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Aranyak Review: This Raveena Tandon, Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Ashutosh Rana show will keep you hooked
Aranyak also features Meghna Malik, Zakir Hussain and Indraneil Sengupta in pivotal roles.
Series name: Aranyak
Aranyak cast: Raveena Tandon, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Ashutosh Rana, Zakir Hussain, Meghna Malik
Director: Vinay Waikul
Rating: 3.5 / 5
One of the biggest prerequisites for a thriller or a crime based film/show is its ability to keep you hooked, and the Raveena Tandon, Parambrata Chattopadhyay and Ashutosh Rana starrer Aranyak doesn’t waste any time on that front. Right from the first scene it manages to absorb you into the world of Aranyak, which from the outside seems like a regular set up but from within it’s rooted with conspiracies, deceit, betrayals and puzzles. The show primarily revolves around two dichotomic cops played by Raveena (Kasturi Dogra) and Parambrata (Angad Mallik) collaborating to solve a murder mystery.
Yes, while that doesn’t sound very unique or unheard, it’s treatment and combining this with several plot lines encouraged by selfish motives of the characters makes the whole story intriguing and more importantly relatable. Latter because, we have often seen individuals struggling to balance their professional and personal lives, as well as sometimes they both overlap in each others’ space - an aspect that truly is the backbone of this Sironah (fictitious town) based story. 
In shows where several plots bloom at the same time, there is often a threat of losing focus and confusing the audience in the narrative. But kudos to showrunner Rohan Sippy, director Vinay Waikul, writer Charudutt Acharya and editors Smruti Ranjan Mishra and Rajdeep Mitra for not letting that happen with Aranyak. As the mystery grows, the makers efficiently transcend from one situation to the other only to bring them all together for a fitting hook point, which is followed by another and then the other. Something that’s extremely important for a web series format.
Moreover, the DOP team, along with the production design team, and background score (by Nimish Shah and Dipanjan Guha) has managed to encapsulate the world of Sironah, making the audience experience the beauty and the eeriness of the location. I don’t think Raveena Tandon could have asked for a better OTT debut than Aranyak. She effortlessly portrays Kasturi Dogra’s strengths and insecurities, while not losing out on the personality traits of her character. Parambrata as usual has given another terrific performance of a balanced yet broken from within cop, while Ashutosh Rana’s act as Mahadev Dogra is subtle yet impactful.
From the first six episodes that I saw, it seems there is more to Meghna Malik’s character (she plays politician Jagadamba Dhumal) than what meets the eye. But she has excelled in the portions that she had as yet. Zakir Hussain as politician and businessman Kuber Manhas and Indraneil Sengupta as his son-in-law Ravi Prashar are bang on. Now, all I hope is that the show lives up in the last two episodes to all the hype that it has created in the first six.
To sum it up, Aranyak is definitely a show that you can recommend to others. Give it a dekko.
Note: This review is based on the first six episodes of the show.
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