Blog

Typewriter – An Indian horror series that actually is scary.

It had been a really long time since I watched an Indian production that was actually affecting its scary scenes. And before I watched Typewriter, I used to think that Indian productions are not scary because of their overuse of the cliched scenes that were abandoned by Hollywood many many years ago. 

However, interestingly Typewriter has used every possible cliche and gimmick in the book and yet the series manages to be effectively scary when it needs to be scary.

I believe that the makers of this series could get away with so many obvious scary scenes because I as the audience was not invested in the ghost in the story or even in the horror embedded in the story. The writers Sujoy Ghosh and Suresh Nair have written a really interesting story with a deep, tight and curiosity generating plot. Further, they have also managed to build highly relatable or lovable characters (at least the lead characters).

Once the audience is hooked to the core and deeper substance of a visual presentation, even the use of cliches becomes a part of the well-written narrative and the audience not only accepts it but also takes interest in it.

Spoilers Ahead

The very beginning scenes of the series open with Kanwaljit Singh as Madhav Matthews and I must say, there is this aura of royalty and style to the personality of this man which makes me trust everything that he is a part of. So kudos to Mukesh Chabra Casting Company and to the director for using this resource so intelligently.

Unfortunately, Madhav Mathews (played by Kanwaljit) dies in the first few minutes of the film itself. Although, the scene where Madhav dies is exactly where the filmmaker shouts out to the audience and tells them that this series is going to be filled with cliches and yet you will be scared out of your pants every time you encounter a horror cliche.

The moments leading up to Mathew’s death are a textbook build-up of a horror scene. However, the scene climaxes with such unanticipated and unexpected twist that I was forced into pausing the Netflix streaming and mentally appreciate the fantastic storytelling there.

Thereon, the entire series revolves around a book that Madhav started writing but died that very night and hence could not have finished it. However, the book is completed and is published; presumably by the ghost that killed Madhav.

Spoilers end here

The series begins with a very predictable introduction to the plot and with one twist, the plot thickens and keeps thickening in every episode. The writers have managed to blend many elements from previously tried and tested plotlines with completely novel branches to it. And surprisingly despite the complex khichadi that the plot technically is, the makers have managed to turn it into a khichadi that you simply can’t just put down once you take the first morsel.

However, no matter how great a plot is, when it comes to visual storytelling, the actors play a very crucial role in bringing a well-constructed story to life. Typewriter series has a really good ensemble of talented actors who were directed by an informed writer-director Sujoy Ghosh.

Almost all the characters of the series are really well-written with well-though backstories, complex emotional make-up which makes the characters really rounded, relatable and lovable. And to these well-written characters are brought to life by really hard-working and talented actors.

The names that stand out despite their relatively short screen times are Masood Akhtar as James Almeda and Harish Khanna as Moses. These veteran theatre actors portrayed their characters so well, that one can not even imagine a different face in their specific roles.

However, what really surprised me is the portrayal of Sam by Aarnaa Sharma. The character itself was written with extreme emotional depth coupled with the impulsivity and innocence of a child. And Aarnaa nailed the character acting through her extremely talented portrayal. She had very few and specific scenes, nay shots in her entire screen time to explore the emotional depth of the character and even in these limited shots, Aarnaa managed to give the audience a glimpse of everything that the writer intended the character to be.

The portrayal of a small-town policeman who is a widower and a father could have been done in multiple different cliched forms. However, Purab Kohli as inspector Ravi Anand has taken an unexpected yet completely appreciated approach to the character. His atypical enactment of a stereotyped and boxed up character that I almost assumed him to be the protagonist of the series even though it was abundantly clear that he is playing an important role but is not the lead.

Typewriter is a series which can not be constricted to the narrow interpretation of horror genre that Bollywood has been presenting in films like Kaal and Vastushastra. Typewriter is a very well written, thoughtfully constructed and brilliantly made horror series that deserves the respect and love that we give to Hollywood horror movies and series.

