Express News Service
It’s no laughing matter: holding back your laugh. The very thought of it makes me want to run. Indeed, for most people, suppressing their laughter is one of the most difficult things to do. Yet, it is this precise challenge 10 comedians have signed up for in LOL: Hasse Toh Phasse (releasing on Amazon Prime). For six hours, they were locked up in a room in each other s (increasingly ticklish) company. The task was to make each other laugh without cracking up themselves.
Adapted from the popular international format, LOL is hosted and judged by Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi. It s a happy reunion for the actors - having done their own bit of comic jousting in Jolly LLB and the Munna Bhai series. We spoke to them about the crazy concept of LOL, setting up boundaries and rules, and why Boman s Virus and Arshad s Circuit would ace this show.
Express News Service
In Court, first-time director Chaitanya Tamhane painted a stark (and savagely funny) portrait of the Indian judicial system. The 2015 Marathi-language film relied on a simple juxtaposition: the gap between exalted legal ideals and their actual process. A similar tug-of-war invigorates The Disciple, Tamhane s second feature, about a young classical singer named Sharad (Aditya Modak).
In the opening scene, the camera closes in on a musical performance in a large hall. We’re introduced to Sharad’s father, a veteran vocalist and teacher, and then, as the frame tightens up, to Sharad himself. A second-generation classical performer in Mumbai, Sharad has grown though hardly blossomed in his father’s shadow.
Express News Service
It’s no laughing matter: holding back your laugh. The very thought of it makes me want to run. Indeed, for most people, suppressing their laughter is one of the most difficult things to do.
Yet, it is this precise challenge 10 comedians have signed up for in LOL: Hasse Toh Phasse (releasing on Amazon Prime Video). For six hours, they were locked up in a room in each other’s (increasingly ticklish) company. The task was to make each other laugh without cracking up themselves.
The trailer screams mayhem: Gaurav Gera preening; Cyrus Broacha standing around with a stuffed bird, saying, “anybody wants a picture with my cock?” Standup comic Aakash Gupta admits he’s feeling winded. “Toh haske jaa na phir,” Sunil Grover deadpans. “Just laugh and leave.”
Express News Service
A cliffhanger in the opening episode of Kathmandu Connection left me grinning with delight. A journalist unfolds a mysterious package to find a music cassette.
Her puzzlement mirrors our own as she reads the name: the soundtrack of the 1983 Jackie Shroff vehicle Hero. It’s not so much the significance of the cassette that made me smile as the sheer oddness of its appearance.
On the surface, SonyLiv’s show is a cut-and-dried thriller about international crimes in the 1990s. Yet, for all its scope, it’s the moments of weirdness and cultural references that stand out. There’s another movie reference a couple of episodes later. “Are you Amitabh Bachchan from Zanjeer?” hollers a police commissioner at his insubordinate DCP.