A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Murtaza Ali Khan
Following the success of ‘Aranyak,’
Rohan Sippy is back with another slow-burning thriller set in a misty hill
town. And this time around he dons the director’s hat. Produced by Applause
Entertainment in association with Rose Audio Visual Production, ‘Mithya’ is a
6-part ZEE5 Original series starring Huma Qureshi, Avantika Dassani, Parambrata
Chatterjee, Rajit Kapur, and Samir Soni in pivotal roles. The series marks the
debut of Avantika Dassani, who is the daughter of yesteryear Bollywood actress
Bhagyashree.
‘Mithya’
follows Juhi Adhikari (Huma Qureshi), a professor of Hindi literature at a Darjeeling-based
college, who accuses her student, Rhea Rajguru (Avantika Dassani), of
plagiarism. What starts off as a matter of academic deception soon spirals into
a psychological battle of one-upmanship between Juhi and Rhea. Amidst it all,
things get further complicated when Juhi learns that Rhea is trying to seduce
her husband Neil (Parambrata Chatterjee). Juhi continues to get
increasingly suspicious of Rhea after she loses her wedding ring from her bag,
believing it to be Rhea's doing. This in turn
triggers a devastating sequence of events that threatens to engulf everything
and everyone around them.
The
series explores the different notions of truth through the characters
of Juhi and Rhea. While Rhea pleads that she
is innocent, Juhi is certain that her student has indulged in plagiarism. Who
is lying? Can truth be absolute or is truth always subjective in nature?
Well, Mithya does try to delve into this
debate at first but then it abruptly strays away into a realm of clichés and
gimmicks, leaving much to be desired.
The
biggest culprit of ‘Mithya’ is weak and inconsistent writing. This is exactly
where ‘Aranyak’ scored heavily. Firstly, its story at the denotative level was
solid to begin with. The strong subtext enriched it further, resulting in a
formidable narrative. Interestingly, ‘Mithya’ just like ‘Aranyak’ ends up as a
murder mystery. Here also we have a male
and a female cop who are trying to solve the crime. But while there is so much
going on in the world of ‘Aranyak’ with its mythical renderings of a serial
killing entity in the forest, political ploys employed in the power circles,
drug and social media culture amongst the millennials, personal agendas amongst
the grownups to go along with a good old procedural approach employed to
solving a puzzling murder mystery, the plot of ‘Mithya’ is nowhere near its
level of brilliance.
As far as
‘Mithya’ is concerned, all we have in our hands are two female characters who
have intense dislike for one another. From the moment we meet Juhi and Rhea, we
are certain that the two will find it hard to get along. While Juhi is a
control freak, Rhea is a rebel who hates being controlled. Now, the idea alone
sounds explosive and given the possibilities that it opens up ‘Mithya’ could
have been a fascinating show even without the layers that ‘Aranyak’ offers. But
the writing department fails to build on the premise of what can possibly
happen in the case of a student–teacher dyad going awry.
Now, Huma
Qureshi’s talents as an actor have mostly remained unexplored over the last
decade, except for her performances in ‘Badlapur,’ ‘Dedh Ishqiya,’ and one of
the segments of ‘X: Past is Present,’ which have been three major exceptions where
Huma was offered something different to play with and she was up to the
challenge. But with the SonyLIV series ‘Maharani,’ she has really succeeded in
reinventing herself with the show proving to be a major turning point in her
career. Suddenly, the storytellers are seeing new possibilities that Huma is
capable of offering as a performer. Her casting as Juhi in ‘Mithya’ is an
outcome of the faith that the makers have now starting showing in her.
The real
highlight of ‘Mithya,’ however, is Avantika Dassani’s mesmerizing performance.
The scenes that Avantika shares with Huma and Parambrata are simply superb.
It’s heartening to see a young performer willing to push herself to such
limits. In the hands of a less committed actor, Rhea could easily have got
reduced to a mere caricature but Avantika breathes life into it. One can’t help
but admire her confidence at such a young age. Huma and Parambrata are both
accomplished actors but Avantika is up to the challenge. She doesn’t just hold
her own in front of them but also manages to steal away some of the scenes that
she is a part of. And if that’s not enough, she even matches Rajit Kapur’s
intensity in a couple of rather long sequences she shares with the veteran thespian.
Now, the
first half of the six-episode series is really good. Darjeeling is a beautiful
place and the manner in which the series is
shot does justice to its enchanting beauty. But, the locales aren’t used with
the same level of thought as we witnessed in series like ‘Aranyak’ and ‘The
Last Hour’. Speaking of Darjeeling, the 1969 film ‘Mahal’ starring Dev Anand
and Asha Parekh does a far better job of bringing the beautiful Himalayan town
to life. ‘Mithya’ certainly proves to be an
interesting watch but one that could have been much better, especially given
the promise of its premise and the exceptional performances on offer.
A version of this review was first published at The Daily Guardian.
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your valuable thoughts are highly appreciated
People who liked this also liked...
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing for valuable opinion. We would be delighted to have you back.