Just when I thought I was done with Bollywood films for this year, given how terrible this year’s releases have been, Ludopopped up as I was scrolling through Netflix. The film had just released and was already trending in the top ten on Netflix Pakistan.
Featuring an ensemble cast of Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Roy Kapur, Abhishek Bachchan, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra, Rohit Suresh Saraf and Pearle Maaney, Ludo is a tough film to describe considering the multiple storylines running side by side. On one hand, you have Akash (Kapur) and Shruti (Malhotra), who are trying to cover up a sex tape before Sanya gets married to the man of her dreams, while on the other you have Bittu (Bachchan), who just came out of jail and ends up running into a little girl who kidnapped herself so her parents would pay attention to her. Then you have Alu (Rao), who runs a restaurant and dances to Mithun’s disco moves when he is stressed. He deeply loves his childhood crush Pinky (Shaikh), though she is married with a baby.
Akash and Shruti
On the surface, the characters have nothing to do with one another but their fates are all connected through Sattu Bhaiya (Pankaj) who is the resident gangster. As the leads try to sort out the problems in their lives, they end up getting entangled with one another in a very messy web controlled by Sattu Bhaiya. He manages to run everyone’s lives even while lying on a hospital bed.
Sattu Bhaiya
Written and directed by Anurag Basu, Ludo is a highly entertaining and enthralling watch. It keeps you gripped with its twists and turns and has been masterfully directed. A movie like this, which has multiple plotlines and characters, each with a different, distinct story, running side by side, could have easily fallen apart. But Basu holds it all together skilfully.
Though it is slightly longer than average films these days, you will not feel yourself getting bored at any point – there is enough drama, comedy and romance to keep you hooked.
Alu and Pinky
All the leads gave brilliant performances though it was Pankaj who blew me away with his acting and expressions. Despite being a gangster, you couldn’t help but like his character all because of how Tripathi brought it to life.
Bittu
The cherry on top was the songs and background music, which perfectly complemented the theme and mood of the film. I have been listening to Aabaad Barbaad and Hardum Humdum on repeat.
The Current starts its day with a morning mood to engage followers and find out what they are interested in. This is done via a ‘This or That’ poll and the winner has to compete in the same category the next day. It is mostly done over a week’s time and we found out a lot about our followers – and Pakistanis – based on what they vote for.
The Current has compiled a few fun polls it did on its Instagram account.
Professor VS Berlin: What would you like to be?
Professor wins with 67%.
Who is your favourite female anchor?
We put this poll the whole week and got our winner. Can you guess who that was?
ARY’s Maria Memon won the vote beating the likes of Sana Bucha, Meher Bokhari and Asma Shirazi.
Favourite male anchor
Waseem Badami is clearly the winner beating all prominent news anchors of Pakistan.
“If you have a complaint about not being loved or appreciated in this marriage, I suggest you take it up with the people who arranged it”.
The line that says it all. In the fourth season of Netflix‘sThe Crown, there is zero doubt that you will be reminded of someone you know or have heard of, who is currently suffering in an arranged marriage. Which is why when Prince Charles (Josh O’ Connor), the future king of England complains about his arranged marriage to his incredibly sad wife Princess Diana (Emma Corrin), it really hits home.
The Crown shows the engagement interview given by Diana and Charles which was truly cringeworthy (because of Charles)
The Crown, a series on the popular streaming site Netflix, is based on the lives of the ruling royal family in England. It follows the life of Elizabeth II, who is the current ruling Queen of England, her journey as Queen and also gives insight into the private lives of the royals. Although it is based on true events, the producers have said that artistic license has been taken while filming the series.
The most-awaited royal story was the one of Prince Charles and the iconic Princess Diana and the depiction of the two in season four does not disappoint. You will literally watch this season with your phone in hand, googling to see if the events that made you cringe are actually true – and be shocked and saddened that they indeed are.
