Dahaad

episode that Sonakshi Sinha is an underrated actor, that the perception of her talent often gets masked due to the massy nature of her choices & when she does make an active choice to do understated & nuanced roles like Lootera & her part in Kalank, she really shines. Dahaad is another classic case of an actor often represented as limited in range, shining as she assimilates seamlessly with the talented duo of Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. The series that just dropped this weekend was such an engaging watch for me! A series of mysterious deaths take place across districts of Rajasthan, only for the Mandava police station to actively pursue the case, create a pattern and understand that a really twisted individual is behind such gruesome acts. I do agree with the criticism of the series that it could have been wrapped up under 6 episodes and that the last series of events almost seemed like a quick fix, a collaborative effort to wrap up the proceedings in the last episode but I also would like to reiterate that some of the criticism the film is getting is in many cases misplaced. I knew with a Reema Kagti written project like Talaash, in my opinion one of the most underrated thrillers from Hindi Cinema, the core focus was not understanding the accident of Arman Kapoor and the sequence of events that eventually lead him to Rosie but it was an attempt at portraying humans dealing with loss & how the journey coping with that missing piece manifests in different ways! Similarly Dahaad is not about the surface, which is the particulars of the investigation, the motivation or Vijay Varma’s demonic performance but it is the several themes the series sheds light upon. The incessant pressure and need in making women feel that they are incomplete without a companion, how the conditioning of women of putting marriage on a pedestal makes them desperate for the slightest validation, in feeling like a liability in their own household, how the flicker of attention from a man is enough & totally clouds their judgement of what they want, just for the sake of silencing the noise. This is exceptionally portrayed in a scene where Sonakshi confronts her own mother. Gulshan Devaiah’s character Devi Laal Singh is a dream for his children, he has an open conversation about sex with his son, always validates and stands in his daughters corner, urging her to lead an independent and individual journey, in not having to conform but stand on her own two feet. The fear of Sohum Shah in seeing the misery with the several cases they investigate, what really is the point of introducing a young child to a world where there is only animals masked as humans. These relationships are the soul of Dahaad that really make it shine. Vijay Varma j just like Dalrings puts forth another stellar act, making me think that if he ever does a romantic film, I just won’t trust him! That sinister smile, the ease with which he breaks the initial awkwardness with opposite sex, its creepy to say the least, making me really think the last few weeks in the streaming space for indian cinema really has been entertaining and engaging, much more than the movie outings we have had since the last few weeks, that’s for sure!