That said, I did spot some discrepancies in the otherwise well-constructed plot that probably were added later on to the shooting script to enhance the dramatic and visual effect however these discrepancies created some plot holes. These are not huge enough errors that would undermine the story. But they certainly make me question whether the script supervisor Vasundhara Koshy was aware of these issues and the filmmakers decided to keep them despite her warning or did she miss out on them entirely.

Spoiler alert

The first plot hole is when the Ghost (played by Palomi Ghosh) kills Maria Lopes (played by Meenacshi Martins), the ghost speaks in Konkani language with Maria. This definitely gives the scene a dramatic and scary effect. However, it is revealed at the end of the series that the ghost is created as Jenny’s counterpart by Fakeer (played by Abhishek Banerjee). Based on the series it is clear that Jenny does not speak Konkni and there is no evidence of Fakeer learning Konkni language either. Then how can a ghost speak Konkni if its creator or the person in whose image the ghost was created do not speak that language?

The second plot discrepancy is the sudden and extreme change of attitude of Fakeer’s mother Charu (played by Sonali Sachdev) when her house is being burnt. The character of Charu is presented as someone who is so pious and philanthropic that she lives as a beggar, has no money and helps people to die when they need it the most. Further, she is also seen to be explaining Fakeer about the difference between good and bad and can be seen to be wanting Fakeer to follow an irrationally righteous path.

Yet, when her house is on fire, she suddenly and instantaneously changes her mind, teaches her son black magic and asks him to become a bad person. No matter how much Personally the kind of extremely righteous character of Charu that was presented, does not correlate with this sudden and extreme change of heart to such an extent that she asks her son to live a life of sin.

Climax says it all

Gulabo Sitabo movie is amongst those multi-layered films that look simple on the surface but are so complex on the inside that the film-makers need to dumb it down for the audience in the climactic sequences.

The final scene Gulabo Sitabo and the few shots right before the titles roll basically explain the intention of the film-makers in its entirety.

I take this aspect of the film as my first point because this is the lens through which I will be critiquing Gula Sitabo movie.

Wholesome Experiment Focussed on Genre

Very few Bollywood movies can be defined by specific genre as they rarely adhere to a specific or a hybrid of specific genres. Most Bollywood movies, especially with the start-laden ones, are a mutant hybrid of various aspects from multiple genres mixed together to make the most of the celebrities starring in them.

So I was quite surprised to see that Gulabo-Sitabo movie does not bank upon the fact that it has two celebrities who are character actors and most fetched after stars at the same time.

The writer xyz has stayed true to the genre in the first place and even director Shojit Sarkar has focussed on attempting to create a wholesome film that brings out the dark humour embedded within the script without making the Golabo Sitabo a film about Amitab Bacchan and Ayushman khurrana.

Big B rocked and Ayushman did average 

Both Ayushmaan Khuranna and Amitabh Bacchan have brought brilliant character acting to the table, moulding not only their appearances but also their language, voice and emotional dispositions to fit their characters.

However, I personally feel that Ayushman’s acting in Gulabo Sitabo movie was mechanical at best. There are multiple occasions where he broke the bearing of his role and let the Ayushmaan seep through. Even the attitude that he lent to his character in the film has become overused in his previous films.

His performance was splendid in Golabo Sitabo, no doubt there but I would have appreciated a fresher portrayal; considering that the film-makers gave him that opportunity.

Amitabh Bacchan, on the other hand, has completely altered his persona to bring his role to life. Never ever from the first frame up until the last frame that he is in, does he let the grandeur of his name and his background seep into the movie. And that is actually a great thing because he is playing a character in Gulbo Sitabo movie that is a stellar opposite to his real-life persona.

Cinematography and Art-Direction At Their Best

With a clear and vision of what he wants the film to look like after the edit Art Director xyz has created stellar backgrounds for every scene in this movie. Further, the cinematographer xys utilises these Art Director’s stellar creations and merges them with the natural and man-made beauty of Lucknow city to bring forth the core philosophy of Gulabo Sitabo movie.

