Try this: Sarju, a member of a protected tribe from India, arrows a notorious business tycoon, a grasshopper, while traveling abroad in a train with huge sealed tempered glass windows. kill with Such inexplicable and inexplicable events form the heart of his series “Aar Ya Paar” Web.
This web series primarily deals with what happens when corporate greed becomes personally motivated and desperate to devour the natural resources of protected areas. It was first showcased in ‘Avatar’. But like many good series, ‘Aar Ya Paar’ departs with noble intentions but quickly spirals into the usual Bollywood revenge drama. The protected tribes, who they really are, and the larger point of exploitation of natural resources remain just background.
Sarju (Aditya Rawal) belongs to a tribe deliberately isolated from the ‘other’ or ‘outside’ world. However, Bhatta’s (Ashish Vidyarthi) company finds that the tribe is sitting in a uranium gold mine. The company therefore ropes in Dr. Sanmitra (Patrale Kapor) who helps them win the trust of the tribesmen. Somewhere in the story comes Prappa (Diviendu Bhattacharya), a contract killer on an eternal hunt for a sniper, and finds Sarju fit for the job. Meanwhile, when Grasshopper finds he cannot mine uranium, he kills many tribesmen, including Sarju’s father. In the present Prappa finds Sarju easy to adapt due to his hidden motives.
The main problem lies in the stories by Anhata Menon, Umesh Padalkar, and Sidharth Sengupta. It’s too weak, too simplistic, and largely conforms to tribal stereotypical depictions.It depicts a world in black and white. The tribe wears sack-like clothing, speaks a complete and easily understood dialect of Hindi, is a skilled marksman, and is a pro who understands medicinal plants and animals to an extent that they can treat cancers that even modern medicine cannot. It’s too superficial, and no effort has even been made to scratch this surface. It pretty much conforms to the usual revenge drama about wanting revenge for his father’s murder at all costs.
The son of the multi-talented Paresh Rawal, Aditya is mostly perfunctory when it comes to performance. Although he is the main character, his character is not well drawn. So the actors who play the next two main characters, Ashish Vidyarthi and Diviendu Bhattacharya, tower above all with their villains. In fact, Dibyendu has emerged as an instant-to-money actor when it comes to character roles in OTT. Patralekhaa is compelling and the series ends with ample hints of her interesting backstory.
“Aar Ya Paar” offers gorgeous shots of dense forests and waterfalls. But it lacks a solid story. Directed by Glen Barretto, Ankush Mohla, and Neel Guha, the series runs on Disney+Hotstar.
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