“The moral dilemma is to make peace with the unacceptable” May Sarton
First up, RD Burman is back in popular discourse. Even people who haven’t heard the song ‘Bade Achche Lagte Hai’ sung by Amit Kumar will starting humming this song while they are by themselves or in a romantic mood for sure! This is just one of the coolest aspects of Aarya produced by Endemolshine and created by Ram Madhvani – ad guru and director of Neerja.
But hey, that’s not even the most interesting part!
So there are more than one or two things going on in the favour of Aarya –
It is set in the backdrop of a Rajput family in Rajasthan.
It is a crime drama in the same mold as a Narcos – the writers and directors have been able to successfully transpose the story of a family engaged in organized crime. The operating word here is family. The plot and the relationship dynamics such as father-daughter relationship, father-son relationship, the sisterhood of siblings and teenagers and kids affected by crimes are very well defined and this works because our lives and philosophies revolve around the family.
The recurring theme running through the length of this 9-episode web series is the ethical and moral dilemmas associated with crime. If in Mahabharatha, the dilemma is about the Pandavas waging a war against the Kauravas, here it is a battle to deal with the unacceptable both in terms of loss of a life and the aftermath.
The best thing about this series is Sushmita Sen without an iota of doubt. She lives and breathes Aarya Sareen. The series is about how the world turns upside down for her when her husband is gunned down by an assailant. This is a thriller with an undercurrent of musings on how people deal with grief in their own ways. It also shows why women are at the top of the food chain and why women are portrayed as goddesses – in this case a domestic goddess becomes somebody else altogether when circumstances force her hands.
Sushmita, after a long hiatus, gets a role that does complete justice to her talent. I have always felt that she’s one actress who never got her due – she has always been that tall heroine who the Peter Dinklages of Bollywood didn’t want to work with. They feared she would look down upon them for their lack of height, literally!
If Breaking Bad was about a wall flower of a Chemistry teacher extracting more out of his knowledge and getting more out of life in a peculiar situation, Aarya is about a wife and mother dealing with life after the death of a husband whose decisions cost him dear.
The Rajasthan havelis are opulent, the cars swanky and the haute couture in this movie could start a trend on its own as well.
Once again, this is a relevant series in the Indian context in that a good actress and personality in the public sphere gets a role worth her talent. This would have been unimaginable five years back. All thanks to the OTT channels, many forgotten stars are making a comeback on these channels. And Chandrachur Singh won’t be the last of them!
As Krishna says in Bhagavat Gita, “Fulfill your Kshatriya duty to uphold dharma through selfless action.” This is what Sushmita’s character Aarya Sareen does because it’s not really good vs evil. The dharma here is evil vs lesser evil.
Watch this thriller of a series on Hotstar Premium for Sushmita Sen, Chandrachur Singh, Namit Das, Maya Sarao, Sikhander Kher and the rest of the amazing cast. A special mention goes to the child actors – what an awesome bunch of talent!
And Bade Achche Lagte Hai is still on my lips!
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