Special Mention for Colourist

The Colourist xyz deserves a special mention in this review. A colouring can either bring out the hard work of the cinematographer and the art director or can turn it into a disaster. Most Bollywood films are focussed only on generalising and normalising the overall tone colour-tone of the movie. However, as Shojit Sarkar intends to tell a wholesome story, he has also given a lot of thought to colouring Gulabo Sitabo movie. Further, Sarkar’s vision is turned into reality by the informed work of xyz. He has quite skillfully brightened and contrasted the background when needed, in line with the cinematographer’s and art directors vision. But, most importantly, he has not to sacrifice also made sure to dull down those aspects of the film that need to express a sad and melancholic tone in Gulabo Sitabo movie.

The ability to do both these things while taking into consideration the work previously put in by the rest of the crew certainly deserves a special mention for colourist xyz

Good actors undermined by gaudy visuals and underresearched facts

An esteemed judge retires and turns into the angel of justice responsible for the disappearances of criminals he had acquitted due to lack of evidence. Though this premise of One Day: Justice Delivered sounds like an intriguing thriller written by Sydney Sheldon, the movie is actually not that interesting or thrilling.

Though the core story of this film is pretty decent and with a better screenplay and direction, could have translated into a much better picture. However, the absolute lack of research in the nuances of the subject matter and the gaudy choice of visual storytelling by the director Ashok K Nanda were two major set-backs both for the movie and the actors in it.

I believe that Anupam Kher’s portrayal of Justice Tyagi was one of his very best performances. Kher who is actually an extremely emotive actor adapted the calm and composure necessary for the character of a retired judge and also made it look quite natural. Even the body language and mannerisms of that Kher has given the character are proof of the extremely hard work that he put into his acting.

The character of inspector Sharma, an honest but lazy policeman turned sidekick of a vigilante retired judge is also brought to life with extreme ease by Kumudh Mishra.

I also liked the dashing portrayal of Laxmi Rathi, the hardened lady-cop by Esha Gupta. However, there is a scene in the film where Esha very noticeably breaks character and yet that scene somehow made its way to the film.

That and many such directorial choices have turned an otherwise decent film into a gaudy disaster.

The script of this film is already filled with a series of gory crimes committed by persons in high places who escape punishment by using their financial and political power to alter evidence. Further, the movie is about a calm and composed retired judge bringing them all to justice by a retired judge out of guilt that he could not convict them while he was servicing in the judiciary.

No using a tiny amount of comic relief by introducing fun and almost comic characters like Lakshmi Rathi and inspector Sharma is certainly acceptable in a film made for the Indian audience. However, the screenwriter has added some extremely over the top and unnecessary action scenes while the director has gone further and inserted a cheesy dance number and CID-like visual sequences.

Not to mention that both the writer and the director have completely disregarded the facts about restrictions on a retired judge’s social and family life.

Therefore the resulting concoction of stellar opposites juxtaposed into a visual presentation has turned One Day: Justice Delivered into a movie with good actors which is highly undermined by its over the top visuals and underresearched facts.

Choked – Paisa Bolta Hai is a story of a woman suffering prolonged Post Traumatic Disorder (PTSD) and about how her psychological barriers impact her life, career, relationship choices.

Demonetisation is simply an element of storytelling used by the Choked’s writer Nihit Bhave to build a climactic situation for the character foray into a journey towards the resolution of her story.

That said, I do agree that the director Anurag Kashyap has certainly painted the film Choked with his personal opinions about demonetisation. However, he has done so within the boundaries of the director’s chair, while maintaining the focus of the film on the writer’s intended outcome.

In fact, Kashyap has even enhanced the plot of the film Choked by unfolding the story parallelly in the present and the past of the protagonist with brilliant use of flashbacks.

Saiyami Kher has portrayed the inner complexities of the PTSD suffering character Sarita Patil with masterful use of body language and facial expressions. Had the film Choked been made with greater grandeur, Kher would surely have won an accolade for her performance.

Amruta Subhash has presented a brilliantly ingenious interpretation of the tangent and a highly colourful supporting character of Sharvari Taai. One may forget the film sooner or matter but Subhash’s portrayal of Sharvari Taai will be remembered for a long time.

