RD Recommends: The Odyssey, Cook and Son, and More

From long awaited returns to buzzy new releases, the entertainment world is overflowing—in the best way. Your watchlist is growing, your TBR pile is teetering, and there's more to choose from than ever. Consider this quick, curated guide to what's worth your time right now. 

The Odyssey

Now in theatres

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Written by: Christopher Nolan, based on Odyssey by Homer

Produced by: Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan

Starring: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Mia Goth, Lupita Nyong'o, Himesh Patel, Zendeya, Samantha Morton and Charlize Theron

Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema

Music: Ludwig Göransson

No other Hollywood director can claim the kind of fandom and instant name-recall enjoyed by Christopher Nolan in India. He is arguably this era’s premier creator of big-screen spectacles that include comic-book adaptations (The Dark Knight), high-concept sci-fi thrillers (Inception, Interstellar) and historical dramas (Oppenheimer, Dunkirk). Nolan’s latest film is an adaptation of Odyssey, Homer’s epic Greek poem.  Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca who embarks on a decade-long, perilous journey home following the Battle of Troy. Along the way, Odysseus encounters gods, demons and everything in between. Meanwhile, back home, his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) fends off a legion of cruel, opportunistic suitors led by Antinous (Robert Pattinson). Still playing in theatres, The Odyssey has become Nolan's highest-grossing film yet, raking in $1.1 billion against a budget $250 million less than a month since its release on July 17. 

Pritam and Pedro

Streaming on JioHotstar

Created by: Rajkumar Hirani

Directed by: Avinash Arun

Written by: Rajkumar Hirami, Abhijat Joshi, Suyansh Trivedi, Pranjal Saxena (dialogues) and Shashank Kunwar (dialogues)

Starring: Arshad Warsi, Vir Hirani

Rajkumar Hirani, director of blockbuster Bollywood comedies like Munnabhai MBBS and P. K., makes his OTT debut with the detective–comedy series Pritam and Pedro. Arshad Warsi stars as hot-headed, old-school cop Pedro whose latest misdemeanour lands him a punishment-posting at the cyber-crimes division. Soon, he finds himself in a classic ‘odd couple’ with rookie officer Pritam (Vir Hirani) whose Gen-Z candour and technical wizardry prove too much for Pedro to handle, at least at first. The ‘buddy cop’ genre thrives on everyday conflicts that arise out of contrasting personalities, and Warsi is an experienced hand at this kind of character-driven comedy. If you enjoyed films like The Nice Guys or Rush Hour, this might just be your next binge-watch.

Cook and Son by Adam Byatt 

Streaming on YouTube

Cook and Son is a heartwarming and simply told YouTube series by London-based writer, chef and restaurateur Adam Byatt. Every episode is between seven and 10 minutes long, and chronicles a trip undertaken by Byatt and his young son Jack, aged about seven or eight. The first episode is a fishing trip, another one is a hunting trip, yet another one is a day spent at a large-scale cattle farm, observing the sheer scale and diversity of tasks required to keep such a place running. In every episode, Byatt teaches Jack both cooking and practical skills—and it’s rather sweet to see a man with a Michelin star visibly delighted at his son whisking eggs and foraging for berries. Cook and Son presents a positive, empathetic, fun role model for modern dads.

The Fragrance of Rain: A Brief History of the Monsoon by Stephen Alter, Aleph Book Company

Mussoorie-born American writer Stephen Alter has written many works of non-fiction involving the Himalayan region, including the well-received Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth (2019). In his latest book The Fragrance of Rain, Alter follows the trajectory of the monsoon, from the first thunderclap heard in Kerala to the pitter-patter of rain in the Himalayan foothills. Alter’s narrative segues include scientists hunting for a rare fungus with a brief window of germination, Kannauj performers looking to bottle the scent of rain, and a host of Indian writers and artists who have captured the monsoon with their songs, stories and metaphors.

The Blue Book by Siddhesh Gautam, Penguin Random House

Written and illustrated by Siddhesh Gautam, The Blue Book is a unique graphic novel that unites the past and the present of the anti-caste movement on the page. Gautam has been documenting the lives and work of key anti-caste ideologues from the Indian subcontinent on Instagram. Here, as the narrator, he embarks on dream sequences wherein he directly engages with these figures from the past. These encounters give him the intellectual nourishment and the courage to keep pushing the needle on this vital issue.

For the Love of Stories: Confessions of an Accidental Feminist by Wendy Doniger, Speaking Tiger Books

For four decades, Wendy Doniger has been a leading authority on ancient Sanskrit and Hindu texts. She looks back at her life and career in For the Love of Stories: Confessions of an Accidental Feminist. The book’s secondary title kicks in when Doniger discusses her work’s longstanding thread—eroticism in Indic textual and religious traditions. “I was interested in the ways men tried to control women and women manoeuvred to maintain their integrity. It never occurred to me I was part of a movement to change the way things should be.”

August 17 by S. Hareesh, translated by Jayasree Kalathil, HarperCollins India

The calamitous, transformational era of World War II (1939–1945) led a lot of writers and artists around the globe to reimagine what our planet would look like had a couple of ‘hinge’ events gone a different way. Thus was born the alternate-history novel, like Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle (1962) or Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004). The JCB Prize-winning Malayalam writer S. Hareesh’s latest novel August 17 (translated into English by Jayasree Kalathil) belongs to this tradition of speculative historical fiction. In the world of August 17, Thiruvithamkoor or Travancore did not join the Indian nation-state in 1947, declaring its independence instead. Soon, the newly-autonomous Travancore starts to wilt under the pressure, becoming a land of insurgencies, revolutions and large-scale propaganda.

Elephant by Mili feat. Joe Satriani

Streaming on Spotify

Chennai-based singer-composer Mili Nair, known mononymously as Mili, has released her latest single Elephant on YouTube—an enjoyably retro, 80’s-style hard-rock song with extended electric guitar solos. On guitar duty is veteran instrumental guitarist and 15-time Grammy nominee Joe Satriani. Satriani’s riffs provide Elephant with a solid melodic grounding and a rousing, crescendo-like finish. Nair’s vocals are stylized in the classic R&B manner. She displays a fine instinct for how melodies wrap themselves around the drums-and-guitar ensemble. 

Imagined Tomorrow: A Podcast About Indian Futures

Now streaming on Spotify

The word ‘futurism’ began life as a way to describe early examples of what we call ‘speculative fiction’. Today, the word is used more broadly to describe movements that seek to articulate their vision of what an imagined future might look like. In Imagined Tomorrow, Shreya Dasgupta discusses a number of ‘Indian Futures’ worth pondering upon: How equipped are we for an asteroid hurtling from the sky? What is a ‘climate-safe’ home in the context of central India, where future temperatures are supposed to hit 50 degrees? What manner of technology might we see a hundred years from now, for example, and how would it impact our language, our thought systems? If you’re interested in getting answers to questions like these, Imagined Tomorrow is highly recommended for you.

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