Black Widows Review: Too Much Hamming Ruins This Otherwise Average Mystery

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Black Widows

Cast: Mona Singh, Sharad Kelkar, Shamita Shetty, Swastika Mukherjee, Parambrata Chattopadhyay

Director: Birsa Dasgupta

If there is something that went completely off in ZEE5’s latest web series Black Widows, it is the exaggerated performances of the entire cast. Otherwise, this mystery-drama had enough meat in its storyline to keep one engaged. Mona Singh, Shamita Shetty and Swastika Mukherjee lead the remake of this Nordic original plot, but drain out the potential with their caricature-like treatment of the respective characters.

Veera (Mona), Jayati (Swastika) and Kavita (Shamita) are three friends, all caught up in abusive marriages. They decide to turn the tide once and for all while vacationing with their husbands on a private property. Little do these women know, the secrets that their partners had buried are too dark and deep for their thin skins. They must now brave odds at every step and wade through unknown waters to survive. Admittedly, all the characters are well defined in the Hindi adaptation and Black Widows’ original concept seems laden with edge-of-the-seat moments. It is fueled further with dark humour, which too hits the mark at some points. But the series seems a bit off track since the start due to delivery of actors, which is into-the-face. Light entertainment should have complimented the mystery quotient well. Instead, the treatment becomes parody-like, giving way to boredom, and robs the tale of the what-next quotient that one starts to anticipate.

Under Birsa Dasgupta’s direction, background score and editing are high points but acting is not. This crashes the suspenseful moments at every point. The investigative part featuring Parambrata Chattopadhyay as the lead detective too suffers from the same problem. His character, at 40, is unmarried and seems a little inexperienced when it comes to women. But the way he probes the case, his cop background also seems doubtful. Meaning, no one brings authenticity to their characters and do little justice to the series in turn.

All in all, Black Widows may give deliver cheap thrills for sometime. Considering its 10-episode run, we recommend you invest time somewhere else this week.

Rating: 2/5

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Darbaan Movie Review: This Rabindranath Tagore Drama Adaptation is an Insipid Affair

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Darbaan

Director: Bipin Nadkarni

Cast: Sharib Hashmi, Rasika Dugal, Flora Saini, Harsh Chhaya, Suneeta Sengupta, Varun Sharma

Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s stories are universal and have an essential timelessness about them – 0ne of which is Khokababur Pratyabartan (The Return of Little Master). Penned in 1891, this tale was adapted in a 1960 Bengali language movie with the evergreen matinee idol, Uttam Kumar, essaying a loyal servant in a sprawling zamindari haveli in the coal-mining town of Jharia. I have not seen the film, but Zee5 has just begun streaming a Hindi adaptation of the Tagore story, and co-scripted and directed by Bipin Nadkarni, Darbaan (Guard) – that is the title – begins in the early years of the 1970s when the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, nationalised dozens of coal mines, a move that ruined several wealthy private owners.

Nadkarni’s Darbaan begins on a happy note in Jharia with coal-mine owner Naren Tripathi’s (Harsh Chhaya) baby son, Ankul, sharing a warm and affectionate relationship with their darbaan, Raicharan (Sharib Hashmi). But when the mines are taken over by the Government, Tripathi sells his haveli and moves out. Raicharan returns to his wife, Bhuri (Rasika Duggal), and farming in village.

Years later, a grown Ankul buys the haveli back, settles down there and still nursing fond memories of Raicharan, asks him to take care of his little boy. But a tragedy with the child drowning in a swollen river destroys the trust that Ankul and his wife, Charul (Flora Saini), had placed on their darbaan.

Although Tagore’s stories have been made into excellent adaptations for the screen, and they have worked, Darbaan has not aged well. It is disappointing, and some issues appear out of place in today’s times.

For instance, why does Ankul return to Jharia, back into his old haveli? Or, why is Raicharan willing to be enslaved to the third generation? With the plot stretching to 2000 or so, Raicharan’s sense of loyalty, unquestioned and complete, 30-odd years later seems not just odd, but unbelievably farfetched. What is more, this loyalty or sense of submission pushes him towards a supreme sacrifice!

The only redeeming feature in the film is Hashmi, who portrays well the joys and sorrows of being part of a household whose fortunes swing from one extreme to another. Most of the narrative looks too superficial, and the writers have not been able to capture the essence of the times, the regality of the coal-miners’ lives does not come through with any conviction. Certainly, Tagore could not have bargained for this.

Rating: 1.5/5

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