Delicious Documentaries: The Romantics & Cunk on Earth

I've been having a rough few weeks but Netflix really came through with two short "documentary" series that made me smile. If you're in the need of some uplift, perhaps one of these shows is exactly what you need in your life.

The Romantics: This series is a Hindi movie extravaganza. Purportedly the story of Yash Chopra, the celebrated director who began making movies in the 1950s and had an extraordinary career that spanned decades and essentially defined every era of Indian filmmaking, the series features interviews with a veritable who's who of Indian actors, directors, and the behind-the-scenes folks who were involved in making these movies. And I say "purportedly," because Yash Chopra's son is Aditya Chopra, a man who also became a director and is renowned for the movies he made in the 90s and 2000s that are still an essential part of my childhood and adolescence. So really, this is a documentary about a dynasty, how it came to be, and its dreams for the future. 

I must confess, I never paid much attention to producers and directors of Hindi movies when I was growing up - all I cared about were the actors. So it came as quite a surprise to me as I watched this documentary unfold to learn how much Yash and Aditya Chopra’s movies are some of my (or my parents') favorite films of all-time. And not just as directors but through their film studio, Yash Raj Films. The series pays homage to how this studio came to be and the mentorship that is involved where Aditya is trying to mold new producers, get them to take on the mantle of this immense legacy, and have a stake in their own careers.

This series is created by Smriti Mundhra, the woman behind Indian Matchmaking, who really knows how to craft a compelling narrative for television along with her co-writer Michael Vollmann. This series is only four episodes long, but those first three episodes end with such dramatic cliffhangers that you’ll be smashing that “Play Next Episode” button. And the stellar collection of interviewees offer up varied and amusing anecdotes about the Chopra legacy. I loved that they go in-depth into Uday Chopra’s career - he is Aditya’s brother, and he tried to become an actor, but even with that family legacy behind him, it simply didn’t take. This is a series filled with “nepo babies,” i.e. Indian actors who come from a long line of famous filmmakers and stars. But it’s refreshing to see that audiences can still force a kind of meritocracy onto the screen.

There are also fun tales of actors like Bhumi Phednekar and Ranveer Singh, who had no film connections but made it into the studio via the charismatic casting director, Shanoo Sharma, who is a real hoot. But when we come back to that central father-son dynamic, the story that I find most charming is about a question of costume design. When Aditya Chopra was directing his first film, he wanted an actress to wear a silk sari. His father, who was on set and was always very hands-on about every element of his films, was aghast, insistent that a chiffon sari was the only acceptable material because it would billow in the wind and be much more cinematic. Through this one anecdote, this series brilliantly conveys how these two men approached filmmaking in entirely different ways. Chiffon to silk saris was all it took to herald a new era in cinema.

Cunk on Earth: Oh where to begin? It almost seems foolish to try and describe this show to you, so why don’t you just log on to Netflix and binge the five half-hour episodes? No? You need more? Sigh, fine.

Diane Morgan stars as Philomena Cunk, an earnest British documentarian who is attempting to host a documentary about human civilization from its ancient beginnings to now. But, this woman is an absolute idiot, to put it mildly. This show is a brilliant satire, highlighting what serious BBC documentaries would be like if David Attenborough had done no research, constantly mispronounced things, had various startling opinions, didn’t believe in facts, and said disdainful things to his interviewees. 

Over the course of the series, Cunk interviews many academics on a host of topics, and my favorite part is watching these people either look very shocked or desperately try not to burst out laughing. The best might be a professor of philosophy who, true to form for a philosopher, always gives due weight to Cunk's questions and interprets them in a favorable way that suggests she actually knows what she’s talking about. Much to her own surprise. 

This might be the most joke-dense show I have ever watched. Created by the brilliant Charlie Brooker, every single line of dialogue made me burst out laughing, with jokes that run the gamut from silly puns to visual sight gags. There are silly descriptions like, “Julius Caesar, the most famous Roman, until Polanski” or maps that are meant to show the territory of the invading Mongol Horde that are simply divided into sections that say Genghis and Genghisn’t. And by the end of five episodes, you will be very familiar with a certain piece of Belgian dance music. Oh what a splendidly silly, stupid, and spectacular show!