OTT releases this week: new movies and shows to watch on Netflix, JioHotstar, Prime Video

Table of Contents
1: Be Happy
2: Ponman
3: Oru Jaathi Jathakam
4: The Electric State
5: Moana 2
6: Dope Thief
7: The Wheel of Time Season 3
8: Adolescence
9: Welcome to the Family
10: American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden

Be Happy

The highlight of this week’s OTT offerings is Be Happy, an emotional dance drama by Remo D’Souza. The movie sketches out the emotional picture of Shiv (Abhishek A Bachchan), a solitary single father who lives life through his daughter Dhara (Inayat Verma). A talented dancer, Dhara’s aspiration is to perform on India’s Biggest Dance Stage, a TV-based reality show which can propel her career to a new height. When she at last wins a spot, Shiv hesitantly decides to do the right thing, only to see himself cast into an impromptu personal challenge. With increasing competition, Shiv is faced with a quandary that will see him walk miles out of his comfort zone. Will he pull through for the sake of securing his daughter’s happiness, or allow fear trump her dreams?

Be Happy IMDb rating – NA

Where to watch Be Happy – Amazon Prime Video

Be Happy cast – Abhishek A Bachchan, Inayat Verma, Nora Fatehi, Nassar, Johny Lever, Harleen Sethi

Be Happy release date – March 14th

Ponman

This week’s offbeat OTT recommendation is Ponman, a wickedly funny Malayalam dark horse directed by Jothish Shankar. The film traces P.P. Ajesh (played by Basil Joseph), a wily jewellery agent with a non-traditional racket: he advances gold jewellery to financially strapped families for weddings, with repayment in the form of the gifts showered on newlyweds. His silky operation goes awry when he lends a substantial 25 sovereigns to the boisterous Mariyano (Sajin Gopu), whose family’s wedding aftermath turns repayment into a carnival. As Ajesh deals with ridiculous expectations, passive-aggressive relatives, and side-splitting misadventures, the question hangs in the air—will his golden gamble succeed, or will Mariyano’s family leave him holding the (empty) bag? With career-defining performances by Lijomol Jose, Anand Manmadhan, and Deepak Parambol, Ponman turns wedding drama on its head and creates a hilarious satire of greed, tradition, and how far individuals will go for a bit of sparkle.

• Ponman IMDb rating – 7.8
• Where to watch Ponman – Jio Hotstar
• Ponman cast – Basil Joseph, Sajin Gopu, Lijomol Jose, Anand Manmadhan, Deepak Parambol, Sandhya Rajendran, Rajesh Sharma, Kiran Peethambaran, Reju Sivadas, Jaya Kurupp, Midhun Venugopal, Thankam Mohan, Shylaja P. Ambu
• Ponman release date – March 14th

Oru Jaathi Jathakam

This week’s new OTT treat is Oru Jaathi Jathakam, a quirky Malayalam rom-com with a dash of mystique. Filmed in the verdant bylanes of North Malabar, the movie is about Mambrath Jayesh (Vineeth Sreenivasan), a man who’s drifting along till he runs into a so-called palmistry genius and his world goes topsy-turvy. Her dire reading—a prediction of impending chaos—sounds ridiculous at first… till Jayesh’s days spin out of control in a procession of absurd mishaps. From laughably bungled chores to side-splittingly embarrassing social catastrophes, destiny seems determined to fulfill the prophecy.

Is Jayesh really cursed by his jathakam (horoscope), or is this just life’s version of playing a prank on a skeptic? While he struggles to decipher the cosmic joke, the film weaves together laugh-out-loud moments, nascent romance, and a winking reference to how superstition gets knotted with modern reason. A quirky ride that poses: Can a palm reader’s scribbles really write your destiny, or is it all just jaathi (luck) having a laugh?

• Oru Jaathi Jathakam IMDb rating – 6.3
• Where to watch Oru Jaathi Jathakam – Amazon Prime Video
• Oru Jaathi Jathakam cast – Vineeth Sreenivasan, Nikhila Vimal, Babu Antony, Kayadu Lohar, Kunhikrishnan P P, Mridul Nair, Vidhu Prathap, Sayanora Philip, Indu Thampy, Aishwarya Mithun Koroth, Pooja Mohanraj
• Oru Jaathi Jathakam release date – March 14th

The Wheel of Time Season 3

Fantasy epic The Wheel of Time roars back on Season 3 this week, dropping viewers into a world in which danger escalates as rapidly as destiny evolves. With Forsaken nipping at their heels, Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) and Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) must cope with a dual crisis: unlocking the Dragon Reborn’s cryptic mission and fighting a growing shadow within Rand himself. With ancient prophecies clashing against merciless foes, Moiraine’s resolve is pushed to new extremes—staving off Rand’s personal hell might be the sole thread that holds calamity at bay.

