Smoke review: It now looks like Indian cinema has been focusing on the crime thriller genre as a trend, with another production of a crime based webseries called Smoke. It is an Indian thriller webseries released on the streaming platform, Eros Now in 2018. Directed by Neel Guha and produced by Eros Motion Picture and Humari Film Company. It has 11 episodes in total with one season. It is a depiction of the dark world of Goa.
Plot
Set in Goa, this series revolves around two drug cartels named Bhau and Moshe Barak. Smoke webseries had instances similar to Netflix’s Sacred Games and Narcos as viewer’s notice. The series showed Goa’s scenery well but it is unable to create the environment that a thriller series should have. The plot is also nothing new and interesting but it was something people have already watched at the other streaming platforms making it nothing different.
When the rival team Duman cartel states the war. Barak decides to deal with them peacefully to avoid war. Things get as complicated as they can especially for Barak. Not only he has to deal with people outside but also with his own associates who want to claim their role in his company’s trade. The show lacks emotional expressions. A few twists and turns might be surprising and will give you a reason to hold on to a few more episodes in the series. The series ended in 90 minutes long finale episode. Series is good for those whose ideal genre is a thriller.
Performance
Mandira Bedi played the role of Moshe’s wife. Mandira Bedi’s acting is appreciated she is a great actor and so is her performance. But there is still a loss of the connection. There are lots of actors assigned for the series such as Kalki Koechlin, Amit Sial, Mandira Bedi accompanied by others. Gulshan Devaiah appears to be the favorite of Bhau, brings his humorous sights in the series making it the fine moments of interest among his companion, Amit Saial Bhau’s son in this Indian webseries Smoke. Kalki Koechlin’s character Tara is a DJ, her character never seems to fully develop and remains on the outskirt of the whole story. Similarly, another character of the series, Neil Bhoopalam, who portrays mute Savio seems to be disconnected from the main storyline. Both of these characters are marginalized.
However, when it comes to performance it was very average not much expressed. There was more awkwardness between the characters than the chemistry.
Out of all the disappointment from the other character the one who stands out is Satyadeep Mishra who plays ACP Pereira, however, his character is quite redundant in a few of the episodes and struggles to develop. His performance will make you continue watching the series. Gulshan Devaiah plays a mercenary alongside his accomplice Pushkar, a character played by Amit Saial who is hostile and flaky. The Smoke Review up till now have has not been that great.
What worked and what didn’t
The plot-line of Smoke is quite interesting, a duo threatened by the new criminals. However, the performances of the actors did not quite fit, neither how the characters are written. The series seems to scatter here and there and then in the middle of the series seems to take shape however again fall out of line. Despite having excellent and fine actors lined up in the series the script did not fail to let down even their contribution. The screenplay is too slow to maintain interest and motivation within the viewers to continue watching it. The content of the series up till the 11th episode is quite stretched. It could have been finished off in the few initial ones. Even after being based on crime, the number of action scenes and encounters are abnormally less, which counts as a down-point from a series like smoke.
Smoke Review: Our take
Despite its long episodes, smokes fail to take any shape, any sort of coherence is thrown out of the window. The emotional essence of this plot is very low. The influence and impact of this series are not very great. Twist and the elements of surprise which one might expect from this series have been an average. Hence, the viewers will find it considerably difficult to connect with this series. The action is seemingly low and the major chunk of it appears at the end. It became quite challenging to stick around for the series to end.
