What are we all watching?: Deepanjana Pal on the missing Hindi comfort show

Hindustan Times

26-04-2025

The other day, our family doctor put me on the spot. 'Got any movie or show recommendations, preferably in Hindi?' he asked.
This shouldn't be a challenge in the age of streaming, but I could only sit there and gawp. So far, 2025 has been trying for those of us expected to serve up menus of options to fans of Hindi entertainment.
Regional cinema has delivered satisfying watches such as Alappuzha Gymkhana (Malayalam), the story of young, aspiring boxing champions. Sharmila Tagore delivered a standout performance in Puratawn (Bengali for Ancient), about a mother, a daughter and an 80th birthday party.
Titles like these stand distinctly apart from the lacklustre listings out of Bollywood.
Even if excess, spectacle and gloss are all your heart desires, there hasn't been much to choose from. Chhaava has been the biggest hit of the first quarter, but to recommend any of the Hindi films released so far this year is to risk one's credibility.
On streaming, there was the slow but elegant storytelling of Black Warrant, set in New Delhi's Tihar Jail in the 1980s. The second season of Paatal Lok was a gripping watch and immensely bingeable, despite lapses of logic in its denouement. And that's about it.
Of late, the bulk of Hindi entertainment has teetered between mediocre and disappointing. A monotony has set into streaming shows and films alike, with a surfeit of predictable action and crime dramas.
Glaringly absent in the line-up is the good comfort watch. The show to come closest so far is Dupahiya, which feels like a work of Panchayat fan-fiction, and needed a whole lot more of Sparsh Shrivastava , who plays the fame-hungry but endearing Bhugol in this story of matchmaking going wrong; but is best-known for his role as the hapless (and wife-less) husband in 2023's Laapataa Ladies.
Until recently, Indian OTT platforms managed a steady supply of well-made feel-good shows. There was Gullak (at least the first two seasons), Ghar Waapsi, Mismatched, Bandish Bandits (at least Season 2) and the first two seasons of Panchayat. There was laughter and tenderness in these shows, which were often rooted in a credible reality but went on to imagine a kinder world with happy endings for those who deserved them.
Especially when the real world is rife with tension and uncertainty, well-made comfort watches can be a lifeline. A fantastic example is this year's Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. In it, the iconic protagonist (Renee Zellweger) is older, sadder and grappling with the grief of losing her beloved Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Despite everything, she holds on to her silliness, and ends up more endearing than ever. The film, the fourth in the franchise, revives some beloved characters, including Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver, while introducing delicious dollops of newness to Bridget's world.
It also gives us that rare delight: an older woman protagonist unashamed of her desires. Too often, in Hollywood, when a middle-aged woman acts on her sexual curiosity, it is depicted as transgressive and laced with a whiff of shame. Invariably, she succumbs to anxious jealousy built up around a younger woman. (As much as Nicole Kidman deserves applause for choosing films helmed by women directors, last year's Babygirl is guilty of all this.)
Not Bridget Jones, though. She remains a messy heroine, but is secure in herself. She is brave enough to demand happiness from the universe and — because the film is a comfort watch — the universe complies.
A Hindi film or series with the sensibility of …Mad About the Boy would have been just what the doctor ordered, for our family doctor. Instead, I asked him if he liked vampires and suggested Ryan Coogler's incandescent Sinners (2025), which is as much a love letter to blues music as it is a period drama and vampire flick. As recommendations go, it's a good one. The film is disturbing, thought-provoking and beautiful. But, as I advised the good doctor, those with a low threshold for horror might want to line up an uncomplicated comfort watch to follow. We contain multitudes, after all; why shouldn't the entertainment we consume do the same?
(To reach Deepanjana Pal with feedback, write to @dpanjana on Instagram)