Clichéd plot with some bright spots
Image source: MX Player
Latest web series Madhuri Talkies, an MXPlayer original series, which is streaming now on the platform, is a contrived love story around a contemporary disorder with a sprinkle of drama and more crime.
Story
Set in Banaras aka Varanasi on the banks of Ganga, the videos of rape victims are sold and circulated among mobiles rampantly. Unable to bear this torturous humiliation, many young women end their lives abruptly due to this barbaric avocation by some sexual perverts.
Incidentally, Punita, the leading lady also becomes a victim of this cruelty and Manish who fell for her at first sight chances upon her heartbreaking video. This makes his blood boil and he go on an avenging spree against the perpetrators of this crime who made life of Punita painful.
To add some political flavor to the story, there is a greedy land grabbing MLA and his henchmen, along with an arrogant SI who is more loyal to MLA than to his superior to cover up all the misdeeds, and above all a partner in crime.
On the other hand, there is a good duty-bound policeman in the form of Station House Officer who contributes a lot at the end to literally ‘make the ends meet’.
How Manish wages war against these bad, dirty and powerful people and what is his modus operandi can be seen in 10-episode Madhuri Talkies.
Performances
Rajeev K Pandey as MLA Ramkhilavan Rai, Basu Soni as Kali and Darpan Shrivastava as SHO Gajraj Singh stand out among the crowd with best performances. Other characters fail to get registered as there is little screen space for them.
Positives
Although it’s a regular revenge drama, the plot encircling perversion angle of people who exploit and derive demonic pleasure at someone’s distress is quite a strong point as well as a disturbing one too.
Halfway through the series, there is a dialogue by the wife of SHO Gajraj Singh, “Love can build Taj Mahal, and same love can kill people too” which is quite apt for this series. Writer Director Arvind Babbal, along with his co-writers Avinash Singh and Vijay Narayan Verma, deserve a great applause for their stupendous work adorned with some heart touching scenes and dialogues.
Negatives
Sagar Wahi, as avenging youngster Manish, is a wrong choice. Due to this, the whole series has fallen flat. He fails to portray such an important character effectively. This is one perfect example of what a miscast can do to a good plot.
In addition, the editing is shabby with several unnecessary scenes which dilute the intensity. Also, the background score by Surajj is just passable, but it should have been a shade better to flare up the narration.
Worth it?
As long as you don’t go into intricacies of acting, this can be a thrilling watch. Those who are allergic to blood and gore can stay away from Madhuri Talkies. Anyhow, it’s a safe watch!