The art direction, lighting and editing of the film Choked consciously reflect the dull and mundane tone of the character’s initially colourless life. However, this very lacklustre treatment also makes the film lacking in memorable visuals.

Some worthy sub-plots that could have added considerable value to the film have been left half-baked and confusingly incomplete.

The shortcomings of the movie coupled with the unacceptably sweetened ending have turned Choked into an average and forgettable film at best.

Despite the fabulously written characters, the beautiful mansion of Kolkata and the brilliance of all the actors, Bulbbul remains a period drama fairy tale that unfortunately went wrong in many aspects.

Unclear Genre

Most of the Bollywood movies of recent times do not strictly adhere to any specific genre. They are mostly an amalgamation of the filmmakers borrowed lessons from across various genres. Bulbbul writer/director Anvita Dutt also tried to experiment with genres ranging from fairy tale, period drama, vengeance story and social justice tale. However, she could not strike the right balance between the genres in her storytelling, rendering the film a confused concoction of unmixable elements.

Bulbbul is too dark to be a fairy tale, too modern to be a period drama, too virtuous to be a tale of vengeance and too one-sided to be a movie about social cause.

Supernatural confusion

*Spoilers ahead*

Along with the genre of the film, Bulbbul also confused me regarding its supernatural aspect. First, Bulbbul’s marketing itself presented it as a supernatural movie. Second, the makers of Bulbbul hint at the presence of a supernatural being right from in the beginning of the film. However, the big revelation (which is not that big or unexpected really) or twists of the movies is that the supposed supernatural being of the film is the very human Bulbbul herself and that she can get hurt and may also die like humans do in a forest fire. Then again, in the  film’s ending, we once again see Bulbbul as a supernatural being made of ash, which she presumably turned into after she burned in the forest fire.

Not to mention the fact that initially, the film hints that Goddess Kali was the source of Bulbbul’s source of supernatural power, but then it also hints at her childhood tree-climbing habit as its source.

Basically, the writer/director herself doesn’t seem to be entirely sure whether the protagonist of her story, Bulbbul, is supernatural or not.

*Spoilers*

Mind-blowing actors

Despite everything that went wrong with Bulbbul, the writer/director wrote impressive characters and the makers got the perfect cast to play them too. Rahul Bose portrays the double roles of Bulbbul’s husband Indranil — the uptight, loving yet cruel and chauvinistic Bengali landlord and Mahendra — Indranil’s specially abled twin who is still a child in the head but has grown very adult below the belt. Bose’s performance adds depth to the already complex characters and makes them as human and usual as fiction characters can ever become.

Though Tripti Dimri plays the protagonist Bulbbul’s role slightly loudly, she does not make it over the top and somehow the loud acting fits perfectly in the film. Her portrayal of the two extreme aspects — the initial innocence and the latter zealous nonchalance — of Bulbbul’s personality are definitely applause-worthy.

The talented Paoli Dam plays the character of Binodini — cunning, selfish and conniving woman with a tragic past and an even more tragic future. Dam’s perfect performance makes the viewers love her and hate her and feel pity for her, all at the same time.

Avinash Tiwari plays Satya — the soft and sensitive guy that feigns foolhardiness to uphold the family name but fails miserably in doing so because of his moral compass. Tiwari skillfully brings out all these qualities of the character and while also maintaining the chauvinistic undercurrent that says he can flirt with his brother’s wife and that does not cross the line yet when Bulbbul reciprocates, she commits a horrific moral sin.

Lack of visual storytelling

Though filmmaking, though called story-telling, is actually all about story-showing. Films become a visual treat when the story being told in them unfolds through the visuals more than it does through dialogues or other gimmicky elements. I feel that the primary reason for Bulbbul not being entertaining enough, despite so many significant elements in it, is because of the lack of visual storytelling.

Though the film is not too wordy, the tale moves forward primarily through dialogues and narration and spoken words. The writer created the scenes in the film to support the dialogues and the spoken words; when any film should always do the exact opposite to be interesting at all.

Therefore, as the array of compelling and beautiful visuals throughout Bulbbul depend on dialogues to portray their value to the viewers, they end up losing their own importance.

