iWorld
Holi at home? Stream these five Bollywood favourites on Tata Play Binge
Park the pichkaris and press play this festive week
NATIONAL: Bura na maano, Holi hai! Laughter rings out, plates of gujiya do the rounds and the streets brace for their annual drenching. This year brings a slight celestial twist: with the 3 March lunar eclipse in play, many regions will light the Holika pyre then and break out the colours on 4 March, though local calendars may vary. Either way, if the streets feel too crowded, Tata Play Binge has lined up a clutch of films where Holi is more than backdrop; it is turning point, metaphor and mood-setter.
Here are five festive staples to stream:
Sholay (1975)
No Holi playlist is complete without Holi Ke Din Dil Khil Jaate Hain. Ramesh Sippy’s classic stages the festival in Ramgarh before the mood is brutally interrupted. Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra’s Jai and Veeru, enlisted by Sanjeev Kumar’s Thakur Baldev Singh to stop Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh, deliver a scene that swings from jubilation to dread in minutes. It is Bollywood spectacle at full volume.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)
If Holi had a millennial soundtrack, it would be Balam Pichkari. Ayan Mukerji’s coming-of-age romance lets Ranbir Kapoor’s Bunny and Deepika Padukone’s Naina drop their guards in a swirl of colour and confession. Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapur add to the ensemble in a film where flirtation matures into something more fragile.
Raanjhanaa (2013)
In the bylanes of Banaras, Holi turns intense. Dhanush’s Kundan is hopelessly devoted to Sonam Kapoor’s Zoya in a story that fuses unrequited love with political churn. The colours here feel heavy, a festival reframed as emotional upheaval.
Kati Patang (1971)
Aaj Na Chhodenge Bas Humjoli keeps this Rajesh Khanna–Asha Parekh drama evergreen. Beneath the song lies a tale of reinvention and quiet longing, as a woman assumes a new identity to escape her past. The Holi sequence glows with romance, even as the plot simmers with secrets.
Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)
Youthful and unabashed, this small-town romance pairs Varun Dhawan’s blustering Badri with Alia Bhatt’s self-assured Vaidehi. Holi becomes a flirtatious battlefield before the film pivots to questions of ambition and equality. It is bright, brash and keenly contemporary.
(Note: The cover image is AI-generated and meant for representational purposes only.)
iWorld
Why Peaky Blinders is one of television’s biggest hits that still deserves more attention
Six seasons, multiple awards and the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man bring the Shelby saga back into the spotlight
In the crowded universe of streaming content, only a handful of shows manage to leave a lasting cultural footprint. Peaky Blinders is overwhelmingly considered one of the biggest global hits of the past decade. Yet many viewers still haven’t fully explored the dark, gripping world of the Shelby family.
Originally produced for the UK’s BBC and later finding a massive global audience through Netflix, the series quietly grew from a British period drama into a worldwide streaming phenomenon.
Created by Steven Knight, the show follows the rise of the Shelby crime family in post-First World War Birmingham. What begins as a gritty street-gang story gradually expands into a sweeping narrative about ambition, politics, power and survival.
At the centre of the saga is Thomas Shelby, portrayed with extraordinary depth by Cillian Murphy. The casting of Murphy is widely regarded as perfect for the role. With piercing eyes, restrained dialogue and an almost hypnotic screen presence, he transforms Shelby into one of the most unforgettable characters in modern screen storytelling.
Murphy’s brilliance lies in his restraint. He rarely shouts or performs theatrically. Instead, a quiet stare, a calculated pause or a subtle shift in expression conveys the emotional storms within the character. Beneath the ruthless gang leader is a war veteran carrying trauma, guilt and loneliness. Murphy captures this complexity with remarkable precision, making Thomas Shelby both terrifying and deeply human.
Beyond its central performance, Peaky Blinders stands out for its unfiltered portrayal of reality. The show does not romanticise crime. Instead, it exposes the harsh social conditions of early 20th-century Britain, from poverty and class struggle to political extremism and the psychological scars left by war.
The series also presents powerful female characters who hold their own within the Shelby empire. Polly Gray, played by Helen McCrory, is the strategic backbone of the family and one of the most formidable figures in the story. Women in the series shape decisions, influence power structures and challenge the rigid social norms of the time.
Across six seasons, the narrative grows dramatically in scale. What begins in the smoky streets of Birmingham evolves into a story involving political conspiracies, fascism and international criminal networks.
The series has also earned significant critical acclaim. It won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2018 and multiple National Television Awards for Best Drama, cementing its reputation as one of Britain’s most celebrated modern shows.
Another defining feature of the series is its iconic music. The show’s opening theme, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, became instantly recognisable and widely associated with the Shelby universe. Combined with a powerful soundtrack featuring artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead, the music helped shape the show’s dark, stylish identity and became hugely popular among fans.
And the Shelby story is not over yet.
In fact, its legacy is unfolding right now. The long-awaited feature-length continuation, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, was released on March 6, 2026, bringing the Shelby universe from streaming screens to cinemas and giving fans a new chapter in the saga.
For viewers who have not yet stepped into this world, the timing could not be better.
Six gripping seasons are ready to binge on Netflix. A new film has just arrived in theatres. And at the heart of it all stands one of the most magnetic performances in modern drama by Cillian Murphy.
So if Peaky Blinders has been sitting on your watchlist for years, this weekend is your moment.
So, by order of the Peaky fookin’ Blinders, consider this your cue to finally step into the ruthless world of Thomas Shelby. Pour yourself a drink, clear your schedule and press the play button. Because when the Peaky Blinders give an order, you listen.
