ARANYAK - V View Reviews #45

Ravishing Raveena Tandon is the headline of the series. She is at the front and centre of Aranyak. Along with her, the other central character is Parambrata Chatterjee as Angad. They both dominate the screen time. They both play the role of a cop with contrasting personalities, who need to work together on a case. Raveena Tandon as Kasturi is a local, friendly neighbourhood policewoman who knows the people and the place very well. Her procedure of handling cases is from the old school but effective, on the other hand, Angad is a city-bred cop with sophisticated crime-solving skills. He is shown to have come out to the hills after a terrible personal tragedy. They both make a solid pair. Their equation is maturely handled by the writer.

The story is beautifully written. It sets in a small fictional town of Sironah in Himachal Pradesh. A young French girl Amiee who is on a holiday trip here is found raped and hanged on a tree in the forest. There were claw marks on her throat. The whole town is disturbed by this horrific crime. This is not the first case, people were reminded of the painful memories from the past, almost two decades back, similar incidents used to happen. The townsfolk blamed the killing on the mythical creature 'Nartendua,' half man and half leopard.

SHO Kasturi(Raveena Tando ) who is on her last day at work before a year-long Sabbatical wants to take this case but is replaced by Angad. He has already taken command of the post and begins the investigation with an open mind, and in his way.  Kasturi wanted to go on leave to focus on the fragile situation at home,  to save her marriage, to help her daughter pass the IIT entrance exam.She changed her priority as soon as this case emerged. She is shown to be clumsy in the kitchen but on the dot when it comes to her cop duties. She withdraws her  leave and joins the duty. This unlikely pair of Angad and Kasturi soon forms a strong team after a couple of clashes. They soon understand that there is a bigger conspiracy, deep secrets, webs of lies and deceit. They suspected Jagdamba, her son, young tourist guide, Kuber Manhas, his hyper daughter, his son in law, Amiee's mother Julie and others. Everyone seems to be hiding secrets, so, all of them were in the frame of suspicion. The writer Charudutta Acharya opened too many folders. Multiple characters, their intertwined lives, frequent twists kept the audience glued to their seat. Apart from the storyline, the exquisite shooting locations with a wintery small town , snow-capped mountain deep dark woods, the serpentine path gives the desired effect for a jungle-based thriller.

The plot is not new. It appears very similar to the plot of 'Mare Of East town'..staring Kate Winslet..but the theme and the character development are handled differently. It looked similar to that of 'Candy' too, released few months back. It's binge worthy as the writer and the director Vinay Waikul spins this gripping tale until the very end of the series. The other highlight is  Kasturi's bond with her father in law Mahadev Dogra(Ashutosh Rana)who is now retired and have fading memory. He is greatly respected by the members of the police force in that area. He passionately follows this case and  leaves no stone unturned to solve the mystery. 

Apart from the central characters, the secondary characters too are wonderfully developed. Veteran actors like Zakir Hussain, Vivek Madan, Meghna Malik is the strength of the series. Young actors like

 Wishveash  Sharkhali, Anna Ador, Taneesha Joshi give their noteworthy performances.

The editing by Yash Ramchandani, cinematography by Saurab Goswami, production design by Abhijit Gaonkar and Sonam Singh are all apt. The tensed background score by Nimish Shah and Dipanjan Guha gives the impressionable feel of the show. The total run time of the show is 5 hours and 30 minutes approximately and during that period it successfully weaves all the threads of police procedure, jungle-based horror stories, Angad and Kasturi's personal life, politicians, bureaucrat, drug peddlers etc. This suspenseful, fictional series borrows its title from a famous Bengali novel by Bibhuti Bhushan Bandhopadya means 'of Jungle'.

Directed by Vinayak Waikul, this gripping thriller's second season might be on the card.

It's streaming on Netflix.