In continuation to our last article, Top Web Series 2020, here is the list of another 5 web series which made headlines because of one or the other reason.
1. Ashram
Ashram on MX Player marks the debut of Prakash Jha and Bobby Deol in the web series arena. This 9 episode part 1 of Ashram, as the name suggests is a story of Ashram in Kashipur, where Baba Nirala and his deputy Bhopa Bhai indulge in various illegal activities
Unofficially based on the life of Gurmit Ram Rahim of Dera Sacha Sauda, Ashram highlights the reality of many so called Godmen, and touches upon various prevalent social issues in his signature style be it casteism, be it superstitions, corruption or dirty politics.
Ashram is story of Pammi, a dalit girl, who is helped by Baba Nirala (Bobby) when she faces discrimination. She joins his Ashram with his brother and by the end of first season gets an idea that everything in that Ashram is not that pious.
Ashram also has a parallel track of inspector Ujagar Singh (Darshan Kumar) and Dr Natasha who are investigating a case where a skeleton is found buried on a site, and find links to the Ashram during the investigation .
Our Take:
All in all, Ashram, though a bit cliched, is a good show, which has taken its sweet time to develop a number of subplots, which will be taken to closure in Season 2. A power packed trailer at the end of Season 1 sets up high expectations for the upcoming season.
2. Breathe : Into the Shadows
Speaking of Debuts, Breathe – Into the Shadows, is the debut of Abhishek Bachchan on OTT platform. Second season (though unrelated) to a very engaging Season 1, Breathe is a confusing story of psychological thriller meeting mythological reasons.
Breathe has Abhishek playing Dr Avinash Sabharwal whose daughter Siya gets kidnapped from a birthday party. Avinash and his wife Abha (Nithya Menon) give up on any hope of finding her, when after they get no clues for months of kidnap.
After a few months the kidnapper connects and asks Avinash to execute a series of murders in return for his daughter, which Avinash has to start doing.
Enter Kabir Sawant, (an in form and beefed up Amit Sadh), who already is frustrated with his troubled background story, is given the case. The rest of season is on investigation, how Avinash and Kabir trace and finally nab the culprit and rescue Siya.
The show has some references from Ramayan and they are not properly researched, developed or linked. Writing is weak and performances from most of the actors (except Sadh and his deputy) are very average at best.
Our Take:
Breathe – In the Shadows was supposed to be about Abhishek, who fails to deliver. The writing is shallow and the direction by Mayank Tiwari is equally bad. Suspense and motives are all disclosed by 7th episode of this 12 episode season, and after that it’s mostly a drag. Avoidable.
3. Bandish Bandits
Bandish Bandits, Amazon’s musical love story between a classical singer Radhey and an aspiring pop singer Tamanna. Series also showcases a love story between Pandit Radhey Mohan Rathod (Naseeruddin Shah) and his classical music.
Bandish Bandits starts with Naseer as Panditji who teaches music in Jodhpur and believes in purity of music without worrying about the monetary factor. Radhey, his grandson, wants to emulate him and be his true heir.
Radhey gets to attend a pop show by Tamanna, a singer and composer and gets charmed by her. Also, Tamanna sees Radhey’s talent and offers to collaborate with him, which Panditji will never approve of.
This starts Radhey’s struggle to adjust himself in both the worlds, oscillating between Pop and classical music. On one hand he helps Tamanna, singing for her in a music album,
Show also has Atul Kulkarni (Digvijay), Pandit Ji’s son from another wife who wants to beat Panditji in the Sangeet Samrat competition and establish his own Gharaana. With Panditji not keeping well, Radhey takes it upon him to face Digvijay giving us a fabulous music finale episode.
Our Take:
Bandish tries to showcase the elegance of classical music and how Classical and Pop together can coexist and create magic.
The show boasts of some fine performances by almost all the lead characters, beautiful visuals from Rajasthan and above all fabulous music from Shankar Ehsaan Loy.
Show has its shortcomings but overall should be watched once for the lovely music and visuals.
4. Jamtara
Jamtara, based in Jamtara Jharkhand is a very relevant crime thriller on Netflix, which is about the phishing , which most of the people today face and get trapped into and lose a lot of money.
The show starts with 2 brothers Sunny and Rocky who along with their friends are running a nexus, where they call people and dupe them by asking them to share their card details, OTPs..
Due to their differences, Sunny along with her girlfriend Gudiya (Monika Panwar) starts working separately, whereas Rocky starts working with local politician Brajesh Bhan (Amit Sial), who wants his share as well in this business.
In the meantime, Jamtara gets its new SP Dolly Singh (Aksha Pardasany), who is sent to look into this phishing business. She along with cyber expert Saurav and Inspector Biswa (excellent Dibyendu Bhattacharya) starts investigating and raiding the sites.
Bhan, who gets upset by the police investigation on one hand, Sunny eating into his business on the other reaches Sunny’s house and gets smitten by Gudiya. The series then deals with Sunny trying to save himself and Gudiya from Bhan, and Dolly trying to nab Sunny and Bhan.
Our Take:
Jamtara is based on something almost everyone can relate to, but the treatment of the series has limited the audience for it. Jamtara has a very different premise as expected from the trailers, and is more of an action drama, with phishing as the background.
Though it is a bit low on entertainment, with 30 min episodes, Jamtara is a decent watch for people who like this genre.
5. Special Ops
Special Ops co-directed by Neeraj Pandey starts with a RAW officer Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Mennon) facing an enquiry on misappropriation of funds. Himmat straight forward establishes that he trains assets and they carry out the operations for the national interests and that’s where funding has gone.
Himmat then goes ahead with his stories of the other operations, how they were executed and also coordinates with his officers/assets for the new mission which they are on.
Five of his agents are on the mission of nabbing the mastermind of Parliament attack (who escaped as per Himmat). The show then progresses with their back stories and then the progress they keep on making in the new mission.
Along with Kay Kay, who is brilliant as usual as a composed officer and loving father, the show has Muzzamil Ibrahim, Sayyami Kher, Meher Vij and Karan Tacker who provide decent support.
Our take:
We have seen better works from Neeraj pandey, this is weak in comparison. The show moves at a very slow pace, and feels like a mix of movies Baby, D Day etc. Show has very convenient writing as well with a lot of loopholes.
Still, It is a one time watch if you are a Kay Kay Menon fan or espionage thrillers are your genre.
If you have any suggestion on good web series than please add your suggestions in comment box below. We will be happy to add them to our future article of Top Web Series 2020 – Part 3 you can also view our previous article on Top Web Series 2020 – Part 1
