Undekhi

SonyLiv Original

Episodes: 10

*ing: Harsh Chhaya, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Ankur Rathee, Anchal Singh, Abhishek Chauhan and others

Rated: 9/10

The more the virus is forcing you to stay home, the more you are marvelling at some stunning content emerging from OTT platforms, Undekhi being the latest thriller in this altered entertainment environment.

Raw, aggressive, intense, intriguing and fleshed out with the minutest of details of the story and its characters, this Original lives it up in style. Created by Siddharth Sengupta, Undekhi unplugs a stinging, action-packed story emanating from a resort wedding in Manali where a dancer is shot in cold blood with no regrets in any of the gun-toting, power drunk, alcohol doused gentry led by the ruthless adopted owner Rinku (brilliantly played by Surya Sharma) to kick scruples in the butt as hard as you would be taught to do the same to wrongdoing in a missionary school.

Harsh Chhaya, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Ankur Rathee, Anchal Singh, Abhishek Chauhan, Ayn Zoya, Apeksha Porwal and Sayandeep Sen are not names you would remember in a hurry but after their measured performances in Undekhi you would like to do a quick roll call.

The 10 episodes keep you in the grip without really playing to the gallery in an in-your-face way. Along the way, the faulty lifestyle, the blatant immorality, the extreme insensitivity or should we say the animalistic mindsets of an upper class Punjabi business family and its cohorts are laid bare with maximum impact and precision. Abuse, assault and sex, the oiling of the system, an innately corrupt police force, the fall of grace of many citadels of honesty — it is all there to leave you heaving in impact. Also, there is a story to reckon with and that's quite delightfully in-your-face, giving meat to the series.

Besides Surya Kumar, Debyendu Bhattacharya as the seasoned DSP and Apekha Porwal as the tribal girl being hunted down lead the list of stellar performances, not to mention Harsh Chhaya who lives it up as a debauched, abusive motormouth patriarch of the family which dotes on its sleazy, hazy and totally anti-social existence.

The depiction of our society by Sengupta shows up the place of women in our society, be it the trophy wives of the rich and the powerful, or a daughter of the forgotten and the powerless. Injustice, and the acceptance of it by and large not just by the perpetrators and the victims but also by the media, churns up a scenario where you feel the need for purge.

Well, it is such raw depiction that thrills and kills in this gem of a series punctuating a space where a lot of intrigue has been fighting for a pedestal.