Kankhajura (Web Series)

 Kankhajura (Sony LIV) (Hindi)

"Fragile ... yet fatal".  That tagline is so true in this web series.

The word "Kankhajura" translates to centipede in English. But the English word doesn't do justice. 

In Hindi, it roughly means something that will get inside your ear, burrow inside and give you a lot of pain. 

It can even kill you.

The series is based on the Israeli series "Magpie". I haven't seen that one.

The main protagonist of the series - Ashu (Roshan Mathew) - is a man of very slight build. 

At first glance he doesn't appear to be dangerous at all. But like a centipede, it is this deceptive quality 

that he has portrayed excellently.

Ashu has a past. Served 14 years in jail for murder. The story starts with his release.

Ashu has a brother - Max (Mohit Raina). Leaving his humble beginnings behind, Max has now become a 

builder on the verge of making it big.  He has landed the rights to a huge project of opulent villas and 

apartments in a prime location of Goa.

Max is working with his old friends - Ninad Kamat and Mahesh Shetty.

He has his wife - Sarah Jane Dias - who is blissfully unaware of all his past as well as Ashu's.

However, there are many problems with the project. There's tenants to be convinced to sign off, 

environmental clearances, etc.

Whatever problems Max faces, Ashu goes and manipulates things to get them solved.

A female employee who they want to fire says she will bring their past black deeds to life. Ashu goes, 

finds out that she is an alcoholic who killed her own daughter in a car accident. He manages to 

convince her to commit suicide.

The tenants of the existing property need to be vacated. They are led by a slumlord lady - 

Deshmukh Bai (Usha Nadkarni) who is demanding far too much to get out of the way. 

The manipulations that Ashu does there border on the brilliant - psychopathic almost, but brilliant.

Other manipulations include getting a rape victim to withdraw a case against a guy handling the project's 

finances so that Max is not affected. The way he manipulates is chilling to behold.

Ashu slowly almost displaces both of Max's friends from his life. Almost, but not quite.

Ashu was ill-treated by Max and both of his friends always in their childhood. They treated him as a 

joker in the pack. Would kick him around, almost drowned him once. 

His friend keep warning Max that Ashu has a lot of pent-up rage, and that he is dangerous.

 But somehow Max has a rose-tinted view of this entire period. But later he remembers. 

All the casting is pretty good. The way Deshmukh Bai acts is delicious to watch - the veteran Usha 

Nadkarni does that with aplomb.

Max's character could have been better. Mohit Raina can act. 

But he is given a pretty one-dimensional role.

Trinetra Haldar as Aimee - the transgender "friend" of Ashu (romantic angle here) - adds a layer of 

normalization of the LGBTQ+ community in a series that is refreshing. She is woven into the story, 

not just a token character.

She loves Ashu. But when she finds out what he has done, she is disgusted and pushes him away.

The police officer (lady) - Heeba Shah, who has worked with Ashu, yet is wary of him, plays her role 

well. I just learned today that she is Naseeruddin Shah's daughter.  Another underrated gem that I 

was unaware of.

The way Ashu manipulates people is shown brilliantly. Leaning in, pretending to be their friend, and 

ultimately getting them to do what they want. All are shown perfectly.

He is fragile himself. But he is very very dangerous.

Goa as a backdrop is not used well unfortunately. There are just a couple of shots of famous places.

Otherwise you really don't feel the Goan flavor. It could have been any place for all you know.

Just for Ashu, this is worth a watch. Roshan Mathew has a string of films in Hindi, Malayalam and 

Tamil. Now I might watch at least one of them just for him :-).

Gyarah Gyarah (Web thriller series) (Hindi)

 Gyarah Gyarah (Hindi thriller web series, Zee 5)

Gyarah Gyarah is a Hindi fantasy thriller, inspired by the Korean drama series Signal. 

It is a thriller that investigates crimes that span three different years in three different decades - 1990, 2001 and 2016.

The three central police characters in this tale :

1. Inspector Shaurya Anthwal (1990), played by Dhairya Karwa
2. Inspector Yug Arya (2016), played by Raghav Juyal
3. Vamika Rawat (1990 to 2016, first as Shaurya's junior and in 2016 as Yug's immediate superior officer)

Set in Uttarakhand, you have Yug Arya, who's a different kind of police officer. He doesn't believe in the police bureaucracy. His north star is justice, rather than following orders by his superiors blindly.