Agenda ruins the suspense

Though the writer has stated in an interview that the feminist agenda in Bulbbul is an unintentional additional benefit, I believe that is is an inseparable part of her writing and hence it seeped into the film maybe even subconsciously. However, in delivering the feminist agenda, the writer revealed a lot of important plot points prematurely. As a result, the film’s writer herself soiled the suspense of Bulbbul herself by revealing too-much-too-soon.

Betaal – Good plot and characters with very less screen time

Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment production Betaal series began making headlines even before it was released as a Marathi filmmaker claimed copyright infringement. Though Marathi v/s Hindi film industry is a real traffic-puller for my blog, I would focus currently on its unprejudiced critical review.

Within a few days of its release, Netflix (India) has listed Betaal at number one in its viewership listings (when writing this post). And it does deserve that spot at least for a really nice attempt at trying to make an Indianised version of a zombie apocalyptic series.

However, that is what the series’ makers have restricted it to be – ‘an attempt’. The plot of the series Betaal along with the brilliantly written characters has such exhaustive substance and depth that at least eight to ten episodes could have been churned out of it in the first season with room still remaining for a second season.

The makers instead chose to play it safe and pack it all up in a one day’s worth of binge-watching. I believe that this was a strategic choice made to test the market for this kind of content in a series format.

Though this strategy seems to have worked very well in terms of popularity amongst the audience, it has also strangled and suffocated the brilliant writing by Patrick Graham and Suhani Kanwar.

The writers have created a truly Indian version of the zombie problem by giving it a folklore background and combining the folklore with the realities of the British Raj. The settings and the profound characters also quite flawlessly complement the folklore. The casting choices though peculiar in some ways are also so perfect the actors fit the complex and profound character descriptions like pieces of a puzzle.

As I began watching the series, I initially questioned the choice of Vineet Kumar for the role of Vikram Sirohi particularly because neither his voice nor his amiable expressions are those of a hero of the armed forces. However, as the character developed in the further episodes and his past unfolded I was convinced that none other than Kumar could have played the role so well.

Suchitra Pillai has earned all the resentment and distrust for her character commandant Tyagi and that is the mark of an excellent actor in a negative role.

Jitendra Joshi is that versatile actor who played the role of saint Tukaram and that of constable Katekar in Sacred Games with equal talent. However, the choice of casting him in the role of Ajay Mudhalvan was questionable for me initially. But again as the series proceeded and the character developed even further, I realised that none other than Joshi could have played Joshi the role of an egomaniacal, selfish bastard any better.

Puniya played by Manjiri Pupala, DC Ahluwalia played by Aahana Kumra Nadir Haqare played by Siddharth Menon are the three roles the casting of which seemed perfect ever since they first appeared on the screen. However, these characters that have so much of back-story and sub-plots of their own get the least screen time. However, the actors have made the best of what they did get and have brought these characters to life in the very few independent scenes that they get.

Patrick Graham and Nikhil Mahajan have done a really great job directing Betaal despite it being a series with a western concept adapted and Indianised for Bollywood audience, written carefully and in-depth but crunched into four small episodes.

However, I am not at all satisfied with the non-sensical amount of VFX and prosthetics that make the otherwise realistic zombies look like funny dolls from a parody of Chucky movies. I am not asking directors to smash real aeroplanes into real walls like Christopher Nolan did in TENET but I would really like it if we could minimise the VFX effects to make the film look realistic.

All in all, Betaal is a must watch at least to respect the insane amount of work put in by the entire cast and crew of the series to localise zombies and present them on an International platform as an Indian series.

I am a writer, entertainment blogger and a small-time actor myself and just like many of you, even I was excruciatingly pained by the sad demise of Sushant Singh Rajput. Sushant was unarguably a boon for Bollywood who could change the tides in the industry.

However, while every person even remotely related to the field of entertainment is publicly speculating about SSR’s cause of death, I have been completely silent primarily because I am constitutionalist. Let me explain – 

This may seem far fetched to many citizens due to lack of fundamental awareness but every aspect of our life as an Indian citizen is governed by a single organic parent statute or law of the land titled as The Constitution of India. Now, like all organic written material, the Indian Constitution may not be perfect for governing a nation of above 1.38 crore residents. However, even our right to question the Constitution is given to us by the Constitution itself.

