CAST: Aaditi Pohankar, Vishwas Kini, Vijay Varma
DIRECTED BY: Arif Ali; Avinash Das
An evolution of a seemingly timid girl from a chwal in Mumbai to an undercover agent who improvises on the go; the first season is quite a journey for Bhumi Pardeshi, casted appropriately in Aaditi Pohankar. She carries the simple beat constable act well and the process of the entire transformation into a siren who can improvise on the go when everything else fails. A woman who cannot standup to her oversexed sister, a bully of a husband and a hypochondriac of a mother, now demands her due, using her body in ways, she herself was unaware of.
But a transformation of a woman in terms of sexuality is also accompanied with several other facets of her personality and we felt those facets were either ignored or not focused on.
Vijay Varma is brilliant. The whole series becomes exceedingly cringy with his portrayal of a drug warlord Sasya. He lives the character in every twitch of his facial muscles. A very convincing performance from Vishwas Kini, who portrays Jason Fernandez, the crime branch officer who mentors and trains Bhumi to become an undercover fille de joie to ensnare a criminal mastermind.
On the whole a nail-biting thriller from Imtiaz Ali, with excellent slow build, great dramatization and exceptional cinematography.
The only space we feel, could have been explored is the characterization of the evolution of a meek woman into a woman who is able to use her sexuality to get what she wants. We feel the writers have botched up that part. We feel that aspect requires more work, maybe in the second season.
