Web Series Review: Aranyak - An Engaging Thriller Drama on Netflix

Source-Amazon

Amid the pandemic, as it was difficult to go into theaters OTT platforms provided us with interesting films and series to watch which gave an opportunity for actors to showcase their talent which increased competition in the film industry too. 

90’s Actors like Sushmita Sen, Raveena Tondon, and Madhuri Dixit got an opportunity to make their entry in acting. A series like Arya was critically acclaimed.

Critics appreciated performances and their comebacks. After entering into acting after so many years Raveena still maintains the quality of acting in the whole series.

Aranyak is written by Charu Dutt Acharya and directed by Vinay Waikul is an interesting and entertaining series to watch. Rohan Sippy serves as executive producer on this series co-created by Ramesh Sippy and Siddharth Roy Kapur. Aranyak takes place in the fictional town named Sironah in Himachal Pradesh. It is a small town situated between hills. 

What’s New-

Kasturi ( played by Raveena Tondon), the police station head of Sironah, was on the last day of work before she could take a leap of one year to save her troubled marriage and take care of her child who wants to take the IIT entrance exam. 

On her last day she encountered a French national who came to lodge a complaint to find her missing teenage daughter who was raped, murdered, and later found hanging on the tree next day. There were marks on the neck of a teenage girl which appeared as if an animal attacked.

It was one of the biggest cases in the town like Sironah for which Kasturi was hunting. In the past, there were similar cases but the culprit was never found. The town folk blamed a half-man half-animal mythical creature who attacked women and hung them on the trees.

 Kasturi then canceled her leave in order to solve the case. She finds her replacement named Angad Malik (Parambatta Chattopadhay) for whom she has personal grudges and tries to make her way to solve the case.

In their Early days, there was a tussle between both the officers as they wanted to show who is more talented and experienced in which they were trying to sabotage the case which later turned out to be a strong team when Angad accepts and seeks help from Kasturi for solving the case as she knows more about sironha than Angad.

 

Angad Malik does not accept the fact that there is a mythical creature and starts to search for the real culprit behind the murder. The whole series involves drugs, peddlers, politicians, bureaucracy.

The whole series also showed the gist of patriarchy where Kasturi’s husband Hari resented her despite the fact that she is head of the police station. Hari was to some extent jealous of Kasturi for being the Head officer of the police station. 

There was a retired officer played by Ashutosh Rana who is the father-in-law of Kasturi involved in the case. The whole series keeps you engaged with the acting of protagonists as well as the side characters.

Each episode made you curious about what the next step would be. It reminds us of a web series  Pataal lok which was produced by Anushka Sharma. A thriller series was based on horror stories in a small town.

Talking about the negatives of the film, the film could have a lot more complexity, crispiness in the characters as well as the plot. The actors consistently kept the plot interesting which saved the story. 

The whole series was not boring as well as the acting of Raveena Tondon and Parambatta Chattopadhay who is a Bengali actor which showed that the Bengali cinema has a lot of talent.

Conclusion-

After watching the whole series I sincerely request you to watch for once. There were some scenes of Kasturi and her daughter which were heart-wrenching. Kasturi being a mother cooks really bad but her daughter looked as if she was the chef.  

The cinematography of the series, especially when they show mountains and forests, kind of interests us to explore Himachal. Saurabh Goswami's cinematographer, Nimish Shah, and Dipanjan Guha’s background score, Abhijit Gaonkar and Sonam Singh’s production design and editing by Yasha Ramchandani all go a long way in making Aranyak an engaging watch.

My Ratings for the series: 4 on 5 

                                                                     

Written by - Ananya Birla