A breezy lady detective series with less thrills
The popular Bengali digital platform Hoichoi’s obsession with detectives continues unabatedly. After Byomkesh and Eken Babu, (http://snooper-scope.in/eken-babu-s4-review-an-enjoyable-breezy-entertainer/) it’s the turn of Damayanati to hog the limelight by taking up their mantle in a self-styled detective series streaming now on Hoichoi and MXPlayer.
Story-line
The young couple Damayanti (Tuhina Das) and Samaresh (Indrasish Roy) go for a holiday and checks into a resort. Damayanti who is quite inquisitive and an exponent in reading between the lines and seeing beyond the eyes stumble upon some mysterious happenings going on in the resort.
The developments in the family of Roy (Gautam Purkayastha), the businessman and the resort owner where there is a tussle between Ujjwal (Arpan Ghoshal) who is the heir apparent, and Muniya Roy (Chandrayee Ghosh), the young actress turned wife of Roy sparks off many unwanted incidents in the resort.
All these incidents keep Damayanti on toes who want to crack the mysterious happenings in the resort. Inspector Siben (Shoumo Banerjee) who happen to be the old friend of Samaresh gets floored by the charm and intelligence of Damayanti lends a free hand to her as a result she gets deeper into this wrangle to unearth the dark secrets hidden in closets and also solves a murder mystery in Roy’s family which eventually provides the missing link to the jigsaw puzzle.
Performances
The elegant and graceful Tuhina Das is adorable and performs the role of Damayanti to great perfection. Her charm and mesmerizing screen presence provide a distinct edge to Damayanti.
The contributions from other actors who have not left any stone unturned as far as performances are concerned made the whole proceedings look slick and sharp though they do not have much screen time or significance.
Chandrayee Ghosh is excellent in a negative character which she has played with immense confidence showcasing the devilish intentions inside her quite admirably.
Amrita Chattopadhyay as Sarmishtha the only daughter of Roy also has done her part well as a young girl who struggles to get herself free from the wily clutches of Muniya.
Behind the scenes
The writers Reetarshi Dutta, Rohan Ghose, Soumayasree Ghosh, and Konark Mukherjee along with director Aritra Sen are pretty conscious about nuances of an investigative story that is an adaption from the works of Manoj Sen. As a result, Rohan Ghose and Aritra have chipped in with a swift narrative with cautious approach not leaving many loose ends.
Music by Naburan Bose, cinematography by Tuhan, and the editing of Sumit Choudhury all combine to add the much-required tempo to this breezy detective series which is less on thrills.
Verdict & Rating
A saree clad history professor turning into a smart detective and police extending a red carpet treatment to her is something that defies logic and reasoning. Instead of portraying the character of Damayanti as a normal academician housewife, she should have been shown as a professional private detective to add some semblance of authentication to the story.
Apart from the above glitch which keeps on lingering in the back of the mind all through the series, it’s rather a breezy show adding a good amount of twists during the course of narrative. However, the thrill factor failed to get elevated to the desired level which is the major drawback. Some more attention in devising a compact screenplay with a tinge of extra suspense could have done wonders to this lady detective story.
It’s only Tuhina Das who instills life into this otherwise flat detective series making it a one-time watch. In all likelihood, we may get to see Damayanti more in forthcoming seasons.