Diana and Charles’ wedding was a fairy tale – one that even if you weren’t old enough to see it when it happened, there is zero doubt that you have seen images of how perfect it actually was. Their divorce shook the world and Diana’s death had everyone mourning. There was and most likely will never be a more iconic and charming royal than Diana. Pakistanis, in particular, are drawn to her even more after seeing pictures of how much she enjoyed visiting Pakistan with a handsome Imran Khan and his then-wife Jemima Goldsmith.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This was the first time I learned about how Diana had an eating disorder and was bulimic. After Googling, I discovered that she had spoken about it in an interview, about how after marrying Prince Charles, eating a lot of food and then throwing up somehow became therapeutic for the emptiness she felt in her life. The series shows how a very young Diana gets married at the age of 19 years in a whirlwind marriage to a prince who is in love with someone else. Prince Charles had been seeing a married woman – Camilla Parker-Bowleswho he is currently married to – and continued to see her after he was married. Charles wanted to marry Diana and thought she was sweet, but not before she was ‘approved’ by his ‘ex-girlfriend’ Camilla. According to Google, Camilla had approved Charles’ marriage to Diana, thinking she could control her in the future but hadn’t realise how popular Diana would become.
Camilla Parker Bowles invites an engaged Diana to lunch – while she was having an affair with Diana’s fiance
We are also introduced to a Diana who tries very hard to make Charles happy – and a Charles who tries somewhat but is unable to let go of his affair. What makes one hate Charles even more in the series is that it’s not that the dull and arrogant Charles doesn’t have the capacity to love – he loves Camilla so much he tells Diana after years of their marriage that if she hurts Camilla, she hurts him – but that he loves the wrong person. He can’t stand how popular and loved Diana is, how she shines, how people love her and how wherever she goes – excitement follows. He is not strong enough to let her shine – and in turn, his lack of compassion for her – ruins her life.
There was a time when they were happy. The real life dance of Charles and Diana shows a happy time
Discussions about the royal family being the first and ultimate joint family began soon after people finished the season – discussions about how arranged marriages can ruin lives and how people need to spend time together to find out if they really get one another. If Diana had not been so young and had grown into her personality and understood what she wanted out of life, maybe she would not have picked Charles or been besotted with the thought of marrying a prince. Maybe Charles, who gave into his family’s pressure of marrying a girl who had a similar background as him, would’ve held strong and said he wouldn’t marry if he couldn’t marry whom he wanted. But it seems painfully obvious that Charles was pressured into marrying Diana and Diana fell for the fairy tale love story that Charles represented.
It’s true. Princess Di did a dance with singer Billy Joel for Prince Charles’ birthday
What’s more painful is to see how Diana tries to make Charles happy. She knows from day one that Charles has not left Camilla – even goes out for lunch with Camilla (yes, that’s true!) – and tries her best to make her marriage work. In two very painful parts of the season, Diana plans a dance with the famous rockstar Billy Joel, for Charles’ birthday and after seeing the performance, Charles tells her how horrified he was to see her performance and how she made his birthday about her (she did do a performance for him on his birthday at the theater, that is also true) and then for their wedding anniversary she tries again and films her singing a song for him with a live orchestra (wasn’t very good and also true). He makes fun of her both times, showing that no matter what she tried, nothing was going to work.
We all have that one friend or family member stuck in a marriage that is not of their choosing. Having issues with in-laws is so common that it’s scary at times. Diana also has a difficult time with her in-laws and tries to reach out to her mother-in-law, the Queen who is very distant from her. Charles’ sister, Princess Anne, also resents Diana for being more popular than her and they too, don’t seem to get along. The only person who does seem to like her is her father-in-law Prince Philip but near the end, that also changes. So we see Diana fairly alone throughout the series, clinging onto her children to feel whole. Until it seems she can’t do it anymore.
Last scene showing a very unhappy Diana
The ending scene of the series finale is one of a family photo being taken for Christmas and Diana is standing at the edge of the photo, away from the others. The camera zooms into her, showing how alone she is and I didn’t have the heart to Google if the picture was real – because it so obviously must be. What is more devastating is that it feels like such a big loss. We know that Diana finally breaks free and most likely, finally finds happiness and then dies in a fatal car crash. She never really gets her fairy tale and as we see people around us going through the same, we feel the same pain. Maybe if they break free – if she had broken free earlier – they might be happier.
Despite being such a difficult season to watch, season four is the best season so far. Other than the stellar performances given by both Connor and Corrin, the role of Britain’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is played so brilliantly by Gillian Anderson that it is a true pleasure to watch. She literally captures the essence of one of England’s most controversial rulers and it is a delight to watch the minute she comes on screen. The minute you see Thatcher on screen, you can’t wait to see what she will do next. And you also cannot help but compare.
