Avrodh Review: A photo from the web series. (Image courtesy: Youtube)
Throw away: Amit Sadh, Darshan Kumaar, Madhurima Tuli, Neeraj Kabi, Anil George
Director: Raj Acharya
Evaluation: 2 stars (out of 5)
The dust has barely settled on a cinematic testimony to a recent military success recorded by the Indian military (Uri: The surgical strike, published January 2019). We now have another staging filmed, this time in the form of a web series, which gives us more of the same.
Avrodh: the inner seat, a nine-episode SonyLIV series, makes no attempt to camouflage its intention, which is to congratulate and continue an agenda-serving narrative about a hip-pulling so-called New India.
The show is put on with sufficient skill, but nuance is not its strong point. It regurgitates what we already know and does it in a way that leaves no room for serious thought and discussion. The story of the surgical strike is changed slightly in hopes of creating space for maneuver. But the changes fail to dispel an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.
The actors are hampered by a terribly mechanical narrative. The show, which rightly highlights the value of the soldiers who avenged Uri’s terrorist attack four years ago, is riddled with elevated dialogue and distended situations where the characters seem to be addressing the audience rather than to each other.
Avrodh takes its own time to gain momentum. He is born into a kind of life only in the penultimate episode. The final act is passable. The epilogue, intended to elucidate the political outcome of the surgical strike, is extremely laborious. The rest of the series is squarely stuck in war talks, military incentive talks, terrorist plots, and skirmishes on the ground. Hackneyed as hell!
Adapted for the screen of Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh’s book ‘The most fearless India‘, the show directed by Raj Acharya is scripted by Harmanjeet Singha, Sudeep Nigam, Abhishek Chatterjee and Aadhar Khurana. It covers roughly the same ground as Uri: The surgical strike done with Vicky Kaushal leading the charge with heaps of Josh.
There’s not the same exuberance here, although lead actor Amit Sadh, solid throughout, gives the effort its best shot. There are many other issues in this monotonous series. It allows shameless flyers to take precedence over storytelling.
Defense and security establishment officials Fusty speak in abundance as the soldiers prepare for a crucial life-or-death sortie into unknown and high-risk terrain. We know exactly how this is all going to end. So the show wants us to invest more in the process than in the actual mission. It’s such a boring exercise that it could cure insomniacs.
The terrorists are eliminated in a few routine army raids in Kashmir led by a major (Darshan Kumaar) before Avrodh looks into the hate speech of a Punjabi speaking king of terrorism (Anil George) and the building up an anti-terrorist crack unit under another inflexible major (Amit Sadh, who only enters the scene at the end of the fourth episode) for an assault through enemy lines.
The series also looks at the metamorphosis of a journalist (played by Madhurima Tuli). A fearless new dog when we first meet her, she mutates into a docile and compliant patriot. For good measure, the lady, despite losing her job, sings: “Desh ke upar kuch nahi (There is nothing above the nation). “
Audiences have been treated in recent years with a host of military dramas and spy thrillers. Not only do the majority of these shows and movies have nothing new to offer, but they give actors, as serious as they are, little leeway to explore real emotions and delve into larger questions about the issue. war and its repercussions.
“War is not cheap, but the human cost is the highest,” says a character in Avrodh. But it is too little too late after the chest thrusts and the tapping which precede, accompany and follow the mission.
Why should the public be interested in a detailed summary of the circumstances surrounding the 2016 terrorist attack on Uri military base and the subsequent surgical strike on a terrorist hideout in occupied Pak Kashmir? Don’t we already have the details coming out of our ears? This is just another dishonest pretext to drive a particular line of thought into our heads.
Amit Sadh and Darshan Kumaar are sure to get up. However, with little to play for in terms of psychological novelty, the duo are struggling to save the series. And, of course, it’s great to watch characters like Neeraj Kabi, Anil George, and Arif Zakaria (underused here) on screen.
Neeraj Kabi, playing the role of National Security Advisor (NSA), is a poise embodied even when uttering the most absurd lines. But even he cannot avoid sinking into awkwardness. In one conversation, her character asks a TV chief to “put a leash on” a troublesome field reporter.
The Indian army certainly does not need a bloated job. Our soldiers put their lives on the line every day. Our politicians don’t. This is because they need storytellers who are flexible enough to choose practical chapters and go to town with them. On the screen, it makes a bore that crashes.
The prime minister, tried on by veteran actor Vikram Gokhale, remains anonymous to Avrodh. “I am not in politics to achieve an ambition but to serve the people,” he said in one scene. It is not known what this statement has to do with the military operation of this show.
The NSA adds: “Yeh, regular politician of the Prime Minister Nahi Hai.” If you still don’t get the hang of it, the Prime Minister offers a more elaborate explanation: “PM ki kursi pe baithne ke baad maine iss desh ke logon se apne mann ki ek baat kahi thhi – hum vaado pe nahi iraado pe kaam karenge“The line separating a war thriller from a political tract has been crossed.
The value of Indian spies and soldiers, threats posed by militants and provocations across the border – which obviously cannot be denied – have become fodder for fiction. When presented without an ounce of new insight, it can only be an exercise in futility.
Avrodh: the inner seat wants to detonate all weapons but is disappointed with obsolete ammunition. He’s flattened by a shootout of tired tropes.
(Avrodh: The Siege Within airs on SonyLIV)
