What to watch on December 18: Black Widows is now streaming on ZEE5

Here are the movies and shows you can stream on ZEE5, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus Hotstar, ALTBalaji, SonyLIV, Apple TV+ and Voot Select among others.

2020 is about to end, and while this year might not have been merry for many, it was a game-changer for OTT platforms. With most people staying indoors for a large part of the year, OTT platforms built a strong audience and kept them entertained with new content all year long.

This week, the new content on streaming platforms includes Amazon Prime Video’s Unpaused, ZEE5’s Black Widows and Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Paava Kadhaigal.

Unpaused, on Amazon Prime Video, is a set of five short films put together with the common theme of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. The five films have been directed by Raj & DK, Nikkhil Advani, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Avinash Arun and Nitya Mehra. Gulshan Devaiah, Saiyami Kher, Richa Chadha, Sumeet Vyas, Lillete Dubey, Rinku Rajguru, Abhishek Banerjee, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan and Ratna Pathak Shah are part of the star cast.

ZEE5’s Black Widows stars Mona Singh, Swastika Mukherjee and Shamita Shetty. The show is an official adaptation of Finnish show Mustat lesket. It is the story of three women who decide to take control of their life after being subjected to repeated domestic violence.

Swastika Mukherjee, in an earlier statement, said, “Given the international reputation of the show, the team has put their heart and soul to create something quite extraordinary. The three widows will slap patriarchy and set their own rules and celebrate their new freedom. Rest assured, it is not your ordinary women-centric drama and we don’t need men to save us. These are strong powerful women putting an end to their dark past and blossoming into a new life.”

Here’s what you can watch on OTT platforms today.

Akshay Kumar and Kiara Advani’s horror-comedy Laxmii is streaming on Disney Plus Hotstar. The Raghava Lawrence directorial revolves around an unsuspecting man whose body gets taken over by a spirit. The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote in her review of the film, “Somewhere deep inside the mess that’s Laxmii, is the kernel of a solid idea: to give us the story of a transgender person, with empathy and sympathy. But this Akshay Kumar-starrer is a two-hour clutch-your-head, can-I-really-be-watching-this nonsense, from beginning to end.”

Starring Swara Bhasker, the show follows her character as she steps away from a cookie-cutter life to follow her dream of becoming a stand-up comic. The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote in her review of the series, “Bhaag Beanie Bhaag, written by comics who are meant to have cracked the stand-up scene, comes together only intermittently. For the rest, we are left looking for laughter, the kind that emerges from uncontrived, genuinely original situations.”

Watch Jallikattu, India’s Oscar entry for 2021, on Prime Video. The Lijo Jose Pellissery film examines the nature of the relationship that’s shared between humans and nature. Jallikattu derives its name from the controversial bull-taming event that is held in the southern part of the country. The film is about a group of men coming together to stop a bull that is running wild in their village.

Unpaused is an anthology of five short films directed by Raj & DK, Nikkhil Advani, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Avinash Arun and Nitya Mehra. The five directors share five stories from lockdown when the world around us came to a standstill. The five stories examine the loneliness, the struggles and even the epiphanies that changed our lives during the lockdown.

Starring Mona Singh, Swastika Mukherjee and Shamita Shetty, Black Widows follows three women who decide to stand up against their respective husbands and end the cycle of domestic abuse that has been inflicted on them for years. But, the way they choose to do this, comes back to haunt them years later.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is streaming on Netflix. The film marks the last appearance of Chadwick Boseman who passed away in August due to cancer. The film also stars Viola Davis, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, Glynn Turman, Dusan Brown and Taylour Paige. Directed by George C. Wolfe, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is produced by Denzel Washington and Todd Black.

Set in the 1920s, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom has Viola Davis playing Ma Rainey, a celebrated performer, who is trying to get control of her own music against her white manager. Chadwick Boseman plays Leevee, an ambitious trumpeter who wants to make his mark in the music industry.

Netflix’s Tamil anthology Paava Kadhaigal features short films of directors – Sudha Kongara, Vignesh Shivan, Gautham Vasudev Menon and Vetrimaaran. The cast includes – Anjali, Bhavani Sre, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Hari, Kalidas Jayaram, Kalki Koechlin, Padam Kumar, Prakash Raj, Sai Pallavi, Shanthnu Bhagyaraj and Simran among others.

On his short Oor Iravu, Vetrimaaran told The Indian Express, “I knew casting Prakash Raj and Sai Pallavi as father and daughter would reduce my work by half. When an actor like Prakash Raj becomes part of a story like this, he adds value to it. That apart, he has the ability to shift (emotionally) from one end of the spectrum to the other within seconds — from being a loving father to an aggressive patriarch who would do anything to assert his belief.”

Vignesh Shivan, who has directed Love Panna Uttranum, said in an earlier statement, “Paava Kadhaigal helped me explore such an authentic theme in an honest way and gave me the opportunity to work alongside some of the most experienced filmmakers from the industry.”

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