Now, the media and entertainment industry and particularly Bollywood might seem to be unquestionably independent all-powerful bodies owing to the facade of their grandeur but the truth remains that even these seemingly untouchable industries are governed by the same 117,369-words document called the Indian constitution.

It is to be noted that we certainly are fortunate as Indian citizens because Part III of the Indian Constitution turned the act of speaking our minds out in the words of our choosing into a fundamental right; unline many other countries where citizens are shot dead for saying what the want.

However, what we often forget or quite royally ignore is the fact that the same Constitution that gives us the right to speak freely also provides for a well-structured executive and justice system.

Though the right to speak freely and a well-structured justice system sound unrelated, from a constitutional perspective these two are quite intertwined ina a manner that they reasonably restrict each other in certain specific cases.

For instance, as much as I have the right to publish slanderous statements that my neighbour uses his dog as a weapon to assault all my house guests, I can exercise this right only after I prove it to be true in a Court of Law.

The similar principle applies in the case of SSR’s sad demise. As much as I have the right to state that Sushant died due to suicide or was murdered by envious Bollywood Lords, I should ideally not pass personal judgement before a Court of Law affirms my speculations.

Now, I would like to point out that speaking out about speculations, as it was being done initially in the SSR case is not against the constitutional principles at all. However, soon after Sushant’s sad demise, the speculations surrounding his death turned into legal trials hosted by popular media houses and social media platforms.

Speculations became allegations and allegations became confirmed statements that began affecting not only the lives of people rich and poor/big and small but also began impacting the careers of artists. The unfounded and unconfirmed claims now have also begun to spread in the interpersonal lives of common citizens and Indians are now divided into factions that are subscribing to an either/or system of belief.

Now, I myself prefer to keep my mind open for all the possibilities, no matter how insane or impossible they may seem to my present restricted pattern of thinking or system of belief. That is exactly why I have kept silent about the SSR issue until now.

Why I am speaking up now is because the apex Constitutional court of India – The Supreme Court – has ordered a CBI investigation in Sushant’s demise. Though that in itself does not prove or disprove anything in itself, it does make a statement that a Constitutional body thinks that prima facie, there is more to the story than is being told.

I personally am going to maintain my open-minded attitude and not affirm or cancel out any possibilities in Sushant’s demise until a document signed by a Constitutional body states one of the possibilities to be true.

While I do not expect any of your readers to maintain as open-minded an attitude as myself, I do urge you all to at least respect and abide by the principles of the organic document that gives us the freedom to speak our will.

For the past month, I have been experiencing a philosophy driven emotional unease because of an internal conflict relating my feelings about the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony. The internal conflict arose out of my belief that if I feel happy about the ceremony, then I can not call myself a constitutionalist (someone who doesn’t identify with any political inclination and accepts only the constitutional principles as supreme).

However, an illustration titled’ ‘The Spineless Celebration’ posted on Instagram by the The Bombay Review provided me with the much necessary sharp jolt of clarity, thus resolving my internal conflict.

I realised the ‘feeling happy about Ram Mandir ceremony’ and ‘calling myself a constitutionalist’ are not opposites at all. Prabhu Shree Ram is the eternal and legendary symbol of ‘Justice, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’, which are also the guiding principles on which the entire Constitution of India stands.

And by the way, it takes an immensely strong spine to cut through the external noises aiming to divide and conquer and also through the uneasy feelings in our hearts and minds and to listen closely to the inner voice of clarity.

So yes, I am a Constitutionalist AND I also am a proud Hindu and I am absolutely ecstatic that Bhagwan Shree Ram Has returned to guide Bharat on the Constitutional path of ‘Justice, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’.

Jay Shree Ram

I am someone who sucked at gaming ever since I was a child. Being a 90’s kid, I have played arcade games like Contra and Mario on archaic gaming consoles (at my neighbour’s place because my father thought that was a luxury a school-going kid should not have). I experienced the real-time journey of games from television screens to bulky computer monitors, all the way to the modern-day hi-tech gaming computers.

