A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Murtaza Ali Khan
Remakes
of international films have been a common thing as far as India is concerned. But,
with the rise of OTT platforms, the trend of remakes even in the long-form storytelling space is
quickly becoming the norm. The most recent offering is the Disney+ Hotstar
series Rudra - The Edge of Darkness,
which is the official remake of the BBC Studios show Luther, starring Idris
Elba in the titular role of a Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) working
for the Serious Crime Unit. Rudra - The Edge of Darkness stars Ajay Devgn (marks the Bollywood
superstar’s OTT debut) as DCP Rudraveer "Rudra" Singh who has a
specialty for nabbing criminals and killers. The series also stars Raashii
Khanna, Esha Deol, Atul Kulkarni, Ashwini Kalsekar, Tarun Gahlot, Ashish
Vidyarthi, and Satyadeep Misra in pivotal roles.
Now,
the thing with remakes is that they tend to open up new possibilities. In order
to under this let’s take the case of the Israel series Kvodo, created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach, which ran for two
seasons from 2017 – 2019. The American television network Showtime remade it as
Your Honor with Bryan Cranston starring
in the role of a respected New Orleans judge whose teenage son gets involved in
a hit-and-run that leads to a game of deceit and one-upmanship in the face of
insurmountable odds. Interestingly, SonyLIV came out with an Indian adaptation
of Kvodo, also titled Your Honor, with Jimmy Sheirgill in the
lead and set in the city of Ludhiana, Punjab. Series remakes allow writers to
take a lot of liberties which often end up with something entirely new as we
saw with the American version of House of
Cards as opposed to the original British show. The Showtime version of Your Honor, for example, offered a
strong social commentary that exposed white privilege and the widespread
prejudice against Black Africans. And, in doing so, it succeeded in
establishing a strong dialogue with the Black Lives Matter movement and
widespread conversations about racism in the US.
Rudra - The Edge of Darkness, however, is a far more faithful remake, both in
terms of characters as well as story arcs. Just like John
Luther in the original, Rudraveer
Singh is a crime specialist. A dedicated police officer, he is
obsessive, possessed, and sometimes capable of demonstrating violent
capabilities. However, he repeatedly ends up paying a heavy price for his
obsession for fulfilling his duty, often going out of his way in the process.
He is slowly being consumed by the darkness of the crimes with which he deals. His
relation with his wife is on the brink and yet instead of working towards mending
it he continues to give the top priority to his job. For both Rudra and John,
this dedication for work is both a curse and a blessing. Just like John begins
to investigate the brilliant psychopath and murderer Alice Morgan in the very
first episode of Luther, Rudra comes across Aliyah Choksi whom he interrogates
for the murder of his parents. As the series progresses, Rudra and Aliyah would
forge a complicated relationship, becoming both each other’s nemesis as well as
unlikely companions in the process, much like John and Alice.
The
constantly eerie and somber tone of the show works really well in setting up
the narrative right from the word go. Ajay Devgn effortlessly steps into the
shoes of Rudra as if he were born to play the character. Idris Elba was
mesmerizing to watch as Luther; Devgn is just as good as Rudra. Rudra is a
toughie but it’s easy to see his inner pain and turmoil. Raashi Khanna is also
very good as Aliyah. Some of the scenes that she shares with Devgn in
the series are absolutely wonderful to watch. Take, for example, the
interrogation scene wherein Rudra tries to grill Aliyah. It’s a cat and mouse
game wherein Rudra plays all the tricks in the book to break her but Aliyah is completely
unfazed. Devgn is not just a superstar but he is also an actor with a
commanding screen presence and the relatively inexperienced Raashi Khanna seems up to the challenge,
right from the very first moment. Every time the two characters come together
in the series one gets a feeling that the screen will explode any moment given
the tension between them. Esha Deol, Atul Kulkarni, and Ashwini Kalsekar
are also solid in their respective roles.
Given the makers’ keenness
to remain faithful to Luther’s source
material all those who have already seen the BBC series certainly wouldn’t be
too impressed with what Rudra - The Edge of Darkness has to offer. But those who have yet to
watch Luther are likely to see a lot
of merits in how the Disney+ Hotstar remake creates the work of Rudra and how
the different characters inhabit it and interact with one another.
A version of this review was first published at The Daily Guardian.
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