India’s fight for Independence is the biggest one that has caught the attention of the whole world. It has seen many leaders emerging and witnessed a lot of sacrifices before attaining Independence from the tyranny of the British. It’s not easier to chronicle that struggle in a series like Unheard that spans through 6-episodes which is streaming now on the leading OTT platform Disney+Hotstar. This original web series marks the entry of the popular digital partner in the Telugu market.
https://snooper-scope.in/disneyhotstars-first-telugu-series-unheard-on-sept-17/
Story
Unheard is a collection of stories that were told through various characters about the leaders and various ideologies around India’s Independence struggle.
It starts from the 1920 World War with the conversation between Padma (Chandini Chowdary) and Dr. Chalapathi (Baladitya) who are poles apart in their ideas and ideologies about the means to attain Independence. Their conversation drifts to many subjects including the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Tagore’s Gitanjali and about the famous book store J C Pinto, and also about the famous Secunderabad Club.
Afterwards, it’s about Badri (Priyadarshi) and Mallesh (Ajay) who have different ways of looking at the ways of getting Indian Independence. Badri and Padma who took to violence as the means to attain Independence met with a tragic end while Mallesh and Chalapathi continue their sojourn by rescuing Anwar (Avasarala Srinivas) from Rajakars during the Nizam’s rule of Hyderabad.
Performances
The ensemble star cast present has nothing to do except to deliver the dialogues with minimal or no facial expressions as the whole Unheard is based on conversations and nothing else.
Chandini Chowdary, Baladitya, Priyadarshi, Ajay, Chakrapani, Avasarala Srinivas, and Jay Jha all were wasted in characters that fail to extract any performance from them.
Behind the scenes
More or less Unheard was a documentary on Indian Independence that was poorly conceived and presented. The purpose of this web series itself was cryptical as it doesn’t have any entertainment value or any emotional factor and is devoid of any significance altogether except for narrating and discussing various ideologies and international politics.
The director Aditya and his crew including the cinematographer Abhiraj Nair have nothing to do except to record the conversations rendered by the characters.
The background score by Naresh Kumaran was obscure and the only song that came from the vocals of Kaala Bhairava fails to ring any bell.
Final Verdict
It’s unbelievable that how a talented filmmaker like Radhika Lavu who made a fabulous series like G.O.D. Gods of Dharmapuri will attempt such a ridiculous dampener that was highly disappointing like Unheard.
It’s better to buy a book on the history of Indian Independence and read it instead of watching Unheard and wasting the time if you are so interested to know all about the valiant stories behind our Independence struggle.
