Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ankahi Kahaniya’ on Netflix, Three Tales Of Wayward Souls In The Big City Of Mumbai

Netflix continues to grow its presence in India, across both television series and movies. Ankahi Kahaniya is a new Netflix Original movie with a logline that reads as follows: “As big city life buzzes around them, lonely souls discover surprising sources of connection and companionship in three tales of love, loss and longing.” Indian directors Abhishek Chaubey, Saket Chaudhary and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari each helmed a segment of this anthology, but is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? Read on for more…

ANKAHI KAHANIYA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: A three-part anthology, the thematic thrust of Ankahi Kahaniya revolves around lonely souls who turn to unconventional places for connection. In the first story, a timid retail worker strikes up a relationship with the new female mannequin at the store; in the second, two people confined by their circumstances strike up a companionship in the darkness of a movie theater; and the third focuses on a man and woman’s bond after discovering their spouses are cheating on one another. Anthologies are the new streaming currency, but does this one make good on its promise for unique connections?

What Will It Remind You Of?: Each story has shades of others that have come before it: the mannequin story might remind you of the Joaquin Phoenix vehicle Her, while the third story mirrors the Anna Paquin-led installment of the second season of Modern Love.

Performance Worth Watching: As much as the first story felt somewhat creepy and misguided, the central performance by Abhishek Banerjee was a feat. Acting opposite an inanimate object is not easy, and Banerjee infused the performance with care and sensitivity.

Memorable Dialogue: “There’s a new film on Friday. A Big film. I have two tickets.” In a roundabout way, the boy in the second film finds a way to see the girl he’s been crushing on. It’s the most standout film of the bunch and leans heavily into the way that young love often forces you to read between the lines.

Sex and Skin: Not much. The third short film in the series shows some hints at sexual activity, but ultimately blurs out or fades away when things start to get hot.

Our Take: As the backdrop for an anthological series, Ankahi Kahaniya’s focus on wayward souls and the down and out looking for companionship sounds like a perfect playground for rich storytelling. However the stories chosen don’t always fully commit to the bit, and leave audiences feeling uncomfortable or unsatisfied.

In the Banerjee-led film about a man who strikes up a one-sided relationship with a store mannequin, the character’s journey ultimately falls flat. After the man is outed by his colleague, he returns home to his village and is set up with his childhood friend. Shortly thereafter he returns to the city to say goodbye to his mannequin-girlfriend. There have been stories that have explored these concepts before, most notably the Oscar-nominated Spike Jonze film Her, but this iteration isn’t imbibed with the same depth and thought-provoking storytelling. This short film is clearly going for a warm story about finding hope in an unexpected place, but leaves audiences questioning whether the main character really moved on or just pretended to in order to abide by societal expectations.

The third story similarly plays on a tried and true trope in cinema, but doesn’t add anything new to the story. A jilted wife and husband uncover that their partners are having an affair, and seek to trace the details of how the betrayal occurred. It has shades of Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood for Love and more recently the based on a true story Amazon anthology Modern Love. In the Ankahi Kahaniya iteration, all four participants are somewhat insufferable and the two that we spend the most time with seem more interested in moping about the state of their marriages than actually doing anything to fix it. That lack of drive permeates into the audience’s perceptions, and there’s ultimately nothing to hold onto within the story.

The only story worth seeking out is the middle story (none of the short films were named), in which two down-and-out kids connect and ultimately try to escape their confined environments together. It’s anchored by great performances by Rinku Rajguru and Dilzad Hiwale, and their shared excitement in hope of better days is palpable. While the ending felt slightly abrupt, it was the only one of the three stories to truly invoke feelings or genuine interest from me.

Our Call: SKIP IT. This triumvirate of stories try hard to be groundbreaking and/or provocative, but ultimately fall short of actually saying anything.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in New York City. Her work has appeared on Paste Magazine, Teen Vogue, and Brown Girl Magazine. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.

Watch Ankahi Kahaniya on Netflix