Screen Time: Shows for the Dog Days of Summer
These streaming gems will keep you indoors in August: A reluctant witness gets pulled into a baby’s abduction; a determined lawyer defends a surgeon accused of murder; a team of investigators races to track down political assassins; and a quiet ex-con returns to destroy his brother’s perfect life, one secret at a time.
Stolen (Hindi)
Amazon Prime Video
Sometimes, a fleeting encounter can set off a chain of events you never imagined when you woke up that morning. Director Karan Tejpal sets the scene in a nondescript rural railway station. Gautam (Abhishek Banerjee) arrives to pick up his younger brother Raman for a family function. Raman witnesses the abduction of a baby—the kidnapper brushes past him and disappears into the night. Gautam wants to walk away from the situation (as most of us would), but Raman wants to help the mother, a tribal woman, find her child. What follows is a series of horrifying events, and soon the two brothers find themselves fighting off feral mobs in hostile terrain. It’s a wild ride, with the story taking off in directions that you’d least expect—and therein lies the brilliance of this taut and suspenseful story. It also asks pointed questions about privilege, upper-class savior syndrome, and justice.
The last time Abhishek Banerjee shook us to the core was with his chilling performance as the unhinged Hathoda Tyagi from the much-celebrated series Pataal Lok. Here, as Gautam, he goes effortlessly from brash and snooty Delhi boy to a man desperately trying to survive and save his kin. It is a performance for the ages. Shubham as Raman is fantastic, and so is the rest of the cast, which includes Mia Maelzer as Jhumpa Mahato, the anguished mother trying to get back her child. Stolen, which premiered in 2023 and earned accolades at various international film festivals, has finally made its way to OTT. Don’t miss this one.
The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case (Hindi/Tamil)
SonyLIV
The memory is startlingly vivid. On the morning of May 22, 1991, during the summer holidays, my dad was teaching me how to ride a bike. We came home, flushed and triumphant from my progress, only to be hit with the news: Rajiv Gandhi had been assassinated.
I was a child, and this was the first time I had heard of a political killing. The footage on our television screens was ghastly: the chaotic blast site, the eerie stillness of Gandhi’s white canvas shoes, and the chilling image of Dhanu, the suicide bomber, standing close to him with a garland just seconds before the explosion. I remember hearing the phrase “dastardly act” for the first time. This haunting memory came rushing back while watching the gripping series by director Nagesh Kukunoor, based on journalist Anirudhya Mitra’s book Ninety Days. The series retells the gripping manhunt that followed Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. It’s a taut, well-acted political thriller that dives deep into the investigation led by the CBI’s Special Investigation Team. As the show unpacks the details—from LTTE's deadly planning to the desperate chase to find key suspects like Sivarasan (Shafeeq Mustafa is dead on in this complex role)—it gives us a peek into the workings of the men behind the scenes who worked to uncover the plot. The attention to detail, from how the LTTE planned the attack to the political tension between India and Sri Lanka, keeps you hooked, even if you already know how the story ends.
Criminal Justice: A Family Matter (Hindi)
Hotstar
This installment of the popular series continues the franchise’s strong run with a taut, emotionally charged tale of love, betrayal, and buried secrets. Directed by Rohan Sippy and Aadityan Rajesh, this season blends a classic whodunit with powerful undercurrents of family tension and sacrifice. The result is a gripping legal drama that keeps you hooked until the very end. The story revolves around Dr. Raj Nagpal (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), a respected surgeon found holding the lifeless body of his partner Roshni. With blood on his hands—literally—it seems like an open-and-shut case. But when veteran lawyer Madhav Mishra (Pankaj Tripathi) steps in to defend him, layers of complexity emerge: a child with Asperger’s, an estranged wife with a secret, family loyalties, and a murder weapon hidden in plain sight.
Tripathi is, as always, the scene-stealer. With his trademark jovial smile, dry wit, no-nonsense courtroom antics, and matter-of-fact delivery, he makes Madhav Mishra as entertaining as he is insightful. Watching him work the courtroom is half the fun of the show. He brings levity to even the tensest moments—and with Metro… in Dino also on his resume this year, Tripathi continues to be a reliable delight onscreen.
Kankjajura (Hindi)
SonyLIV
It’s been years since I last heard the word kankhajura—that creepy-crawly centipede we all shrieked at as kids. Long, elusive, and capable of slipping through the tiniest cracks to cause unexpected chaos. Fittingly, that’s exactly what Roshan Mathew’s character does in this moody psychological thriller. Directed by Chandan Arora and adapted from the Israeli series Magpie, Kankhajura is a slow-burning story of revenge and emotional wreckage. Ashu (Roshan Mathew), freshly released from prison after 14 years, tries to reconnect with his estranged elder brother Max (Mohit Raina), now a powerful real estate tycoon. But when Max shuts him out, Ashu doesn’t walk away quietly. Like a centipede slipping into hidden corners, he begins to sow mistrust—between Max and his wife, his business allies, and even his sense of self.
Roshan Mathew is chillingly effective. His Ashu is unpredictable, quiet one moment and unhinged the next, always calculating, always watching. Mohit Raina’s Max is more polished but no less flawed—a man whose carefully curated world begins to unravel thread by thread. The series doesn’t rely on loud twists or action-heavy scenes. Instead, it’s about what creeps beneath the surface—guilt, betrayal, and long-held secrets. Kankhajura isn’t for those seeking adrenaline-pumping thrills. But if you’re drawn to slow, psychological unraveling—where one wounded man can quietly infect an entire web of relationships—it’s definitely worth watching.
Baisakhi Roy is a culture writer and journalist based in Ontario, Canada. Her work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Huffington Post Canada, Chatelaine, Broadview and CBC. Formerly a reporter with The Indian Express in India, Roy is an avid Bollywood fan and co-hosts the Hindi language podcast KhabardaarPodcast.com. Email: baisakhi.roy@gmail.com
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