Inside Edge and Bowled!
I have been a voracious consumer of international Television series for the past few years. It all started as a benign pastime when I stumbled on the sitcoms like HIMYM, BBT, TAHM. Soon I was devouring them as their maverick characters became an unceasing source of irresistible cheeky lines, which can come in quite handy if you were in a mood to show off in front of your friends/colleagues/that-broad-you-met-online. This continued for a while before the episodes began appearing repetitive and to have seemingly lost their charm. That is when I switched to some serious drama with production quality that could intimidate any top rated movie in the world. The likes of Breaking Bad, GoT, Narcos, just kept me yearning for more. Ever since, the list is growing like Hanuman’s tail.
Naturally then, when Amazon announced their first Indian production, Inside Edge, I was keen on watching it. There have hardly been any Indian shows of repute lately, except may for a Sarabhai.. here and a Permanent Roommates there. But with Amazon getting its skin in the game, finally there would be a world class drama series from India, I thought. Sure enough, the first episode proved that the production quality is slick, the rhythm is pacy, unlike other Indian shows. However, unfortunately that’s where the good things end and if the first episode is anything to go by then I feel nothing but more than a little underwhelmed.
The plot predictably revolves around things India is very obsessed about — cricket, bollywood and yes, the underworld. To be sure, that is not the Achilles heel here, IMO. It is the characters and their depiction is. Every character tries hard to prove himself to be an insufferable moron. The lines they spit out remind you of Mithun Chakrobarthy movies but in English. Then there are such awful scenes, so many of them. Imagine this, in the middle of a run chase, the captain and the coach don’t know the whereabouts of their apparent star batsman who’s, of course, due in next. Somewhere else in the stadium he’s watching the match while bonking a cheer-girl and snorting coke. Yes, in the midst of a freaking match which he’d go on to win for his team but only after telling his team mate, before going into bat, ‘main protection nahi pahenta’, with utter smugness!
Then there is Vivek Oberoi! He plays the devil in disguise and that cunningly saves damsel in distress played by Rich Chadha, by investing her team, only to cause her more distress. It’s so incredible to see that he hasn’t lost one bit of his face-twitching, overacting skills even after fifteen years we first saw him do it in Company. He’s always with a drink in his hand and tries very hard to appear intimidating while mouthing inane lines like — ‘it’s such a pleasure to talk to a intelligent lady’, ‘I haven’t done anything…… yet!’, ‘I am the owner, you are my property’, et al. Honestly, it is this caricature of a villain, who’s kinda the main character in the whole scheme of things, is the biggest disappointment so far for me.
There are plenty of other assorted cliches thrown in too. There’s the team’s coach, who has quit smoking recently but still craves for it; there’s the innocent rookie from the heartland who’s reminded of his caste and class by the ostensibly beer-drinking-brahmin senior player in the team. There’s even that scene of the rookie practicing to bowl with a single stump under flood lights, while the star batsman smokes a joint sitting in a corner of the stadium, looking. And since this is a modern India show there is a generous dose of profanity — both English and Hindi variety.
The saving grace, however, are the female characters. The inimitable Richa Chadha, of Gangs of Wasseypur fame, does a decent job playing Zarina Malik — the co-owner of the cricket team which had run into financial rough weather. She doesn’t try hard and mostly appears natural. Then there is the bespectacled team analyst, also sister to the star batsman, who seems to know a LOT about cricket and cricketers, because it’s her job to know. The sets and locales are quite good and cinematography is nice too with the camera work typical of a sports drama.
But in the end I have to say episode one has been sort of let down for me. I may still end up watching the entire season but I don’t have high hopes from it anymore. To borrow an Cricket analogy the show seems to have been bowled off the Inside Edge.
