Director: Created and co-directed by Gopi Puthran, alongside Manan Rawat
Star Cast: Vaani Kapoor, Vaibhav Raj Gupta, Surveen Chawla, Raghubir Yadav, and Shriya Pilgaonkar in key roles.
Recently while surfing the OTT for the content watch, I stumbled upon the Netflix series called ‘The Mandala Murders’ that is based on a novel titled ‘ The Butcher of Banaraz’ by Mahendra Jakhar. An occult drama is a mixture of mythological beliefs, superstition, suspense, thriller and action.
Introduction- The story is based in the village of a Charandaspur that is cult for superstition beliefs and ideologies. The women of that village tend to worship some occult God and fight the common religious believers to get it into power through brutality and unnatural processes. The ancestral fight of forming the occult cult is passed onto generations where regality and devotions are challenged by the ethical norms of the law and order.
Script– The script is engaging and keeps the audience glued to the story though the pace differs in every episode. The director has tried to keep all the emotions intact whether it is romance, thriller, suspense, action, agression, beliefs and contradictions. The director has tried to keep the essence of the book alive thoguh jumping from past to presence breaks its continuity. There are certain loopholes which makes the viewers question the sequence while watching the series.
Performance – OTT has made it easy for the new talents and the characters to explore their talents and prove their metal on the smaller screen. In this series, the characters have totally justified their roles through amazing performances. Whether it is Surveen Chawla in the hierarchial role of grand daughter from regal family or Vani Kapoor playing an intelligent police office, experienced pujari or Doctor, all have given their best.
Visual appeal- Though the story holds interest due to it’s suspense and thriller stroyline but with the brutality and butcherness involved it is not visually appealing to the eyes. The humans have been chopped like vegetables and the concept of getting vardaan(something against nature) by sacrificing their thumb even makes it more annoying. The locations spotted and shot are apt to the storyline.
A learner at heart with 13 years of experience and still growing. From field experience to academic ambience, people interaction and exploring new ideas have been my area of interest and has proved to be stepping stone towards my achievements. Creativity is my core skill, be that vision to see the world or to work towards something aesthetically, creativity exists in everything. I am an academician by profession and the creativity is my passion.