One thing that remained consistent throughout this duration is that I never really developed the aptitude or the skill set to be a good gamer. I still remember being frustrated while playing RoadRash with my friends (who were actually bullies but I had little choice back then) and failing every single two-player race (two-player was a huge thing back then). I faced a similar ordeal in every single game that became popular over the ages, which I tried playing and sucked hard at.

As a result of persistent failures and the growing loathing from my peers for not being able to play games well, I was soon considered an outcast from the community. Like every outcast ever, I began hating and looking down upon the gamers’ group which was apparently too exclusive for me to be a part of. Over the years, I developed other skills, ventured in different directions where I was appreciated and wandered off far far away from anything game-related (all while secretly wanting to be one of these super cool kids who, in themselves, were on the path to forming an entirely new faction of society).

Owing to my orthodox upbringing, my traditional middle-class family background, and because I mostly resided in tiny towns filled with people struggling for their daily bread, I began developing the same obnoxious attitude towards gamers that all the ignorants of our society have.

It was not until a completely unexpected job I took forced me into a totally unanticipated meeting with an entirely out-of-my-comfort-zone person named Zara Rebello, that I was forced into reconsidering my views towards gaming in general. I was supposed to interview Zara for her Cosplay work and being an ethically driven person, I knew that if I had a non-approving attitude towards my interviewee’s profile as a gamer, I would not be an unbiased interviewer, even when talking to her about Cosplay. So purely out of necessity for my job and my ethical adamancy, I began looking at the field of gaming with an open – if not completely accepting – mind.

For reasons neither I nor Zara would be able to explain, that interview led to us becoming considerably good friends almost a year after we first met. As my perspective towards gaming had become more accepting over the years, perhaps Zara also felt comfortable talking to me about games and the likes in recent times.

Zara introduced me to the gaming field one step at a time and when I was still an outsider, still dipping my toes in the ocean of gaming, one day, Zara suddenly asked me if I wanted to play a game called ‘Among Us’ with her group of friends (who are all pretty good, some even professional gamers apparently).

Suddenly, all my childhood insecurities of being cast out from an exclusive group rushed to the surface. My first instinct was to deny the request, stop talking to Zara completely, turn my phone off, delete discord from my computer and cry my heart out in my lonely little bed.

However, maybe because I had come to trust Zara enough to know that she would never intentionally screw me over, I accepted the offer and joined in on the gameplay with her friends.

As fate would have it, I was the imposter in the very first round (which, for those who are unfamiliar with the game, is a very crucial role) while playing ‘Among Us’. Now as expected, I performed just like my history with games would suggest. I sucked so grandly, I almost began hating myself by the end of the first round. But surprisingly, this gang of gamers did not kick me out immediately. Nor did they ridicule me for not being good enough. They included me in another round. I sucked again of course. But regardless of my consistent failures, they kept including me in the following rounds and even acknowledged my presence in the game several times which made me believe that this was not just charity and they actually thought of me as one of them, at least for those few rounds I played with them.

I feel slightly ashamed accepting this as a 30-year-old man, but the kid inside me danced with joy that day, and for the first time in my entire life, gamers made me feel ‘Among Us’.

Netflix series Betaal produced by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment recently got into a short-lived but serious controversy after two Marathi screenwriters pulled them into the court with claims that that the series ‘Betaal’ was copied from their original Marathi film script written by them titled ‘Vetaal’.

Here is a gist of the court case in a simplified format without a lot of legal jargon. The article is divided into sections and you can skip ahead to any section if you want specific questions answered.

Note – This is a highly simplified article and is intended to be a general information source and not an authoritative legal article.

What is copyright how is it protected?

Imagine that you woke up at 3 am in the morning and wrote down quite a fabulous story.

Now there are many different things that you can do with this story. You can either write a book out of it or ask your filmmaker friend to make a move out of it. Or, you may even sell the story to some other person who then gets to decide what to do with it.

