BLUF: 90’s Bambai Gangster Saga- the Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan Ajay Devgn , Aamir Khan did for us on celluloid. Parth Samathan takes over.
THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES:
A Bareilly boy, Nawab, comes to Bombay with big ambitions and only determination. He starts his first job pirating Bollywood movies at a video parlor. Intelligent and witty, he is quick to learn the skills of the business, makes new friends, and creates relationships to get out of sticky places comfortably. His life changes when is father is killed by the Shetty brothers. Burning for retaliation, he becomes but is relentless in his pursuit to revenge his father’s murder by becoming a gangster and dominating the underworld in Bombay. This is the story of the price he has to pay to fulfil his desire for power.
IN THE KNOW
If you have been a 90’s kid, this is your nostalgia Bollywood hitting you @several wtfs a minute. The hero-worshipping days of your youth where your own lingo was laced with the saucy dialogues of the masala movies you watched in the rows of the dustiest theatres ever. The 13 episodes are almost perfect to reminisce the era of that pop-culture of Bollywood.
The storyline is intended to celebrate it’s larger-than-life hero and the slow-motion shots and the action sequences are an billboard of his courage and magnetism. The show and its story is just an excuse to let him perform for your eyes. You kind of enjoy the routine even when you know the formula of the masala you are being served.
The narrative of the connections between the criminal world and the film industry are created. From gangsters viewing the business as an avenue to dump their black money to the negotiations with producers about profit-sharing, to their roaring affairs with the actors and the control they wield over the product – nothing is left to the imagination of the viewer. The improbable love triangle between a mobster, his wife, and a trendy film actress adds juice to the events. While trying to persuade an vulnerable star wife to rope in her philanderer spouse for a film, a mobster vows to keep a watch on her husband’s activities on sets like a ‘brother’.
FWAR
The world of criminals isn’t any new otherwise – infighting, shifting allegiances, compromises with fraudulent police officers, perpetual mind games with contenders, blood-drenched shirts in the constant struggle for power.
The non-linear storyline is a predicament – you are left perplexed between timelines, the past, the present, and the never-ending commentaries. Nawab has it easy wherever he goes and whatever he does – his struggle seems quite shallow because of the jazz of his story. This isn’t the show where you expect offensiveness, however. The director Siddhartha Luther connects the plot smartly though with crisp screenplay underneath all this confusion to mask a very wafer-thin storyline.
The music is loud, glaring, and nothing to write home about. Sarthak Juneja’s dialogues especially when it come to the sassy one-liners as rolled by Parth are the star of the show because they are the ones that keep the narrative alive. Thankfully the frames move quickly and the pace relentlessly, so the pace never disappoints. This keeps the overall temper of the series watchable.
WHAT WE LOVED
The brisk pace of the screenplay
The old-fashioned dialogue baazi
Parth Samthaan in a refreshing avatar
WHAT WE MISSED
Plot
Music
Unpredictability
