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There is such a swift and easy flow of talent in this new eight-episode series on Zee5, that it seems a pity to pick holes in Crime Beat. But holes, there are aplenty, with the journalist-hero Abhishek Sinha (played by an adequate if not quite outstanding Saqib Saalim) taking a fall each time the storytelling falters to keep up with his zeal for Page 1.

The last time we saw a crime journalist taking such insane risks for a story was in Kanu Behl’s Despatch, and we all know what happened to Manoj Bajpayee in that.

The fledgling super-snooper in Crime Beat doesn’t face the same heat as Joy Bag in Despatch, probably on account of his callowness rather than callousness. When one is as young as Abhishek Sinha, the errors of judgment are often attributed to immaturity, even though they are born out of overweening ambition.

Abhishek Sinha...

Fourteen years ago, Saqib Saleem and Saba Azad debuted with Y-Films’ Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge. I’m sure neither the actors nor the fans of that film, including yours truly, ever imagined seeing these two actors together in something like Zee 5’s Crime Beat, all these years later. I don’t have to tell you that the latest show is drastically different from Saleem and Azad’s debut film in every aspect. It is still a nice, perhaps unplanned, reunion. But if I have to point out the things that actively hurt Crime Beat, then the romance between Saleem and Azad’s characters should be at the top of the list. There is a professional rivalry angle at play as well, which works out.

Crime Beat, of course, is an eight-episode adaptation of author Somnath Batabyal’s 2013 novel, The Price You Pay. I got curious about the source material after getting this assignment,...

Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra and Saqib Saleem are collaborating for ZEE5’s original show ‘Crime Beat’ and they seem to have nothing but praise for one another. Talking about the show at a pre-release party in Mumbai, Sudhir Mishra said: “It is a great idea — the hunter becomes the hunted, and you don’t know who is playing who. It is about a journalist and a gangster, so who is the story here? Is the gangster using the reporter, or vice-versa. It is a damn interesting show.”

The series, created by Sudhir Mishra and Sanjeev Kaul, has Saqib Saleem, Rahul Bhat, Saba Azad, Danish Husain, Sai Tamhankar and Adinath Kothare playing he leading parts.

On Saqib, Mishra said: “He doesn’t call attention to himself and he always plays the part correctly. He doesn’t punch above his weight, he doesn’t try to impress with just one shot, he allows...

ReviewThe makers of ‘Yuddha Kaandam’, screened at the Chennai International Film Festival (Ciff) this year, promoted it as the ‘first proper commercial single-shot film’.Saradha UScreengrab/ YouTube The first thing one would notice about the 2022 Tamil film Yuddha Kaandam is that it is a single-shot film. With an elaborate tracking shot of a police vehicle that the film opens, lasting for a good minute, the makers ensure that we notice this about the movie. The makers of Yuddha Kaandam have also promoted it as the ‘first proper commercial single-shot film’. But we shall get back to this in a bit. Yuddha Kaandam is ridden with so many cliches that it can seem like a tutorial video for making a quintessential mainstream Tamil action film. It has a protagonist who goes to great lengths to save his romantic partner. The antagonist is a police officer who has everything it takes to be the archetypical Kollywood villain.

Looking at Mustafa’s old pictures, nobody would have thought that he would be the lead star of a Bollywood film in 5 years. You will be surprised to know that the actor who is all set to blow your mind with his first film Machine, was as much as 70 kilograms over weight not too long ago. “I was 120 kilograms and would eat anything and everything because I was and am still a foodie. I started reducing my weight four-five years ago, but that was for health reasons”, Mustafa told a leading daily. The foodie underwent vigorous training and followed a healthy lifestyle for many years to shed those extra kilos. The actor added, “It took me five years to lose around 70 kilos and reach my current weight 55kgs. The first week of dieting was the most difficult. I started eating boiled food, in small portions six times a day. It comprised boiled veggies,...