This season raises the stakes with heart-stopping chases, moral dilemmas, and alliances under strain. Will Rand’s battle to control his power outrun the darkness engulfing him, or will the Light’s final hope fall apart under the burden of its own myth? Hold on for a saga where every decision resonates across centuries, and survival depends on outwitting fate itself.

• The Wheel of Time Season 3 IMDb rating – NA
• Where to watch The Wheel of Time Season 3 – Amazon Prime Video
• The Wheel of Time Season 3 cast – Rosamund Pike, Josha Stradowski, Marcus Rutherford, Dónal Finn, Madeleine Madden, Daniel Henny, Zoë Robins, Ceara Coveney, Luke Fetherston, Callum Kerr, Nuno Lopes, Olivia Williams, Shohreh Aghdashloo
• The Wheel of Time Season 3 release date – March 13th

The Electric State

The SF OTT spotlight of the week is on The Electric State, a science fiction romp from the Russo Brothers combining offbeat humor and retro-futuristic edge. Millie Bobby Brown plays Michelle, a fearless orphan speeding through a decaying, neon-lit America to find her AWOL brother. She has only one friend: Cosmo Bot, a sarcastic robot with a taste for sarcasm and a secret arsenal of survival tricks. Their road trip goes off the rails when they meet a rough-around-the-edges smuggler (Chris Pratt) and his wisecracking android sidekick—a pair as unruly as they are invaluable.

But this is not merely a family reunion adventure. As Michelle discovers clues about her missing brother, she gets caught up in a fight against an unknown force that is determined to destroy humanity’s last vestige of hope. Full of snarky dialogue, junkyard robot scrap, and heart-stopping visuals plucked directly from Simon Stålenhag’s legendary artwork, The Electric State demands: Can a motley band of misfits outwit a dystopian apocalypse—or will their sparks extinguish in the face of destruction?

• The Electric State IMDb rating – NA
• Where to watch The Electric State – Netflix
• The Electric State cast – Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Jason Alexander, Woody Harrelson, Anthony Mackie, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Giancarlo Esposito, Stanley Tucci, Woody Norman, Martin Klebba, Marin Hinkle
• The Electric State release date – March 14th

Dope Thief

This week’s gritty OTT highlight is Dope Thief, a razor-sharp crime drama from writer Peter Craig. Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura bring the heat as Ray and Manny Carvalho—Philadelphia’s most brazen (and self-deluded) con men. Their scam? Posing as DEA agents to rip off small-time drug dealers, a plan that’s part genius and part suicidal. But when they strike at a slumbering rural dealer, their luck deserts them: they walk into the sights of the Eastern seaboard’s most merciless narcotics empire.

At night, their petty hustle blows up into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. While the Carvalhos frantically try to stay one step ahead of cartel assassins, corrupt cops, and their own growing paranoia, allegiances are broken and survival is tenuous. Dope Thief is filled with street-level tension, posing the question: Can two con artists outwit a syndicate that plays for keeps—or will their final score be their own tombstone?

A white-knuckle ride into Philadelphia’s underworld, where each lie deepens the grave and escape could be the most lethal illusion of all.

• Dope Thief IMDb rating – NA
• Where to watch Dope Thief – Apple TV+
• Dope Thief cast – Brian Tyree Henry, Wagner Moura, Marin Ireland, Kate Mulgrew, Amir Arison, Ving Rhames, Dustin Nguyen, Nesta Cooper, Kaci Walfall, Idris Debrand, Bentley Cooper, Liz Caribel, Will Pullen, Kiều Chinh, Phong Le, Emma Lewis, Jaba Keh
• Dope Thief release date – March 14th

Welcome to the Family

This week’s slate of OTT titles sizzles with Welcome to the Family, a dark Mexican comedy that sews in anarchy into every scene. Produced by Mark Alazraki, the series puts together Cristina (Marimar Vega), the fast-tongued heiress, and Luciana (Erika Buenfil), her dead father’s vengeful widow, after he dies suddenly while bickering. With neither mentioned in his will, the two hatch a harebrained plan: pretend to carry out his quarry and divide the loot. But their plan blows up quicker than a telenovela plot thinning, courtesy of a lovesick detective on the scent of something, a nosy neighbor with too much idle time on their hands, and a has-been coach with itches to make waves.