Gillian Anderson was absolutely perfect as Britain’s Iron Lady PM, Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher, raised to be brilliant by her father, supported by her husband who is totally at ease with his wife’s success, pushes her to be the absolute best that she can be – the leader of a superpower for eleven years. The support she gets and her own brilliance make her shine in ways that have changed the course of history. And then we see a parallel with Diana – a woman absolutely phenomenal in her own right – but pushed down by the people around her, never realising her full potential.
Makes one think how different life can be if you can manage to convince yourself that you need some iron from the British PM famously called the Iron Lady and also realise that it is finally time to break free before it is too late, like the tragedy that was Diana.
Weeks after Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry announced that his ministry is all set to launch Pakistan’s first OTT (over-the-top) platform, Emax Media has announced that it will be launching the country’s first Urdu OTT platform. Called UrduFlix, the platform will offer original and exclusive content in Urdu worldwide.
According to a press release, “UrduFlix will provide viewers with access to original Urdu films, series, documentaries, cartoons, and Urdu-dubbed Turkish dramas.” It will also offer already popular dramas and films to its subscribers.
Talking about the launch of the platform, Farhan Ghauhar, founder of UrduFlix said: “We are excited to announce the launch of Pakistan’s first Urdu OTT platform that will have a recognisable connection to our unique entertainment offerings.”
“With the on-demand streaming culture on the rise around the world, we want to play our part in putting Pakistan and Pakistani content on the global market as well, and compete with international players,” he added.
An OTT media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.
UrduFlix is expected to launch in mid-January 2021.
More than two decades after her death, Princess Diana’s ill-fated entry into the British royal family is the main storyline in the long-awaited fourth season of the hit Netflix drama The Crown.
Emma Corrin, a 24-year-old actress little known until now, immerses herself in the role of the young Diana, capturing her soft voice and timid gaze from under a heavy fringe.
But the actress admitted in an interview with The Sunday Times that she felt a “huge amount of pressure” to pull off the role in the new season, which starts on Sunday.
Diana is shown as a naive teenager who quickly becomes lonely in the role of Prince Charles’ fiancee and rollerskates around Buckingham Palace to pass the time. Even before their unhappy marriage, she begins cycles of bulimia: binge-eating and then purging herself of food.
Diana Spencer had just turned 20 when the couple married in 1981, while Charles was 32. As heir to the throne, since reaching his 30s, he had faced pressure to marry to ensure succession.
Despite having doubts, he agreed to propose to Diana but did not sever ties with his long-time lover, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 and Charles subsequently married Parker-Bowles in 2005.
While the previous series depicted Charles as a sensitive and misunderstood boy, as Diana’s husband he is seen as cold and unfaithful, complaining to Camilla that she is “so weak, so fragile”.
The breakup of their marriage due to infidelities and Diana’s confessional television interview was scandalous at the time and is making headlines even today.
The BBC has pledged to hold an independent investigation into how its journalist Martin Bashir persuaded Diana to take part in the sensational interview in 1995. Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, claims Bashir showed faked documents to persuade Diana to take part in the interview, where she famously complained “there were three of us in this marriage so it was a bit crowded.”
The love triangle is one of the main storylines in the fourth season, which covers the late 1970s and the 1980s.
The scriptwriters also dramatise a notorious incident that year in which a 33-year-old man, Michael Hagan — frustrated at being unemployed and separated from his wife — broke into Buckingham Palace and entered the queen’s bedroom.
The queen, who kept her legendary sang-froid, is again played by Olivia Colman, the British actress who won an Oscar for The Favourite in 2019. In the fifth series, she will hand over the role of the older queen to 64-year-old Imelda Staunton, known for playing the cruel Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films.
The US actress Gillian Anderson plays Margaret Thatcher, the imperious first woman to head the British government, in a season dominated by strong female roles.
A critical and popular success, The Crown was first broadcast in 2016 and has won numerous awards, including three Golden Globes and 10 Emmy Awards.
A total of 73 million people have watched at least one episode of the series, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s joint chief executive and chief content officer, said in January.
Netflix has announced that it has renewed the trending Emily in Paris for a second season. The announcement came via a fictional memo sent from Emily’s place of work, Savoir, by her dry boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu).