Vamika is the common thread connecting both of them in a sense, but she doesn't know it yet. As Yug's senior, she doesn't know about this magical connection, and plods on diligently to solve cases by the book. She has an unrequited love for her ex-boss, Shaurya, who mysteriously disappeared one day many years ago. Vamika has been steadfastly waiting for him, rejecting all proposals that her mother painstakingly brings her way.

Yug and Vamika complement each other well. He wants to work outside the system, whereas she is very determined to work within it. But both are dedicated to justice.

One day, Yug responds to a call on a very ordinary looking police walkie-talkie. Soon, he discovers that it allows him to establish a connection with Shaurya, across a vast gap in time - at the same time each time. This connection, however, lasts for exactly one minute only. Together they work across the boundaries of time on multiple cases, starting with the kidnapping and murder of a little girl. 

Since the call / connection lasts only 1 minute, and also it cannot be anticipated when the call will happen, both have to plan in advance what they want to say to each other. Especially Yug, since he is solving the cases in the present. 

Shaurya was handicapped by outdated forensic technology of his time - no DNA analysis, fancy instruments that give more detailed or precise reports, etc. Yug has this advantage, and hence is able to prove certain crimes that Shaurya just couldn't in his time. This sends a ripple effect into the future which affects the present.

Time is a major factor in the series. A Cold case unit is set up after successful resolution of the first case. This gang of incorrigible, defiant police officers is given really old cases. Including a serial killer one, which had shaken up the police many years ago.

There's a law that is coming into effect that cases older than 15 years are not to be investigated anymore. So the team has to race against the upcoming statute of limitations in the very first case. 

Messing with time, as expected, has unintended consequences or side effects.

When the relation of the story to the title is made clear, it is a small but delicious moment for the viewer.

Shah Rukh Khan himself has said that he has five standard expressions and he works with those limits. 

By that comparison, Kritika Kamra has two. 

One expression is when her character (Vamika Rawat) is in love, and one for everything else. The "in love" expression is her patent one, reserved for Shaurya Anthwal, and the remainder for the rest of the series. But she delivers her dialogues with the requisite punch.

Shaurya Anthwal (Dhairya Karwa) is a simple character. Lot of action, less thinking. He is brave and doesn't fear to tread anywhere. But detection doesn't come as easily to him. Yug's help takes him in the right direction many times.

The best of the lot is Raghav Juyal (Yug Arya). A troubled back story. A dear one dying by suicide. Being a witness to the kidnapping of the girl as a small child himself. All have left an indelible mark on him and made him what he is today. He is only after justice, by almost any means necessary.

Harsh Chhaya, such a talented actor, is criminally wasted. As the IG of Police, he is keen on doing things that are politically correct or advantageous to him and his unit rather than the right thing to do. 

His philosophy is that someone has to be found guilty of the crime, and the case must be closed. Whether that person actually did the crime or not, is immaterial.

But Harsh is stuck using "b****ch**" as a punctuation symbol in every sentence (comma, full stop, exclamation, etc.). And you can make out that giving gaalis is not his forte. So it seems really forced. 

Ironically his character is the only one giving cuss words, and is the sole reason why this can't be called a family friendly series.

There are flashes of brilliance, though. Brijendra Kala's portrayal of a decent man torn between duty to justice and to his loved one, touches your heart.  Nitesh Pandey gives what probably was his last (or one of his last) performances, and makes you miss him. Gautami Kapoor as the grieving mother fighting for justice for her daughter, who was kidnapped and killed 15 years ago (2001), gives just the right touch to her role.

The direction is taut. Grips you most of the time and doesn't leave you feeling bored. No fancy theories about time are spun, and things are kept simple - mess with time and something else will change.

Right now only Season 1 is playing. Season 2 is strongly indicated.

In short, will definitely recommend.

Asur (Web series, Season 1 and 2, Jio Cinema)

 Asur on Jio Cinema (free). I finished Season 1 and 2. 

Drafted in June, forgot to publish. Ah well...

Story is decent. A blend of modern technology and ancient scripture (Vedas, etc.). By itself it wouldn't have been enough to keep you hooked. But good writing, slick direction, and a skilled star cast manage to hold your attention most of the time. 