As deceit accumulates above Gonzalo’s half-baked reasoning, Cristina and Luciana’s precarious partnership walks the tightrope between genius and catastrophe. Ana Layevska, Erick Elias, and Martín Altomaro complete the ensemble in this feverish mix of avarice, shame, and gallows humor. Welcome to the Family challenges: Can two women out-conn a family founded on deceit—or will their ad hoc “family business” kill them all?

A wild ride where inheritance is a disaster, and the only thing more deadly than a cover-up is the truth.

• Welcome to the Family IMDb rating – NA
• Where to watch Welcome to the Family – Netflix
• Welcome to the Family cast – Marimar Vega, Erika Buenfil, Ana Layevska, Martín Altomaro, Carla Adell, Arturo Beristáin, Gerardo Taracena, Alondra García, Santiago Colores, Ricardo Selmen
• Welcome to the Family release date – March 12th

Adolescence

This week’s OTT spotlight has audiences gripped by Adolescence, a gripping psychological thriller co-written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham. It revolves around Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), an introverted 13-year-old plunged into horror when he is accused of killing a fellow pupil. His parents—acted out with raw energy by Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty—spin out of control between denial and desperation, holding on to the hope that their son cannot have committed the crime. But as investigators probe deeper, the case opens a Pandora’s box of contemporary terrors: dark online hate sites, ruthless schoolyard cliques, and a generation seething with anger.

Ashley Walters seethes as the lead detective against the clock, battling a media circus, while Jamie’s broken mind is a battleground for veracity. Is he a monster shaped by poisons in the digital undertow, or a fall guy for a crime much larger than one adolescent boy? Adolescence deftly blurs victim from villain, asking: When society itself is in the dock, who is guilty—and who gets to go free?

A haunting quest for innocence stolen in the digital age, when each click marks a stain and justice wears a mask.

Moana 2

Disney’s oceanic adventure surges back with Moana 2, reuniting Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson as the spirited voyager Moana and the boastful demigod Maui. Years after restoring the heart of Te Fiti, Moana faces a new summons—this time from her ancestors, whose ancient call urges her to bridge the scattered islands of Oceania and reignite their shared legacy. But a shadowy curse threatens to drown their dream, leaving Moana to rally her courage (and Maui’s reluctant bravado) for a perilous quest to a forgotten island shrouded in myth.

Packed with tidal-wave action, toe-tapping tunes, and Maui’s trademark mischief, the duo battles storm gods, deciphers cryptic legends, and confronts their own doubts. Can Moana’s compass heart guide them to heal a fractured world, or will the ocean’s wrath swallow their hopes? Dive into a tale where courage charts the course, and even the stars whisper secrets of unity.

A splashy sequel demonstrating that some tides are destined to rise twice—and legends never set sail alone.

• Moana 2 IMDb rating – 6.8
• Where to watch Moana 2 – Jio Hotstar
• Moana 2 cast (voice) – Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Hualalai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Awhimai Fraser, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, Gerald Faitala Ramsey, Alan Tudyk, Jemaine Clement, Tofiga Fepulea’I, Jasmine Johnson, Tiana Johnson
• Moana 2 release date – March 14th

American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden

American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden immerses viewers in the convoluted decade-long hunt to apprehend the globe’s most sought-after terrorist. This three-part docuseries examines the consequences of 9/11—a day seared into global memory when hijacked aircraft ripped through the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field, leaving destruction and almost 3,000 lives lost behind. With forensic accuracy, the series follows how Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the attacks, disappeared into the night, triggering a worldwide manhunt that cost billions of dollars and untold lives. Through declassified intelligence, tactical blunders, and political maneuvers, the series reveals how U.S. agencies reconstructed a fragmented trail—from Afghan caves to a nondescript compound in Abbottabad.

See the suffering of the families of victims, the tenacity of agents, and the high-risk mathematics of leaders such as Obama, who authorized the Navy SEAL mission that ultimately ended the manhunt. A story of more than revenge, American Manhunt examines the price of justice: What does it cost to pin down a specter, and what endures when a nation’s will is tried by time, disaster, and the burden of its own ideals? A gut-wrenching reminder that some manhunts redefine history—and the wounds they inflict mold the world long after the quarry falls.

• American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden IMDb rating – NA
• Where to watch American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden – Netflix
• American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden cast – NA
• American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden release date – March 10th

Other OTT releases this week in India