‘Dead men can talk’, this is the premise of the 8-episode web series The Last Hour streaming on Amazon Prime. Bankrolled by Amit Kumar and Academy Award winning director Asif Kapadia under Fission Features and Mastercut Pictures, this Amazon Original Series was extensively shot in the picturesque locales of North-East region.
https://snooper-scope.in/the-last-hour-trailer-launched/
Story
Arup Singh (Sanjay Kapoor) gets transferred to a hill town in Sikkim to investigate a murder case. Arup who is coming to terms with the death of his wife in an accident meets Dev (Karma Takapa) a shaman who can talk to the souls of the dead.
As a result, Dev got inducted as a police informer in a bid to crack the mystery behind the murder case. Unexpectedly, Dev falls in love with Pari (Shaylee Krishen), the daughter of Arup. Also sparks fly between Arup and his colleague Lipika (Shahana Goswami) but Arup refrains himself from any relationship till he completes his assignment.
How Dev and Arul go about their mission and what happens to the love between Dev and Pari is what the remaining part of The Last Hour is about.
Performances
The ensemble star cast including Sanjay Kapoor, Raima Sen, Shaylee Krishen, Karma Takapa and Shahana Goswami all are very potential actors but none of them are impressive because of poor characterization and presentation.
Takapa has shown some shades of brilliance but again poor writing took its toll and he too gets relegated to the position of an underperformer.
Behind the scenes
A perfect setting. A novel subject. Potential performers. Everything is there. But shoddy execution and a contrived narrative played the spoilsport as a result the series gets lengthy and distorted.
Amit Kumar and Anupama Minz have successfully conceived a sound theme and compiled a near perfect story around a super natural element which is quite new to the Indian digital world. But when it comes to translating it on to the screen, Amit Kumar fumbled in connecting the loose ends though the supernatural world of shamans was presented quite effectively.
Jayesh Nair’s cinematography was excellent with some pleasant visuals of snow capped mountains and floating clouds in parts of Sikkim, Cherrapunji, Guwahati, and Darjeeling.
The music by Gingger Shankar fails to strike any chord and its passable.
Peter Alderliesten’s editing is sloppy and lacks the cohesion with the narrative as a result it gets dragged at times without any direction or intention.
Final Verdict
A series on a potential supernatural element is very much needed for Indian digital platform as there are very few in this genre. But the insipid execution makes The Last Hour a disappointing fare in the end. Not recommended unless there is nothing else to see, this would be the last resort.
