Multilayered crime series with delectable screenplay
The truth cannot be suppressed or muffled for a long time. SonyLIV’s Undekhi unveils the significance of truth while illustrating the battle between people who want to bury it to camouflage their misdeeds, and an innocent victim’s tryst with truth making him face many struggles to keep it alive.
Story
A dancer getting killed at a wedding by the intoxicated father of the groom sets this crime thriller rolling. Barun Ghosh (Dibyendu Bhattacharya) who is on the lookout for two tribal girls from the Sunderbans, for suspected murder of a police officer, lands up in Manali as a part of his investigation for the girls who turn out to be the dancers at the wedding.
The videography team, responsible for covering the wedding gets involved in this killing as Rishi (Abhishek Chauhan), the videographer captures the murder on his camera. As a result, the notorious Rinku (Surya Sharma), the groom’s brother, starts gunning for him.
Rishi, who doesn’t want to be muted, risks his own life and invites more trouble by informing the police which alerts Ghosh who suspects some foul play at the resort. He investigates the area but fails to decipher much due to a smart cover-up by Rinku and his men.
Rishi is now on the run as he is targeted from all quarters.
Performances
Dibyendu Bhattacharya and Surya Sharma stand out in this gripping series. Bhattacharya has got the definitive edge as his character is presented in a distinct manner. He is a smart and thinking cop. His tone, particularly the style with which he delivers some of the English phrases, is praiseworthy.
Sharma has shown a lot of composure and his performance will be etched in the memories of viewers for a long time.
Abhishek Chauhan has done a brilliant job with his imperative performance which is a crucial factor in this series.
Ankur Rathee as Daman, Ayn Zoya as Saloni, Anchal Singh as Teji, and Vaarun Bhagat as Lucky deserve top honours for their blemish less performances which contribute a lot to keep the narrative intact.
Positives
Mohinder Pratap Singh’s concept plays out into a fully blown-out thriller with a brilliant multi-layered narrative. The efforts of story writers Umesh Padalkar and Sidharth Sengupta, who have developed an imposing screenplay by reinforcing all those layers without any distortion, need to be applauded.
Apart from this, the deft handling of the narrative by director Ashish R. Shukla needs a specific mention as he cautiously steers Undekhi without ever losing his grip on the plot.
The background score by Shivam Sengupta and Anuj Danait has provided the much-needed briskness to Undekhi while Murzy Pagdiwala’s cinematography with well-picturized jungle scenes is appealing.
Negatives
The narrative has its flaws too as the story tends to drag a little in the middle. Furthermore, the scenes of ‘Papaji’ got unbearable and those cuss words uttered by him in every scene could have been toned down.
The jungle sequence is also too long and it should have been cut short to make the narrative even more gripping and compact.
A simple resort owner in Manali without any obvious background, dictating the whole system including politicians and police, looks somewhat ridiculous. This needs to be clarified at least in the next season which cannot be ruled out due to the inconclusive ending of the first one.
Worth it?
Keeping aside the few negative aspects, Undekhi is watchable for its genuine presentation and near-perfect screenplay. It’s an enjoyable web series if one can bear all those cuss words all over.
