Dahan : Rakan Ka Rahasya (DisneyHotstar/ Horror/ Series)
Director- Vikrant Pawar, Jai Sharma
Cast – Tisca Chopra, Saurabh Shukla, Rajesh Tailang, Pankaj Sharma, Rohan Joshi, Lehar Khan, Mukesh Tiwari
Plot
IAS Avani (Tisca) seeks a posting to a strife ridden town where the superstitious locals headed by an occultist ( Saurabh Shukla), and a mining company, are at loggerheads regarding a mining project.
The corporate is eyeing a rare mineral, the govt is aiming for the development of the area and the locals are bent on protecting the mines that holds captive an evil spirit.
It’s a complex play of greed, fear, faith, science and beliefs that is further complicated by bewildering happenings and a dark past.
Someone has to solve the puzzle before it’s too late.
Analysis
Horror is a rare genre as far as Hindi Series go and when you get it along with a good cast, it was bound to get me excited. The trailer looked kick ass and intriguing.
The biggest plus point is that the story uses folk lore myths and superstitious beliefs that sets it apart from the typical paranormal stuff.While there’s a constant fear factor, it gets superseded by curiosity about the truth behind the inexplicable developments.
The rural setting and the occult practises shown lend an earthy authentic touch. There is a constant intrigue factor that has been maintained throughout the series. The mystery is intense even though you would partly decipher it and make your guesses.The atmospherics work very well because of the locations used. The story doesn’t give in to horror tropes or jump scares even though they had the opportunity.
But there are so many aspects that could have been better. The special effects and the studio scenes seemed bad. Logic was really thrown out of the window at many places.Most of the cave scenes were so bad visually and logic wise, they seemed laughable.
For the visual deficits, I can understand the budget constraints but it would have required just some more efforts to take care of the screenplay loopholes.It also conveniently leaves some unanswered questions.
The cast and their performances contribute a lot to the over all feel of the series.Any lesser actors or performances and this would have ended up looking like B grade stuff.
A special word for the star of the series ( in every way)
Tisca delivers well, one of the meatiest roles that I have seen her in. She plays the various shades to her character with aplomb and I could easily say that her performance is pivotal in bringing the story to shine.
While I am a fan of and quite liked the presence of Saurabh Shukla and Rajesh Tailang, it was actually some other actors that impressed me.
Would look forward to see more of Pankaj Sharma ( Sachet Singh ) and Rohan Joshi (Anay)
The series is far from perfect but keeping in mind that it is impossible to get it totally right in this genre, I would say that it is a very good attempt.
It is a good watch for the horror / thriller lovers.