The series tries to draw you into a moral dilemma, akin to Thanos. It (at least partly) succeeds, and I think therein lies its success.

The growth of the characters due to what befalls them and the decisions they have to take have been shown quite  

Arshad Warsi, Barun Sobti, Anupriya Goenka, Riddhi Dogra, Sharib Hashmi all are good. So is Marathi manoos Ameya Wagh.

One nuisance is the ads that come on Jio Cinema (even if you have a paid subscription). But it is what it is.

Worth a watch. Not family friendly due to disturbing visuals (language / nudity is pretty controlled most of the time).

https://www.jiocinema.com/tv-shows/asur/3500240

Dahaad (Web Series, Hindi, 2023)

 Saw Dahaad recently on Amazon Prime: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Dahaad/0KPV2GFQQ5XA8NCXXQ82XO3G1C

Anjali Bhaati (Sonakshi Sinha) is a Sub-Inspector at the relatively sleepy town of Mandawa in Rajasthan. She is a feisty woman, brought up by her late father to live proudly. Belonging to a lower caste, she faces the double whammy of caste prejudice and the constant questions regarding her marriage.

She has her boss - Devi Singh (Gulshan Devaiah) and a previously senior, now demoted to her level -  Kailash Parghi (Sohum Shah). 

One fake "Love Jihad" case leads to another woman disappearance case being investigated. They find out that she was found dead. But her case leads to another. And another....

Initially thought of as suicides, too many dead women lead to a rethink. All ran away from home to get married and ended up dead. Later the police figure out that it's murder, not suicide. So serial killer enters the picture.

The rest of the series is how they investigate, and go after the serial killer. He's an apparently mild mannered, teacher - family man - do gooder from the same town. His son goes to the same school as Devi Singh's son. Anand Swarnakar (Vijay Varma). The last guy you'd suspect.

The series is based on Cyanide Mohan, who operated in Karnataka.

A lot of issues are highlighted skillfully without preaching - the evils of dowry, the utter disregard for people of lower castes, and the way society functions. Even a police office like Anjali has to face discrimination in her day to day life.

All the episodes are quietly entertaining and firm. There's very little drama usually. But that is the charm. 

Anand Swarnakar goes about his tasks coolly and calmly. No mess, no fuss. Other than the killings, of course.

Anjali Bhati learns to reign in her impetuousness and stick to facts and procedure.

Devi Singh's arguments with his wife are so real that you can almost imagine them happening to you or someone else you know. His desire that his daughter will not be less than any boy, and his talk with his son about sex are heart warming.

The most a character grows is the demoted cop, Kailash Parghi. He goes through so many conflicting emotions - the need for promotion, the dread of bringing a new child into this horrible world, etc. that you just love the way it has been handled. His tremendous hesitation and soul searching when he must choose between a promotion and loyalty to his colleagues is one of the highlights of the show.

Anand Swarnakar is the star of the show, of course. Clever, methodical, cool. Always thinking of how to get out of a corner. The way he wins one battle against Anjali and his betrayal of his own student are brilliant manouvers.

The supporting cast is also good. The ladies who come under his spell. Anand and Devi Singh's wives, Miriam as the new wife when Anand runs, Anand's other family members, all do a good job.

Some dialogues and scenes get etched in your memory. 

One belongs to Anand. While teaching kids in remote villages, he says that each grain of sand represents an evil committed by humanity. Humanity committed so much evil that Rajasthan turned into a desert.

Second one is for Anjali.

When she is prevented from entering the Swarnakars' house for searching because of her caste, she brushes him aside, stating: “Kaun unch kaun neech, ye tere pushton ka time nahi hai, sanvidhaan ka time hai, kayde kanoon ka time hai."

Note: Not family friendly. The concept and a few uncomfortable scenes are the reason.

All in all, a must watch.

Hush Hush (Amazon Prime) Series: Season 1

 Amazon Prime  just launched (Sep 22) a mystery drama series called "Hush Hush"

A quartet of friends (rich and famous) have their lives going on as usual. Until, at a party, things go horribly wrong for one of them. The others also get drawn into it. A man dies. And you have a full scale disaster on your hands. 

Then onwards, it is a spiral. It is also a discovery for 3 of the friends that they may not have known the 4th (Juhi Chawla as Ishi) well at all. Ishi is found dead at her home, presumably death by suicide. After that, so many layers of her life unravel that it becomes harder and harder for them to remain loyal to her, and cracks begin to show.

