August was a good month for the web series market as a whole. The latter half of the year seems to encourage more and more creators to create and release their content. Of the total 9 series released, Yo ke Hua Bro and Hadh saw the most coverage from the media. As usual, raunchiness in web series looks like a selling point, as it is in most other forms of entertainment. Maybe it’s the non-censorship of the internet space that frees us from the traditional mindsets and we can inculcate sex into normal family conversations, kind of like Guddu Beds Guddan does.
The show has quite good acting from, what looks like, mostly newcomers. The backdrop of the traditional Haryanavi families acts a delightful contrast to the naughtiness of the whole show. And kudos to the writers, they haven’t gone for the low hanging innuendos but hit the joke at the right spot. Another comedy where the losing of one’s virginity plays a central role was Yo ke Hua Bro.
The leads are likable enough for you to watch until the end, where it inevitably fizzles out. Sumeet Vyas is as good as ever in the inspector role. The writing feels tired after some time, though some of the gags were quite hilarious and acting overall is good too. One time watch it is. Voot hadn’t released any new shows since January’s Untag so it’s nice to see them releasing new shows in the midst of ALTBalaji hogging all the limelight. Speaking of which, they added to their tally by releasing CyberSquad late August.
And speaking of adding to the tally, this seems to fulfill that purpose at least. The acting is fine and the production is high quality, where it lacks is in the script, as they seem to have an antiquated notion of what high schoolers are like that’s stuck in mid-2000s. Obviously, the more content the better and there are some production houses that knows what will hit. Dev DD is still one of the most searched for web series right now, and Cybersquad is not far behind. Balaji knows where the pulse of the public is and will, hopefully, act as a bridge between the TV watching and the Netflix watching youth. While we’re on the topic of the most searched for web series how can Hadh be far behind.
Vikram Bhat has, in my opinion, hit a goldmine or whatever the internet version of a goldmine is, in the web series field. He has got in early, produced quick series one after the other and has raked in the likes by the boatloads. People will forgive hammy acting, bad direction, 90s Bollywood style thriller aspect and stone-faced protagonists as long as they see some skin, and boy do they see some skin. Sex is the selling point and it is selling like hot cakes. To each his own, I just hope good, plot-driven content doesn’t get lost in the middle of the orgy of perfect-bodied beautiful people who are always looking for the murderer for some reason. Good content like my pick for web series of the month What the Folks (WTF).
Dice Media has now got 3-in-3 now with Little Things and Not Fit being good shows although theire production rate seems to be one web series per year seeing that Not Fit came out in October of 2015, it being one of the first web series in India. As long as they pump out quality stories, I’m not the one complaining. What the Folks is their purvey into family comedy-drama, a genre now perfected by The Aam Aadmi Family (now in its second season), and have hit it out of the park. The actors are phenomenal, though the protagonist may get on your nerves for the first episode, but give him time he’ll grow on you as will the show. Also I think I’m in love with Anula Navleker. The story is fantastic and the series deserves to be binged rather than wait-and-watched as the cliffhangers they have at the end of every episode are a bit flimsy. A great show nonetheless.
One more show to come out of the woods, before we go to regional ones, was Strugglers.
Their pilot episode, released over a year ago, garnered over 1.3 Mn views and then they disappeared into thin air. Links popped up like on DittoTV’s website, but then were taken down completely. They have now come out with the full series on Ozee, looks like Zee’s online venture, the first I heard of this channel. Haven’t seen it yet, plan to though. Hope it lives up to the hype.
Regional Shows
The 3 regional shows to come out were Moving Out (Marathi), Nakshatra (Telugu) and Loose Connection (Kannada). I haven’t had a chance to see any of these but Loose connection seems to be a promising one. I think it is the first Kannada web series ever, so that’s a new step in a great direction. Tamil, Telugu and Marathi are still at the fore front of the regional language shows and I hope to see them all. Plan to add some Bengali web series to the site but the content seems too disorganized for me to care. Any other language suggestions are welcome too.
That’s it for August. I plan to do this monthly (well, duh!) but around the 10-15th of the next month so it’ll give time for shows that started in last of the month to catch up. I plan more blogs too, on a variety of topics. Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Tata. Tell Aunty I said hi.
