Directors: Kaushik Ganguly, Gurvinder Singh, Bhaskar Hazarika
Writer: Durgesh Singh
Cast: Johnny Lever, Jisshu Sengupta, Jitendra Kumar, Nimisha Sajayan, Boloram Das, Preeti Hansraj Sharma
Number of episodes: 3
Streaming on: Zee5
Anthology films blew up during the pandemic. Streaming platforms were churning them out at an alarming rate. Lantrani – a collection of three shorts – is a reminder of why that moment passed. It’s not that they’re poor or forgettable, but there’s something dated about this Zee5 production (not the first time I’ve written this sentence). It’s not so much in terms of ideas or execution, but more in terms of a tonal uniformity – a physical ‘oneness’ of sorts – that defeats the purpose of an anthology’s artistic diversity. The Hindi-centric theme of Lantrani – stranger-than-fiction realities from hinterland India – makes it hard to tell one team from the next.
The three directors are acclaimed alternative voices from Bengali (Kaushik Ganguly), Punjabi (Gurvinder Singh) and Assamese cinema (Bhaskar Hazarika). But there’s an incompatibility between the stories and its storytellers. Perhaps it’s because the writer, Durgesh Singh (Gullak), is the same – and his TVF sensibilities somewhat swallow the distinct voices of the makers. Not to mention that three is, both literally and figuratively, a terribly odd number for an anthology. It’s the film equivalent of a two-match Test series in cricket that isn’t long enough to derive a fair result. It leaves no room for winning and losing. Let’s go from bottom to top, so that we can end on a semi-positive note, but also because I’m trying to be a glass-half-full person these days.