“Despite her overconfident manner and lack of prior experience in luxury goods marketing, she has nonetheless managed to charm some of our hard-to-impress clients during her short time at Savoir,” reads the note. “Call it Bonne chance, or American ingenuity —I’m leaning towards the former— her results are impressive.”
“We love having Emily in Paris! But please don’t let her know that.”
The series, despite its problematic and stereotypical portrayal of French people and culture, dominated the Netflix Top 10 list for weeks and continues to trend at number six on Netflix Pakistan.
Emily in Paris follows Emily (Lily Collins), a bright, vivacious and a tad bit annoying marketing executive from Chicago, who unexpectedly finds herself in Paris for a new job. She is tasked with revamping the company’s social media strategy. Emily’s life in Paris is filled with intoxicating adventures and surprising challenges as she juggles winning over her work colleagues, making friends and navigating new romances.
Season one of the series ended on a cliffhanger, as Emily finally got together with her dreamy neighbor Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) after he almost left town with his girlfriend.
Written and directed by Olivier Marchal, the film starres Lannick Gautry and Stanislas Merhar. It is set in Marseille and follows a complex case of rivalry between gangs and a group of cops.
Considering that Pakistan is boycotting all French products, it is surprising to see a French film in the top ten list.
Rogue City released on Netflix on October 20. On its debut weekend, it was reportedly the second most-streamed film on the site.
Netflix Inc has raised monthly charges in the United States for its standard and premium subscription plans.
As per details, Netflix increased the cost of its standard subscription by $1 a month to $14, and the price for the premium tier rose by $2 per month to $18. The standard plan, the company’s most popular, enables two streams at the same time, while the premium plan allows for four simultaneous streams. Its basic plan, which allows only one stream at a time, remains unchanged at $9 a month.
The price increase was the first for US customers since January 2019.
The move had been widely expected after Netflix raised its prices in Canada earlier this month and then ended free 30-day trials in the US.
The new prices will take effect starting immediately for new members while current members will be notified that their subscription is going up as it rolls out over the next few months.
“We understand people have more entertainment choices than ever and we’re committed to delivering an even better experience for our members,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re updating our prices so that we can continue to offer more variety of TV shows and films.”
The spokesperson added that Netflix offers “a range of plans so that people can pick a price that works best for their budget.”
Netflix, the world’s dominant streaming service, enjoyed a boom in subscriptions at the beginning of the year as viewers around the world were told to stay at home to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. The company expects to end 2020 with more than 200 million streaming subscribers around the world, with 73 million of those from the United States and Canada. It is pertinent to add here that after Netflix raised its US prices last year, the streaming service suffered a decline of 130,000 subscribers in the US and Canada from the end of March to the end of June.
At the same time, it also is facing a growing list of competitors including Walt Disney Co’s Disney+, HBO Max from AT&T Inc and Apple Inc’s Apple TV+.
The question which comes to mind with this news is whether Pakistani audiences will be affected by this price rise. However, for now, prices for South Asian and Pakistani viewers remain unchanged and they will be unaffected by this price hike.
You can subscribe to Netflix for Rs 950 – Rs 1,500 a month in Pakistan, depending on your plan.
Pakistan is all set to launch its own version of Netflix. It was announced by Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry that his ministry is all set to launch Pakistan’s first OTT (over-the-top) platform like Netflix.
Chaudhry says that the aim is to put Pakistani content on the map and PEMRA has been asked to prepare guidelines keeping in mind the international market. He maintained that with internet freedom, censorship is unlikely. But in a country where PEMRA has started giving guidelines to products on how to make their television advertisements, where dramas are banned due to ‘indecency’, where video-sharing platforms are banned for spreading immortality, it would be interesting to see if international standards will be maintained without any trouble.
Pakistan cannot get ahead in technology unless and until we get on with the times and stop censoring content.
On the one hand, we are fighting censorship in the entertainment side and on the other, our mainstream news media is also facing a tough time. Geo News’ reporter Ali Imran Syed went missing for 22 hours on Friday. Mr Imran Syed was the one who had reported on the arrest of PML-N leader Captain (retd) Safdar from a Karachi hotel and whose CCTV footage was broadcast by Geo.