It is a curious quartet of friends.

Ishi - Juhi Chawla - the power broker who roams around in the corridors of the high and mighty. She has powerful friends and equally powerful enemies.

Saiba - Soha Ali Khan - the journalist who gave up her risky job to start a family. As talkative as Ishi is measured.

Dolly - Kritika Kamra - the youngest - bubbly Punjabi girl whose MIL has only one aim in life - get an heir out of Dolly for their khandaan.

Last but not the least, Zaira -  Shahana Goswami - a very successful designer who has 2 problems in her life: An old flame and a psychotic assistant, who really can't be trusted.

The case is investigated by a brilliant yet non worldly wise inspector called Geeta (Karishma Tanna).  During the investigation, she finds out that Ishi was actually an orphan. And she has left everything she owned to her friend in the orphanage (Ayesha Zulka as Meera). Meera now runs a girl's orphanage along with her husband.

Why did Ishi die? What was it amongst her many scandals that finally got her? Why are people after her friends who try to unravel the mystery behind her death? Did the dead man have many friends who are out for revenge or is there more than meets the eye?

The overwhelming feeling that one gets while watching this season is "With this much talent, this is all you came up with?" There's a brilliant lineup of actors and supporting actors - other than the main ones there's Benjamin Gilani as Dolly's FIL, Vibha Chibber as ACP Madhu, Geeta's boss.

But you still get a feeling that in the planning of having multiple seasons, you got short changed in this one. The serial promises to take off to great heights, but never does. You have things used as check boxes - f*** being thrown around generously, same sex relationship, etc. But it feels more bolted on than part of the original structure. Gurugram is the setting. But you never get a feel of the place, like any good series gives you. See Patal Lok for what a brilliant job looks like in making you almost smell the place it is located in.

3 directors have directed this - Tanuja Chandra, Kopal Naithani, Ashish Pandey. Maybe too many cooks did spoil the broth.

The relationship between Ishi and Meera is so complex. But it never gets its full due.

The tension between the friends - with Saiba doubting Ishi's character and Zaira blindly supporting her dead friend - is half baked. 

Karishma Tanna is supposed to be a middle class Haryanvi. But she looks like she just took off glamorous clothes and wore middle class ones. Ayesha Zulka is much better in looking the part of a (relatively) poor woman.

It is Juhi Chawla's first OTT foray. She seems to have gotten a raw deal as far as her character handling by the makers goes.

The only part which really was done well was the evolution of Dolly. From a overwhelmed by MIL, keeping her mouth shut woman to an assertive, independent thinker, her evolution is the best.

Also Benjamin Gilani going full scale MCP during his tirade against Dolly and her friends to his employee was refreshing. Although he did use the phrase "self actualized women", which was like the "Love Storiyaan" part of the Kesariya song in Brahmastra.

The one thing that will entice me for Season 2 is that one of my favorites -  Jaaved Jaafri - enters at the very end as a CBI officer who will now lead the investigation.

Mai: A Mother's Rage (Season 1)

 An ordinary mom turned avenging angel. That is the story of "Mai" in short.

Sakshi Tanwar plays Sheel, an ordinary doctor mom, whose daughter (Supriya - Wamiqa Gabbi) is run over by a truck in front of her own eyes. The rest of Season 1 is spent in Sheel getting deeper and deeper into the mystery behind Supriya's death, finding that it was a murder, and then avenging it.

Sheel works in an old age home with medical facilities in Lucknow. Her husband Yash (Vivek Mushran) is an engineer, but is stuck running their pharmacy shop and doing electrical odd jobs in his spare time. Their daughter, Supriya, is a mute doctor who also is a stand-up comedian. She is run over on the date of her younger cousin brother's birthday.

The truck driver who runs over Supriya apologizes to Sheel. While apologizing, he says "I didn't want to do it!" This sets Supriya thinking and she follows the trail. The trail leads to a murky world of medical scams, ruthless characters, and the SPF (Special Police Force) of UP.

The cast of characters includes Jawahar (Prashant Narayanan), Jawahar’s lover Neelam (Raima Sen) and Jawahar’s band of goons. Two of them, Prashant (Anant Vidhaat) and Shankar (Vaibhav Raj Gupta), deal with Sheel the most. First they treat her with kid gloves out of sympathy. Then they find out how ruthless she can be on her path of vengeance.

