Murshid (Season 1)
Introduction
Murshid will go down as one of the important lessons of cinema with regard to casting. And by casting, I do not mean the main principal characters but characters around them that often aren’t given enough credit for the final product. But in this rare occurence, the downfall of this series (and ofcourse there are other flaws too) would be attributed to them. This is because the show Mushid has so many characters at its disposal that just turn up mouth dialogues and leave. There is a reason casting directors like Mukesh Chhabra are given important, just because of the immaculate work that is done by them. But should a show not have a budget to afford a casting director (or it chose not to, unsure about it), it doesn’t mean that any Tom, Dick or Harry can be cast in roles which are best termed as ‘side’ characters (for a lack of a better word). These members of the secondary and tertiary cast are so important at creating the ambience of a drama, particularly here when it is the gangster genre that needs an extended set of emotions to sustain the narrative. This is also not to say that the narrative is perfect, in fact it is dated too but with a stronger collective performance, I did see the show being ending up as watchable at the very least. Atlast, Murshid falls well short of it and how!
Story & Screenplay
The structure of the show Murshid is simple. A quick setup that would double up as the character trait of the protagonist, even as he is shown to gun down a man at a local cafe after a deal has gone wrong. The drama cuts to the current timeline wherein another deal goes awry following a shootout that only leads to the protagonist’s son caught off guard, and almost beaten up for betrayal. And so the core premise of Murshid follows the story of the protagonist trying to save his son from the local gangsters. But when I left the show at the end, the core of the drama had shifted. To be honest, the one-liner premise here did have an intriguing start despite oozing of the 90s vibes which were familiarized to the viewers through several gangster films made on celluloid. Despite that, there was a sense of conviction even as you did get to know about the past of the protagonist in fragments, only to cut to the made plot. But what the screenplay standing at 7 episodes of 30 odd minutes each missed out on, was the characterization wherein I did get the feeling that characters were just not written at all (or at times half baked on paper).
On paper, the emotional undercurrents of Murshid were prevalent. Murshid having lost his elder son, and having all hopes pinned on his younger son, doing everything under his control to save the latter from the clutches of the local mafia. This included taking help from his step-son turned police officer whose father was killed by Murshid himself. However, the same did not translate into celluloid the way it ought to have. Having said that, one of the few aspects of the drama that the writers get correctly, is the politics surrounding the drama especially in light to the current setup that we are accustomed to. So the communical differences emerging out of the political scenario and its impact on the turn of events was an interesting proposition in the screenplay, and done rather well.
My estimate of the situation with regard to its premise was that the central core itself wasn’t enough to sustain it through its entire duration of seven episodes. As a result, the resolution of the initial conflict transpired sooner than expected, at probably the halfway mark, only for the writers to slightly pivot towards the eventual showdown between the two warlords – Murshid and his nemesis Farid. The problem though was in the route that the screenplay took, that warranted the introduction of too many characters. And this was particularly exposed because the writers hadn’t written any characters or their backstories that are an essential component of this medium of webseries. As a result, new characters are introduced, and some of them come and go without having any solid purpose in the screenplay.
Another minor drawback emerging from the issue of characterization was that the screentime of some of the existing characters was further reduced in the process, even as an attempt was made at cerebral mindgames being carried out by both parties in question. And while this was a decent plot point, the idea didn’t quite soar as high as it should have, even as some plot points started to get repetitive and needless in the overall scheme of things. The finale was decent although the twist at the end could be seen from a mile away, thereby summing up the screenplay that was average with some moments of intrigue along the way, but with more misses than hits.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are true to the world that is setup, and the lines at least make an effort to blend well with the mood of the drama. The BGM is decent but not memorable although it definitely does well in trying to enhance the impact of scenes throughout the narrative. The cinematography can best be termed as basic, given how the framing did not have an innovations tagged to it. The basic setup of a mid-shot was seen mostly throughout the narrative, whereas think about a plethora of wideshots of the city of Mumbai which would have allowed the city to play a key character (one plus being that the shooting did take place at real locations, mostly if you disregard the poor VFX at a few places). The editing is a little choppy especially while dealing with two timelines, that gave a slightly fragmented feeling to the drama. Director Shravan Tiwari does a decent job but atleast adding a level of coherence to the drama. But the lack of characterization was a major flaw in the writing that just wasn’t possible to counter as far as the direction was concerned, and hence, the direction too ended up being just about average with a dated execution technique reeking of the 90s.
Performances
The performances will go down as one of the worst that I have seen barring the central bunch of characters that include Zakir Hussain, Tanuj Virwani and Kay Kay Menon. Zakir Hussain remaims criminally underrated despite being such a prolific actor, and her he actually makes his presence felt even though the writing of his character was slightly bordering on being immature. Yet, the dignity that he brings to his character was pretty good to witness. Tanuj Virwani as Kumar Pratap has a towering personality and is well restrained while delivering a rather measured performance despite the writing of his character that was half-baked. And full marks to him for still making things work in that regard. Kay Kay Menon as Murshid is phenomenal, right from his body language to his mannerisms. And he definitely commands your attention every time he appears onscreen. But despite the heroics of the trio, the level of performance on the show is at its absolute lowest. There were so many characters that just turned up and mouthed dialogues without an iota of effort or emotions that completely derailed the impact of their scenes. None of the other actors (and no point in singling any one out here given that it could sabotage careers) stand up even remotely, so much so that I was infuriated at how bad the takes were featuring them. If only there was an effort on casting them too, things may have been different. Lesson learnt then?
Conclusion
The first season of Murshid is a routine gangster drama letdown by some insipid characterization and performances (barring the lead characters) that makes for a rather forgettable watch. Available on Zee5.