Thankfully, the missing reporter returned safely the next day. Information Minister Shibli Faraz prayed for his safe return. According to journalist Mubashir Zaidi’s tweet, Ali Imran “was picked up by mistake regarding investigations of the murder of Maulana Adil. He was picked up for being a lookalike of one of the assassins. What’s surprising is that it took 22 hours to realize that he wasn’t the person they’re looking for.”
Journalists going missing is not something unheard of in Pakistan. One considers it a miracle when missing journalists come back safely. In any civilised country, a journalist cannot be picked up like this. In Pakistan, we breathe a sigh of relief when journalists return alive. Media freedom is guaranteed under our Constitution but it is something that still alludes us.
Censorship, be it in the media, entertainment industry, or any other sector, is detrimental to a nation’s growth. We hope that when the Pakistani version of Netflix is launched, the content that we see online will be creative and thought-provoking.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has announced that his ministry is all set to launch Pakistan’s first OTT (over-the-top) platform. An OTT media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributor of such content.
In a tweet, the Minister said: “We at the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) are all set to launch Pakistan’s Version of Netflix,” adding that the technology part of the initiative is complete.
Chaudhry further said that he has directed PEMRA to “prepare a guideline on content” following which the platform will be launched in PPP (public private partnership) mode.
پاکستان کا پہلا OTT لانچ ہونے جا رہا ہے، (Netflix کی طرز پر) ہم نے ٹیکنالوجی کا معاملہ حل کر لیا ہے PEMRA کو کہا ہے کہ وہ Content پر گائیڈ لائین تیار کر لے جوں ہی پیمرا کی گائیڈ لائیں ملتی ہے ہم پارئیویٹ کمپنیز سے کہیں گے کہ ہمارے ساتھ ملیں اور OTT سروس شروع کریں
Speaking exclusively to The Current, Fawad said that his ministry will provide content creators with the technical support – such as compression technology – they need.
As far as the content on the platform is concerned, the Minister said that PEMRA has been directed to classify content keeping in mind international standards.
“Our aim is to put Pakistani content on the map and PEMRA has been asked to prepare guidelines keeping in mind the international market,” said Fawad, adding that with internet freedom, censorship is unlikely.
He also said that content on the platform will be different from what we usually see on television.
When asked what the payment process will be like given that the majority of Pakistani don’t have credit cards, Fawad said that the payment process will be simple and viewers will be able to pay through their mobile phones.
A new streaming platform will open new doors for Pakistani filmmakers and content creators giving them creative space and liberty. According to a recent report, Netflix has over 180 million subscribers worldwide, but only 100,000 in Pakistan as most Pakistanis do not have credits cards to pay for the service. This is one of the primary reasons why Netflix has not attempted to commission original Pakistani content, besides “weak storytelling, flawed screenplays and scripts that don’t meet international standards”.
India, on the other hand, has about 40 providers of OTT media services including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus.
Pakistan forayed into the digital world just recently with Churails, that was released on Indian streaming platform Zee5.
Senior PTI leader Senator Faisal Javed Khan, who is also the Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Broadcasting and Heritage, lauded Fawad for his initiative.
Meanwhile, noted actors including Shaan Shahid, Humayun Saeed and Asad Siddiqui thanked the Minister for taking the initiative and introducing such platforms in Pakistan.
“It’s time we make our presence in the entertainment arena of the world,” said Shaan, while Humayun said this will “open doors of opportunities for many many talented people and eventually help Pakistan reach a truly global audience.”
It’s a brilliant effort by @fawadchaudhry it is time we make our presence in the entertainment arena of the world a new market for the content developers of Pakistan will give them freedom to work . Thankyou🇵🇰🎥♥️
This is such a great news! Thank you @fawadchaudhry and @MinistryofST for this much needed initiative. It will open doors of opportunities for many many talented people and eventually help Pakistan reach a truly global audience. Insha Allah 🇵🇰 https://t.co/d8vKJmCmEW
However, Osman Khalid Butt remarked that PEMRA should not be allowed to prepare a content guideline for the platform.
Can someone – literally anyone else prepare this content guideline. Let's not forget PEMRA issued a show-cause notice to Udaari over 'immoral content' because it was highlighting child abuse. https://t.co/S6ZfuOJkUr