There's a whole bunch of characters - including the always reliable Akash Khurana (Goel) as the higher level crime boss, Seema Pahwa as a woman who has killed her abusive husband and owes Sheel a debt of gratitude, and Farooque (Ankur Ratan) of the SPF who had a personal interest in Supriya.
But none of them are developed beyond a point. Only Sheel as the main protagonist and Prashant are very well etched. Even Shankar, loyal to Prashant, is shown properly.

Raima Sen as a typical gangster's moll is wasted. So is Seema Pahwa, who still manages to showcase her brilliance by the emotions in her eyes. Vivek Mushran never manages to rise above the mundane. Wamiqa Gabbi is good in her role, even with the mute limitation.

The use of colors is brilliant. It adds to the whole atmosphere.
This is almost family friendly. Just a few scenes here and there - 13+ can see it methinks. Has a A certificate.

In spite of its limitations, the series is worth watching for Sheel (Sakshi Tanwar). The emotions that she shows are just amazing. So is her single minded determination. How she uses her medical knowledge to take revenge is mind boggling at times. 

Hell hath no fury like a mother on the warpath - see it just for her.

Bestseller (Amazon Prime Hindi Web Series)

 Not family friendly.

The past can come back and haunt the present. And screw it up badly.

A famous author Tahir Wazir (Arjan Bajwa) has been facing a writer's block many years since writing a very famous novel. He meets a wannabe writer Meetu Mathur (Shruti Haasan) who is a huge fan and has a story of her own. Since he has no ideas of his own, Tahir wants to user her story and so strikes up a friendship. 

Tahir's wife (Gauhar Khan) is a successful Ad agency owner. She gets a new intern, Parth (Satyajeet Dubey), who is bright but has a hidden agenda. That of destroying Tahir and anyone close to him.

A series of whirlwind events, bodies dropping, assaults, and we have a full blown case on our hands. Tahir gets hammered from all sides, and the needle of suspicion points squarely at him.
Mithun Chakraborty and Sonalee Kulkarni are the cops in charge of the case. Mithun has a reputation of not letting go until he finds the truth. But he has a past too.

The truth lies hidden in Tahir's past and the novel he wrote. 

The direction is fast paced. You don't feel bored at any point in time. Mithun as usual, gives a good performance. Shruti is competent, so is Sonalee. Gauhar Khan is so-so. Satyajeet Dubey is good in places, overacts in others. Arjun Bajwa does a decent job, but he could have done much better.

Finally the series left me with a sense of being less than what it could have been. It's a little unsatisfactory. But still definitely worth watching, with a promise of Season 2 clearly at the end.

The Great Indian Murder - Season 1 (Hotstar)

 Watched The Great Indian Murder on Hotstar. 

Not family friendly.

Tigmanshu Dhulia has directed the adaptation of Vikas Swarup's murder mystery 'Six Suspects'. I haven't read the book, so can't compare. 

The series - season 1 - is watchable. But if you are expecting Gangs of Wasseypur level stuff, you will be sorely disappointed. It keeps you engaged, and is pretty decent. But GoW it's not. 

A rich business man and third class human being - Vicky Rai - is killed at a party thrown at his own farmhouse. The list of suspects is long. But mainly there are 6, which include his own father - played by Ashutosh Rana. 

The bonus for me came in the form of Raghubir Yadav. What a delight to see him in action again! Ashutosh Rana and Richa Chadha are good in their respective roles as father of victim/suspect and Police inspector respectively. 

The CBI officer leading the investigation has his own agenda and no morals. Played by Pratik Gandhi, this was a disappointment. No pizazz. 

Shashank Arora as one of the main suspects was much better. 

Jatin Goswami as the victim is decent. Could have added more flair, but was ok. 

The main grouse with this series is that I am used to the Hercule Poirot kind of direction where the audience is also presented with the same set of clues as the detectives. And then you also get to do your own detection. You fail often, of course, but that's not the point.
Here you are shown things very late. So you can't even begin to try and deduce anything. It might be that way in the book, but surely there's room for improvement when the medium changes.

Some of the episodes are much better than the others and give a glimpse of Tigmanshu that we love. . Even with this unevenness, it still is watchable.