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We followed these memorable characters through various episodes, and what a journey it’s been! Here are the top 10 Indian web series that fans couldn't stop talking about in 2024.

The Top 10 Most Popular Indian Web Series of 2024

We followed these memorable characters through various episodes, and what a journey it’s been! Here are the top 10 Indian web series that fans couldn&#39;t stop talking about in 2024.

From memorable moments to stunning red carpet looks, check out all our favorite photos of 2024.

The Year in Pictures

Surreal events occur when a hapless country doctor visits an ill boy one cold night.

A bleak animated film about a doctor and his demons

Horror on Drugs, deep intelligent depressing horror on drugs

Excellent if visually grotesque animated short film based on Franz Kafka&#39;s short story of an unhappy country doctor forced to attend to a sick boy on a remote farm during the evening in the darkling depths of snowy winter, &quot;Franz Kafka&#39;s A Country Doctor&quot; is a meditation on existence in a meaningless and uncaring universe. The titular doctor (Sensaku Shigeyama: voice) is dragged out of his house and taken by two unearthly black horses to the farm while their groom rapes the doctor&#39;s maid Rosa at home. Beset by thoughts of his ill luck and grievances against his patients who apparently expect him to wait on them hand and foot, the doctor initially fails to diagnose the boy&#39;s illness; the boy&#39;s family then strip the medic of his clothes and shove him into the boy&#39;s bed where he finds the weeping, worm-infested wound that has ailed the youngster (Ippei Shigeyama) since his birth. Returning home with what remains of his clothes, the doctor finds the horses are travelling slowly and his journey back to Rosa takes forever in a frozen landscape of giant snow eyes, noses and ears. The narrative is closely based on the Kafka original and the sense of alienation, the lack of insight into human nature, and absence of compassion and empathy for others, on the doctor&#39;s part which doom him to a hopeless servitude at the mercy of parasitical, exploitative villagers are obvious throughout. The plot lends itself readily to a surreal style of animation, at once two-dimensional and three- dimensional in look thanks to clever replication of shading and light falling on objects; the drawing might look crude but the simplicity gives the film a raw, often dark and creepy energy. The backgrounds sometimes look painted onto a board; figures flit across them like smooth stop-motion pieces pasted over; lines are feathery and fragile, giving objects a frail, insubstantial look; at times the foreground and the edges of the film blur and bleed, and objects closest to the viewer even bubble and shudder as if fragmenting and disintegrating. Colouring is restricted to black, white and grey shades in-between and red appears only in a couple of scenes where the doctor sees his patient&#39;s deep wound. Characters may be deranged and twisted psychologically as well as physically and the doctor&#39;s paranoia about the people and animals he meets (and how it distorts his view of himself, literally, as his head balloons and deflates and his legs grow long or short) seems well- founded. It&#39;s hard not to think that &quot;  A Country Doctor&quot; is actually a psychological film about someone who has wasted his life doing as little as possible for a life of ease and comfort, and now that he is coming towards the end of his life, he is haunted by all the young patients whose lives he failed to save (because he didn&#39;t strive enough on their behalf) and their presence is driving him towards mental breakdown. The actors who give voice to the doctor and the boy are trained in a type of traditional Japanese comedy drama called kyogen which is related to noh play. The actor playing the doctor and the people giving voice to the boy patient and the doctor&#39;s spirit consciences (also boy-like) are members of a famous kyogen acting family. It&#39;s a bleak and despairing view of the human condition, especially of one individual who does not know himself and who allows himself to be used by others similarly uncomprehending of their own selves. The film suggests that people are always using one another for short-term gain while the universe observes them all indifferently.

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Franz Kafka's a Country Doctor

I have not read the book by Franz Kafka but it can&#39;t be better or creepier than this drawn short-movie. It&#39;s about an ill child and a doctor who should help the child... I can&#39;t say more. The drawings are awesome, confusing, creepy and someway disgusting but in a way that it&#39;s still some kind of art. The music absolutely fits, same for the voices. The whole atmosphere this short flick raises up so fast is incredible, I would really like to see more stuff like this. The only things I could compare it with are the flash animated cartoons by David Firth. Just watch it, it&#39;s sick and dark but also beautiful in it&#39;s way.

Usually Kafka or anything that can be referred to as Kafka-esque in/and film just works, as holds true with the animated short, A Country Doctor. A haunting adaption from Japanese artist Koji Yamammura. The animation is amazing, gripping, bizarre and startling, completely keeping with the dark, surreal tone of the film. It certainly posses the ability to rattle viewers like few animated films can. Animated shorts come and go, hell most feature length films of any kind come and go, but this haunting masterpiece will stay with you.

&quot;Kafuka: Inaka isha&quot; or &quot;Franz Kafka&#39;s a Country Doctor&quot; is a 21-minute animated short film from 2007 and the writer and director here is Koji Yamamura. Writer is only partially true though as the original novel comes from famous Prague-born author Franz Kafka and Yamamura &quot;only&quot; adapted it here. If you know Kafka a bit, you will also know that you are in for something spooky, even if the initial premise of a doctor arriving at a village in winter to treat a sick boy does not necessarily imply it. I must say I never developed too much interest in the characters or the story here and that&#39;s why I would not call it a good watch. There are a few decent moments, but there are also some pretty bad moments when it comes to the character&#39;s voices that did not fit at all. As a whole, these twenty minutes were nothing to remember and if there is any reason to see it, it&#39;s not good story-telling, but how bizarre the whole thing is in terms of the plot and characters&#39; looks. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

User reviews

Franz Kafka's a Country Doctor

A bleak animated film about a doctor and his demons

Horror on Drugs, deep intelligent depressing horror on drugs

Great Animation and Great Adaptation

Japanese animation meets Kafka

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