance, as a longtime Beatles fan, I really looked forward to watching Yesterday after I saw its most promising trailer. However the movie itself was a damp squib, so say the least. Trailers are no guarantee of the quality of the movie to come; nevertheless are interesting. Check out some of these latest trailers:

This is a biographical film based on a real story about Lal Bihari, a farmer from Azamgarh in UP, a man who is mistakenly declared dead. The movie starring Pankaj Tripathi, Monal Gajjar and Amar Upadhyay asks the question whether it is living humans or papers that tell the truth. The movie follows the struggles of an ordinary man to assert his existence and released on the Zee5 streaming platform on 7 January 2021.

This is the Hindi version of the Tamil language film Master starring Vijay, Vijay Sethupathi, Malavika Mohanan, Arjun Das. This promises to be a masala entertainer with high octane action, a larger than life hero, what appears to be a typically malign villain and so on. The film releases on 13^th January 2021.

A political drama, this Amazon Prime original web series stars Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub. This appears to be the story of the push and pull of politics at the highest level; with more than one vying for the top spot of the PM. The trailer speaks of the apprehension of having a leader who is likely to become autocratic and undermine democracy. It also seems to have other echoes of current reality in its portrayal of the rise of a new grassroots leader. The series releases on Amazon Prime Video on 15^th January 2020.

The full name of the film – Tribhanga - Tedhi Medhi Crazy leads us to expect a light, fun film, however the emotionally charged trailer about a conflicted woman and her relationships indicates otherwise. Kajol as Anuradha, Tanvi Azmi as Nayantara and Mithila Palkar as Masha star in a story about three women and their dysfunctional relationships with each other. This film will release on Netflix on 15^th January 2021.

Starring Richa Chadda, Manav Kaul, Akshay Oberoi, Saurabh Shukla and others, this movie’s name and subtitle Untouchable, Unstoppable seem self-explanatory. This promises to be the story of a woman battling huge odds to succeed in politics; while sporting a haircut suspiciously similar to a well-known political figure in UP. The tone-deaf poster of the film has been criticised for showing the protagonist holding a broom. If this is a film about a woman achiever, why is she holding her broom? If this is supposed to communicate her Dalit identity, that is clearly problematic. When the movie releases on 22 Jan 2021, it will be interesting to see whether sensitive caste issues have been handled with similar tone-deafness.