BOTTOM LINE
Loses Steam After a Good Start
PLATFORM
NETFLIX
RUNTIME
320 Minutes (7 Episodes)
What Is the Film About?
An honest Indian Customs team at Mumbai Airport battles a global syndicate. Led by Superintendent Arjun Meena (Emraan Hashmi), the squad tracks sophisticated smuggling routes involving gold, drugs, and exotic animals across Milan, Bangkok, and Addis Ababa. How far do they go to outsmart the dangerous kingpin, Bada Chaudhary (Sharad Kelkar)?
Performances
Emraan Hashmi is as reliable as ever playing an honest customs officer, but he’s taking the safer route with his choices – none of his recent projects have truly challenged him as a performer, merely capitalising on his popularity. Sharad Kelkar is wasted as a toothless villain, who keeps doing the most obvious stuff you’d expect out of a bad guy. In a few scenes, though, he gives it some groundedness.
Among the other actors, Anurag Sinha impresses the most and has the right gait and body language to essay his role (as a superior to Arjun Meena). Amruta Khanvilkar displays some spunk in the shoes of Mitali Kamath, while Zoya Afroz, Virendra Saxena and Jameel Khan pass muster with their neat portrayals.
Analysis
Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web is a show you typically expect from Neeraj Pandey. Men (and the occasional woman) in uniform, who take their professional integrity seriously, not only battle the external villain, but also confront internal corruption. It is a black and white world – their conscience is clear and needs no validation. The righteous officers keep getting tested at every turn and end up on the winning side.
Netflix’s latest show operates in the muddy world of customs officers at airports, petty criminals and gangsters and provides you a fair idea of their eventful daily routines, often living on the edge, not knowing whom to trust/suspect. Arjun Meena’s spotless sincerity is a regular cause for trouble at work. Even if he bends rules, it’s for a bigger purpose and his colleagues.
The hero has a staple best friend, Ravinder, who’s made to be an example to suggest the high-risk nature of their jobs. A rare female colleague, Mitali Kamath (the independent woman, who’s unsurprisingly a single mother), is so meticulous with her job that she can make out even if the vegetable seller is offering her the right weight just by holding a bag.
Arjun ends up meeting the love of his life, an air hostess, Priya, at work, who turns an informant and helps him unveil the mastermind behind the illicit trade across countries – Bada Chaudhary. The show is interesting when it captures the mundanity in a customs officer’s life – how they identify a suspect from an average traveller and trace everything from gold to exotic animals, luxury goods.
The world-building in both the camps – the officers and the criminals – takes centre-stage in the show. You repeatedly get to know why Arjun Meena is the pick of the lot, how he’s suave, super-intelligent and composed while handling the underbelly of the crime world. Even when plans don’t work, he proves to be a gentleman. After a point, you wonder why he hasn’t been granted sainthood yet.
There’s reasonable exuberance in the storytelling while Taskaree takes off – it feels like an adventure where you don’t know what to expect (before the usual Neeraj Pandey formula kicks in). The screenplay is deceptively smart – if you’ve figured out the creator’s previous works, you would know he has a way to keep the proceedings looking busy with all the urgency – it’s a skill you can’t deny.
With time, it just becomes a morality story – good guy vs the evil guy. The evil guy Bada Chaudhary showcases all his might to overwhelm the officers, gives them soft warnings, tempts them with irresistible offers, negotiates with the moles about the deals and kills a few. The specific detailing about the backdrop is impressive, but the usual formula kills the joy of the viewing experience.
An established storyteller like Neeraj Pandey can afford to play safe and stick to his strengths, but it’s high time he gives an upgrade to his staple mix – bureaucracy, uniforms, corrupt officers, politics and criminals – and simply not rehash his own works and undermine his worth. Taskaree is a strictly formulaic fare set in a new backdrop – the tricks are as old as the hills.
Music and Other Departments?
Advait Nemlekar’s score is slick and stylish, but owing to the redundancy in the writing, fails to make a resounding impact. The cinematography, by Sudheer Palsane and Arvind Singh, is among the high points of the show on the technical front, lending it a classy, cool aesthetic that Neeraj Pandey tried to achieve. The production design and the detailing in the backdrop compensate for the shallow plot at times.
Highlights?
Fresh backdrop
Good detailing
Technically strong product
Drawbacks?
Formulaic writing
Loses momentum after a good start
No emotional connection at all
Did I Enjoy It?
Only in the initial episodes
Will You Recommend It?
Only if you want a watered-down version of Neeraj Pandey’s best works
Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web Netflix Series Review by M9