So, once you have created a tangible copy of an imagined idea in a story form, you get all these options or legal rights with regards to your idea.

This bundle of various options of legal rights that a creator of such a tangible copy of an idea is called having a copyright in the tangible copy.

What is copyright infringement?

In the above example, imagine that you decide to post the story you have written on Instagram. However, before you can bask in the glory of all the likes and comments that your post got, you realise that some random guy has copied your entire story or parts of your story and posted it on his profile as his own writing.

This action of copying of an original story or majority parts of the original story is called copyright infringement.

What are Marathi Writers claims in Betaal case?

Marathi screenplay writers Sameer Wadekar and Mahesh Goswami claimed that they had written a Marathi film titled ‘Vetaal’ back in 2013-14.

They further say that after watching the trailer of Netlfix series ‘Betaal’ released on May 5, 2020, they realised that the writing of Betaal had 13 similarities with their original script of Vetaal.

So they filed a case in the Bombay High Court asking for interim relief of stopping the worldwide release of Betaal on Netflix.

What the heck is an interim relief?

Imagine two kids get into a quarrel as to who got their hands the TV remote first.

When you approach your mother with the dispute, she takes the remote and says that the TV remains turned off until the dispute is resolved.

Interim relief is something similar but slightly more complex. In the Betaal case, Marathi writers asked the court to stop the release of the Betaal series on Netflix till it is proved in the court that the series is copied from the original Marathi screenplay or not.

What is the point of granting interim relief?

Imagine you spend lakhs of rupees and work day and night for months to build a car model that runs on solar power.

Now, before you could sell the model to a manufacturing company, you spot a car-sale advertise in the newspaper with your design in the photo.

You obviously file a case against the company in the court but by the time the court gives its judgment, the other company has made loads of money selling hundreds of cars made with your design. Even if you win the case, the loss has already been done.

This is where interim relief comes in. When filing a case in the court you can ask the court to stop the other company from selling their cars until you prove or fail to prove that your design was stolen by that other comapny to protect yourself from the losses.

Why did the court not grant interim relief in Betaal case?

First of all the Marathi screenwriters failed to prove in court that Netflix could have gotten their hands on the original screenplay of Vetaal. Which meant the probability of copying the original script lowers.

Secondly, the Marathi screenwriters failed to explain as to why they filed a case in May 2020, just before the release, when the story of Betaal was publicly declared in all major newspapers in July 2019. This made the court question the intention behind filing the case with such delay.

Lastly, the court said that the concept of Viram-Vetal is popular in Indian folklore and hence the idea of making a series out of it could occur to anyone without having to read the Marathi screenwriters’ original script.

On these grounds, the court said that the probability of copyright infringement was low.

Similarly, the Marathi screenwriters had only written a script of while Netflix and Red Chillies had made an entire series on Betaal by expending lots of money and time and had also marketed its release.

Therefore, if the court had stopped the release of Betaal, Netflix and Red Chillies would have incurred huge losses. Whereas, even if the series was released, the Marathi screenwriters would not have faced losses of equivalent grandeur.

In the Betaal case, the Marathi screenwriters had only written a script of Vetaal while Netflix and Red Chillies had made an entire series on Betaal by expending lots of money and time and had also marketed its release.

Therefore, if the court had stopped the release of Betaal, Netflix and Red Chillies would have incurred huge losses. Whereas, even if the series was released, the Marathi screenwriters would not have faced losses in similar grandeur.

Therefore, the court did not the grant interim relief of stopping the release of Betaal to the Marathi screenwriters.

Does it mean copyright infringement did not occur?

Interim relief is only an intermediate step in court proceedings.

The court did not stop the release of Betaal on Netflix only because the losses that Netflix and Red Chillies would incur were not proportionate to the proof that Marathi screenwriters presented about copyright infringement.

However, the court did not say anything about whether a copyright infringement occurred or not.

The case is still going on and the court has given some time to the Marathi writers to provide enough evidence to prove copyright infringement.

If the infringement is proved, the court will order Netflix and Red chillies to pay compensation to the Marathi screenwriters.