Gripping true crime drama

Kabir Singh Bhandari

Raakh is a crime thriller based in the late 1970s, inspired by the infamous Ranga-Billa case. They were the duo behind the kidnapping and murder of siblings Geeta and Sanjay in Delhi in 1978.

Actors’ performances

Ali Fazal’s rookie cop is upright, someone dedicated to giving his best and delivering, but facing opposition from the age-old practices of politicians wanting quick results without understanding ground realities.

Rakesh Bedi is his father whose claim to fame is his mutton curry. His emotional side and the dialogues that go with it, reflecting a worldly reality, will connect with both fathers and sons.

Dibyendu Bhattacharya (SP Indranil Hajra) accurately shows how a senior police officer would carry out a demotion without it even sounding like one.

Now for the two killers. Akash Makhija (Babu) is irreplaceable in showing his descent into the darkest of places. It is in his eyes that you spot the madness at times. On the other hand, there is Ramandeep Yadav (Rajjo), a most gullible character. His most distinct feature in magnifying his initial innocence is his thin voice. Sonali Bendre shows us the other side of grief, when a mother goes into so much shock about losing her children that she refuses to accept reality.

Aamir Bashir, as the father, an army man, is stellar. Anshul Chauhan plays a committed reporter, and fortunately one who is not annoying when being pushy about her reporting. A special mention must definitely be made of Mukund Pal, who shows the art form of performing as a half-man, half-woman singer in a shady Delhi bar.

FPJ Verdict

Raakh is not an easy watch. But here’s what director Prosit Roy and the rest of the creative team need to be congratulated for, and that too as loudly as possible: showing us a web series based on an incident involving rape and not showing us the act of rape on screen, following the same format that the first season of Delhi Crime did. This is something we severely need in Bollywood to stop the sensationalism and overuse of the depiction of rape, which is not only extremely disturbing but also unnecessary a lot of the time, something that was unfortunately overdone in the 1980s and 1990s.

OTT REVIEW

Title: Raakh

Director: Prosit Roy

Cast: Ali Fazal, Sonali Bendre, Aamir Bashir 

and Rakesh Bedi

Where: Prime Video

Rating: HHHH