Taskaree: The Smuggler's Web (Season 1)
Introduction
Neeraj Pandey holds the unique distinction of creating tension and waves in a scene, simply by making his actors walk. The camera tracking shots of characters walking form the staple diet in the new Hindi show Taskaree too, one that tries deviating your focus from the basic storyline. On the face of things, the template that Taskaree employs is good versus evil with the difference being that of the setting. The backdrop remains the life of Custom Officers who often are known to safeguard the entry of illegal items in the country. A voiceover tells us that items worth Rs 50000 need to be surrendered for a custom duty, before safe-passing in the country. The world building sets off a trail of events that generalize this conflict – you are briefly introduced to random strangers trespassing the security with valuables without declaring them, a panicky finance minister being forced to assemble a team headed by Prakash Kumar (Anurag Sinha) who in turn puts together his team of three honest custom officers – Arjun Meena (Emraan Hashmi), Ravinder Gujjar (Nandish Sandhu) and Mitali Kamath (Amruta Khanvilkar). The setup is similar to the Avengers assembling against Thanos, or more specifically a drug Lord named Bada Choudhary (Sharad Kelkar). The face-off here is snackable for sure.
Story & