Being the year of coronavirus, 2020 has been a year busy with streaming options through various platforms. Amidst the sea of many, ten series stood out to us. If you have not watched these yet, add them to your watchlist!
For my list of best Hindi films of 2020, go here.
1. Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story
Limited Series
Where: Sony Liv
Scam 1992 – The Harshad Mehta Story yet? The story of the 1992 securities scam in the Indian stock market, India’s first major financial fraud. And the antihero of the series or this story is the main alleged perpetrator, stockbroker Harshad Mehta. Spoiler-free review here.
Director: Harshad Mehta
Co-Director: Jai Mehta
Based On: Sucheta Dalal and Debashish Basu’s 1993 book The Scam: Who Won, who Lost, who Got Away
Starring: Pratik Gandhi, Shreya Dhanwanthary
2. Aarya
Season 1
Where: Disney+ Hotstar
Aarya tells the tale of a woman who is catapulted into the hot seat of her family business, a pharmaceutical concern with a dark underbelly when her family life is jeopardised. After initial reluctance, Aarya Sareen takes charge as almost a natural successor to a legacy of crime. But will she stay, or will she go as she had planned to before it all?
Creators: Ram Madhvani and Sandeep Modi
Based On: Dutch drama series Penoza by Pieter Bart Korthuis
Starring: Sushmita Sen, Vikas Kumar, Namit Das, Sikandar Kher, Chandrachur Singh.
3. Paatal Lok
Season 1
Where: Amazon Prime Video
A down and out cop lands the case of a lifetime when four suspects are nabbed in the assassination attempt of a journalist. The pursuit of it leads him to ‘Paatal Lok’ (hell), and to shocking discoveries in the past of the four suspects.
Creator: Sudip Sharma
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Starring: Jaideep Ahlawat, Gul Panag, Neeraj Kabi, Swastika Mukherjee, Ishwak Singh, and Abhishek Banerjee.
4. Pushpavalli
Season 2
Where: Amazon Prime Video
Pushpavalli was supposed to finish her Food Science degree and marry a man that her mother approved of. All that changed after meeting the charming Nikhil Rao. She secretly follows the man to Bangalore, finding work at a children’s library, staying as a paying guest with an eclectic landlady. She likes to convince herself that she is not stalking Rao. What do you think?
Creator: Sumukhi Suresh
Director: Debbie Rao
Starring: Sumukhi Suresh, Manish Anand, Naveen Richard
5. A Suitable Boy
Limited Series
Where: Netflix
The story of Lata, a young woman in a young India, just after Partition, is in the search of a suitable boy for marriage. Whether through love or through an arrangement, What and whom does she consider in the end as suitable?
Director: Mira Nair, Shimit Amin
Based on: Book by Vikram Seth called A Suitable Boy
Starring: Tanya Maniktala, Ishaan Khattar, Mahira Kakkar, Danesh Razvi, Tabu
6. Bandish Bandits
Season 1
Where: Amazon Prime Video
Indian classical singer Radhe and pop star Tamanna cross paths when Tamanna is facing an artist’s block. Radhe is an old school classical musician on a path of devotion through music whereas Tamanna is chasing fame. Despite their contrasting personalities, the two set out together on a journey of self-discovery in music and in love.
Creators: Amritpal Singh Bindra, Anand Tiwari
Starring: Ritwik Bhowmik, Shreya Chaudhry, Naseeruddin Shah, Atul Kulkarni, Sheeba Chaddha, Rajesh Tailang
7. Panchayat
Season 1
Where: Amazon Prime Video
Produced by The Viral Fever, the series chronicles the life of engineering graduate who takes on the job as a Panchayat secretary of Zilla Phakauli, in a remote village Phulera of Uttar Pradesh. Having landed there due to lack of better job options and not receiving the requisite percentile to grab an MBA seat, Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) ends ups on a journey of becoming truly worldly-wise, whether he wants to or not.
Director: Deepak Kumar Mishra
Starring: Jitendra Kumar, Raghuvir Yadav, Chandan Roy, Neena Gupta
8. Mirzapur
Season 2
Where: Amazon Prime Video
Akhandanand Tripathi is the mafia boss of Mirzapur. His son Munna, an unworthy, power-hungry heir, stops at nothing to continue his father’s legacy. Season 2 continues with the journey of two brothers, Guddu and Bablu, lured by the idea of power only to have been consumed by it in Season 1., Mirzapur is an amped-up portrayal of India’s heartland replete with drugs, guns, and lawlessness.
Creators: Puneet Krishna, Karan Anshuman
Directors: Karan Anshuman, Gurmmeet Singh
Starring: Pankaj Tripathi, Divyendu Sharma, Ali Fazal, Shweta Tripathi, Vijay Varma, Rasika Dugal, Kulbhushan Kharbanda
9. Please Find Attached
Season 2
Where: Dice Media on Youtube
Please Find Attached tells the story of Shaurya and Sanya, two millennials working in a startup in Mumbai. While Season 1 showed their journey as they decided to move into a flat together and later fall for each other, Season 2 follows their journey as they try to strike a balance between professional and personal life.
Director: Nayana Shyam
Starring: Ayush Mehra and Barkha Singh
10. Operation MBBS
Season 1
Where: Dice Media on Youtube
Operation MBBS chronicles the story of three first-year medical students Nishant, Huma and Sakshi who join one of the best MBBS colleges in the country to become doctors. But they are poles apart in their dreams, personalities and approach towards life.
Nishant (Ayush Mehra) is the unwilling student who has been pressured into joining by his father, doctor from Bulandshahr, UP. Huma (Sarah Hashmi) is the highly ambitious, well to do, overachiever raised by a single mother. And Sakshi (Anshul Chauhan), Huma’s roommate belongs to a small town in Maharashtra and has struggled her way to the top. What propels them forward?
Director: Amrit Raj Gupta
Starring: Ayush Mehra, Sarah Hashmi, Anshul Chauhan
Two more series worth special mentions are Hundred and Special Ops, both of which premiered with their first season in 2020 on Disney+ Hotstar.
If you have not watched all of these yet, now is the moment to go find them and watch. And here’s to a Happy 2021 with lots more to watch.