Aarya

Disney+HOTSTAR ORIGINAL

9 episodes

*ing: Sushmita Sen, Chandrachur Singh, Sikander Kher, Namit Das and Jayant Kriplani 

Rated: 6.5/10

Sushmita Sen aces this crime family drama with finesse, power and ownership of the role of Aarya Sarin, the daughter of a retired don and the loving wife of an otherwise good-hearted man who runs an illegal drugs business through his pharmaceutical company.

This series in its original form was a Dutch rage, but Aarya would have to fight for eyeballs, considering OTT platforms have got into the habit of Big Friday releases with growing regularity, thanks to COVID-19 closures.

Had it not been for the sterling performance of the ever beautiful Sushmita, Aarya would have been notches lower in public imagination. She is not just chiselled in her body frame but also as the simple yet doughty Aarya who gets sucked into the business despite not wanting to. As a mother of three, very beautifully characterised children, she is a story of responsibility which she takes seriously enough to get her viewers on her side. Her performance all through the nine episodes is so strong and monopolising that you forget she is back on the screen after a decade long hiatus.

What eats into her presence somewhat is the creator Ram Madhvani’s failure to build moments, keep them short and not let the thriller sag in places. Each episode is longer than a short film, around an hour, and 12 of them put together makes you feel the need to hire an editor with a keen clip on wastage.

Though there are many characters populating this web series, and many do stand out in their cameos, Sikander Kher as an enigmatic hatchet man for her father, emits screen presence. So, it is almost criminal for the director to have used him as a reserve spare part when he could have added to the grilling sequences with more of a job to do.

Though it was also a comeback for Chandrachur Singh, he is dismissed too soon into peripherals despite him being as tasteful as he was in Maachis all those decades ago, but for the surprising flab he has gathered in the intervening years.

As crime family dramas go Aarya is there but not there on top, Also, screen time could have been cut and episodes reduced to manageable time, an hour being too long to switch to the next one in continuity.

The no-spoiler protocol takes one away from revealing anything about the story but suffice it to say, there is a ploy for Season 2 which probably would need fresh thinking.

The music powered by old Hindi songs, and some fusion music around the Bhagwat Geeta, is both soothing, nostalgic and mesmerising.

Meanwhile, Sushmita is a delight to be with, after such a long time. And yes, she is as arresting as usual.