Andhera, directed by Raaghav Dar (who once upon a time directed My Friend Pinto for Sanjay Leela Bhansali), enters the dark zone with confidence. At times, the narrative amble is obstructed by poor writing (although there are six writers on board). But the series keeps you hooked, if you are into occultist experience whittled down to a game of cat and mouse with a “presence” called Andhera, no relation to Sarkata, although Andhera moves in equally mysterious ways, intercepting phone calls, inciting suicides, causing big movies to bomb at the box office.
Okay, I made up the last, just for some comic relief. Humour is not a favoured flavour in Andhera. Everyone is dead serious.
Or simply dead. I kid you not. The aura of eeriness is all-pervasive. And contagious. Sometimes it actually gets to you, like the sequence where this zany ghostbuster Rumi (Prajakta Kohli) and her possessed pal Jay (Karanvir Malhotra) pay a nuptial visit to a hotel room where a girl has died under mysterious circumstances.
Why would they do something so rash and fool hardy? In horror shows, characters do the most dangerous things just to be true to the genre. It is the nature of the beast. And this beast doesn’t really roar, but it purrs, sometimes pleadingly, sometimes provocatively.
The core of the series is not the beast of darkness, but the feast of hope, provided in the fragile relationship between the cop Kalpana (Priya Bapat) and a spiritual healer Ayesh(Surveen Chawla). The two actresses play lovers with disarming ease. It is a wonder what competent acting can do to poor writing, provided the actors’ hearts are in it.
By the way, Priya Bapat is the umpteenth lesbian cop in a web series.
Are Bapat and Chawla the saving grace of Andhera? Good lord, yes, yes! So much so that I would like to see an entire series on where their brittle relationship goes.
Bapat and Chawla lead the performing brigade, probably for their collective freedom from fuelling the frights. All the other actors are caught posturing in fear of the unknown. Scarcely getting to feel the impact of the known. So haunted are the characters by their past that they don’t seem to acknowledge the present. There is a lot going on in Andhera. Not all of it is interesting enough. What remains is worth watching for what it promises rather than what it delivers.
