Janaawar Review: Slow, Neat Thriller With a Message

BOTTOM LINE
Slow, Neat Thriller With a Message

PLATFORM
ZEE5

RUNTIME
3Hrs (7 episodes)

What Is the Show Janaawar About?

Police officer Hemant’s week off is cancelled due to two urgent cases: the disappearance of MLA Jagtap’s brother, Sarju, and a gold theft. A mutilated corpse is found, forcing a desperate search for the missing head. Suspects are arrested, beaten, and confess, but the mystery deepens. The trail shockingly leads to Hemant’s ally, whose confession reveals more layers to the crime.

Performances

Going beyond his flamboyant and extroverted appearances, Bhuvan Arora makes heads turn with a subtle, restrained performance, unveiling the many layers within the character gradually and demonstrating impressive control over his dialogues and histrionics. Deekshha Sonalkar Tham, playing his on-screen wife, depicts flashes of enthusiasm, though the role limits her scope to do more.

Badrul Islam is a revelation as Kailash, changing his contours efficiently as per the story. Atul Kale is okay as the typical hot-headed cop, while Bhuvan’s on-screen counterparts – Vaibhav Yashvir, Eshika Dey, Vinod Suryavanshi, Amit Sharma – deliver the goods within the scope of their roles.

Analysis

Janaawar: The Beast Within, ZEE5’s crime thriller, directed by Shachindra Vats, set in the hinterlands of North India, begins like any other tale that adheres to the norms of the genre. There is a series of murders within a village and a theft. Pressure mounts on the cops to close the case at the earliest; the suspects are tracked down till they provide hints. A shocking twist reveals that the culprit was always within their reach.

There’s no pretence on the part of the creators to position Janaawar as a grand thriller with any larger-than-life mystery. The filmmaker intentionally doesn’t raise the stakes, plants clues about the culprit, the motive and the rot within the village quite suggestively, right from the beginning. As the title says, the plague is within the souls; the surprises are also not visualised as pathbreaking reveals.

SI Hemant Kumar, who lives with his wife Garima and their newborn, is a righteous officer, but not your typical macho cop. Even as the colleagues around him use custodial torture loosely to extract any clues about the suspects in cases, Hemant has his way of treating the accused with dignity, doing enough to win their trust. He treats his job with a rare empathy, which eventually helps his case.

Janaawar invests immensely in the smaller moments to establish the power hierarchy in the region, the everyday casteism that dictates the way a villager leads his/her life. The show wants us to observe the way its pivotal characters take their caste privilege for granted and indicates why Hemant doesn’t make the same mistake, resisting indulgence in any moral sermons in the process.

A handful of perfunctory scenes showcase the politics within the police force too. More than the systemic issues, what strikes a chord is the way it lays bare the need for a human touch to their work; it’s, after all, people the officers work with. The treatment is intentionally slow-burn, it wants the viewer to experience the social climate under which the crimes are committed and uses it to find answers.

Though underplayed, it is evident that Hemant’s personal life (who belongs to a marginalised community and elopes with his love interest for marriage) dictates his humanitarian approach. While the show’s micro-detailing generally keeps a viewer interested, it takes its own sweet time to find its mojo. An element of restlessness creeps into the middle episodes, though the runtime is quite helpful.

The final episodes help Janaawar stand apart from other thrillers set in similar backdrops. The culprit admits to the crimes, but is particular about whom he reveals it to (i.e. Hemant). The cop and the accused converse over a lake, have chai (against the wishes of the superiors), and you notice the storyteller’s genuine intention to understand the perpetrator’s mind before giving him labels.

As Janaawar ends and the culprit is caught, it doesn’t have any messiahs who make pompous statements. The makers prefer a gentle, inward approach to the premise and let the viewer decode the rest. Within a familiar premise around the manhunt for a serial killer in a village, the series engagingly presents uncomfortable truths, questions that haunt us much beyond its 3-hour runtime.

Music and Other Departments?

Sreejith Edavana’s score has enough momentum to complement the drama in the proceedings, even though it doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary. Rahul Nayak’s wintery, relatively muted colour palette gives the show an edge with the visuals. The editing choices, by the director Shachindra Vats himself, are efficient sans any major narrative jerks, hiccups. Sonalii Gupta’s dialogues provide a rootedness to the backdrop while establishing its social divisions.

Highlights?

Socially relevant story

Unique treatment

Characterisation, dialogues, performances

Drawbacks?

Slow to start, frustrating middle portions

Template remains predictable, no major surprises

Did I Enjoy It?

Mostly, yes

Will You Recommend It?

If you don’t mind a slow-burn thriller with some social commentary

Janaawar Zee5 Web Series Review by M9