What to Watch on Streaming This Weekend: South Indian Edition

Starting this week, we bring to you a list of South Indian movies that are currently streaming on OTT channels in India. From Gen Z romances to action thrillers and new age comedies, you can take your pick and enjoy the week ahead! 

Tamil

Pookie
This is a Gen Z romance drama that highlights modern relationships and how young couples navigate their life, post break up. The film directed by Ramesh Chandra stars Ajay Dhishan and RK Dhanusha, who play Kailash and Aaazi respectively. It highlights the pressures of new age dating, where a minor argument during a night drive leads a silly argument that soon evolves into a full-blown public spat and marks the end of their six-year relationship. Platform: Zee5

Resort
This is a gritty take on struggles of a room service provider at a luxury resort, where the protagonist, Eruma Saani (Vijay Kumar Rajendra) is exploited by his manager, and the movie traces his journey from the depths of despair to finding light by fighting hard against the system. The film depicts how Eruma he overcomes these challenges and emerges victorious eventually. The web series is directed by Praveen Bennet. Platform: Jio Hotstar

Local Times
As the name denotes, this a drama based in a newspaper office and throws light on the pressures of running a small regional newspaper, which brings with it, its own set of challenges. Parallelly the sublot focusses on the friendship between Veera (Rishikanth) Azhagu Sundaram (Abdool Lee) and Srivalli (Advitha Arumugam), who run the newspaper together. This feel-good series has been directed by Naveen George Thomas. Platform: Amazon Prime

Telugu

Funky

A meta parody on the Telugu film industry, it traces the ups and downs in a debut film director, Komal’s (Vishwak Sen) life as the budget of his project goes grossly overboard, and he lands up in hospital. The film depicts the director KV Anudeep’s satirical style with classic deadpan expressions and quirky punchlines. Platform:  Netflix

Bhartha Mahasayulaku Wignyapthi
When a Hyderabad-based winemaker Ram’s (Ravi Teja) brand, Anarkali gets rejected by a Spanish company, the determined entrepreneur flies to Spain in a bid to convince management head Manasa Shetty (Ashika Ranganath) of United Sprits, ends up having an affair with her. The conflict leads to comical situations as Ram is a married man, who had faked his identity to date Manasa. But fate has other plans, whenManasa lands up in Hyderabad and the truth is revealed. Platform: Zee5

Couple Friendly
Another relationship-based flick centred around a young couple balancing their professional careers with their personal equation. When an aspiring interior designer Shiva (Santosh Sobhan) moves to Chennai and ends up as a bike driver, he meets Mithra (Manasa Varanasi), an ITT graduate from Chittor, who is desperately job hunting, they decide to live together leading to conflicts and complications. This romantic saga has been directed by Ashwin Chandrashekhar. Platform: Amazon Prime

Kannada

Landlord
The plot is set in rural Karnataka and explores the subject of land ownership and injustice.  Fed up with the constant bullying, an oppressed labourer Rachayya (Duniya Vijay) decides to fight the system after being impacted by the death of a poor family in his village. Rachayya transforms from a passive being into a violent labourer in his quest for justice in this action drama directed by Jadesh Hampi. Platform: Zee5

Malayalam cinema

Pennum Porattum
A satirical comedy based in Pattada, a fictional village in Kerala, it highlights the dangers of moral policing and character assassination leading to a witch hunt of Charulata (Raina Radhakrishnan), a woman who rejects Kumar’s (Dinesh Pe Po) clandestine advances only to be socially maligned by him. The plot also depicts how rumour-mongering spreads when Charulatha’s boyfriend’s dog, Suttu (voiced by Tovino Thomas) escapes an abusive household leading to a false narrative about the dog having rabies. The film directed by Rajesh Madhavan shows how these two episodes impacts the small village leading to unnecessary violence. Platform: Netflix