Review – Aashram ( Web Series )

REVIEW

AASHRAM (MXPlayer Web Series)

Producer-Director- Prakash Jha

Star Cast- Bobby Deol, Aaditi Pohankar, Anupriya Goenka, Darshan Kumar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Sachin Shroff, Rajeev Siddhartha, Vikram Kochchar, Tushar Pandey, Tridha Choudhary

Genre- Thriller

Rating-****

Edgy and Engrossing!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Right from the first frame, Prakash Jha’s foray into digital arena is riveting and attention grabbing. The explosive series for MXPlayer starts off guns blazing and immediately sets a tone for the twisted tale of a Godman, who is more a dubious conman, and the machinations within his expansive ashram. The story revolves around Baba Nirala (Bobby Deol), also known as Babaji of Kashipur, revered as the Messiah of the poor; he is the soft-spoken leader of a cult that focuses on apparently upliftment of the downtrodden. Along the way, he has amassed legions of followers, and a lot of moolah swept by his bargain-basement sermons, and blinded by the veneer of philanthropy. The web series is pious. It is replete with evil, manipulation, avarice, and desire.

There are also an interesting bunch of characters in the series like the investigating officer Ujagar (Darshan Kumar), TV news reporter (Rajeev Siddhartha), a postmortem doctor (Anupriya Goenka), and a junior policeman (Vikram Kochhar) , former Chief Minister Hukum Singh ((Sachin Shroff) and Babita.(Tridha Chowdhary), besides Bhope (Chandan Roy Sanyal), Satti (Tushar Pandey) and Pammi (Aaditi Pohankar). The interesting plot sets out to unravel many layers in the life of Babaji and literally hits you straight in the eye and makes you sit glued to the edge of your seat with excitement, without boring you even for a minute. A lot of what transpires on screen is akin to what is happening in real life, including the illegalities that occur, often in cahoots with authorities.

It is a winning screenplay by Kuldeep Ruhil and engrossing story by Habib Faisal that makes Jha’s nine-part season with his by now patented theme of the caste system, caste politics, power play, politician and police nexus and oppression. In a master piece move, Jha does not at all dwell upon why the notorious ordinary conman starts masquerading as the Baba and Jha sees to it that even after nine episodes in the first season we desperately want to know Baba Nirala’s transformation into Babaji, a story that is left unresolved.

Bobby Deol makes quite an impact as the corrupt Babaji though at times his smile reminds you of his elder brother Sunny Deol. Chandan Ropy Sanyal exudes menace and threat while Darshan Kumar scores as the honest cop. While Aaditi Pohankar is in fine fettle after the series She, Anupriya Goenka who is a seasoned actress in the web scenario impresses with her cool demeanor. Tushar Pandey is brilliant as Satti, the innocent brother of Pammi who is compulsorily made to undergo vasectomy by the Godman, with an evil mission. Sameer Kochchar rises above his supporting role as a cop while Sachin Shroff  lacks the adequate maturity to play the former Chief Minister.

To sum up, Aashram, filmed primarily in Ayodhya and areas around it, ends with the promise of an infinitely more dramatic Season 2. Though Jha has deliberately opted to downplay the raw and crude sex in the bedroom sequences, which is a must these days on the web to attract the youth to attract the family audiences, the series is worth watching as it is edgy and engrossing and what’s more epic in sweep as well as its scale.

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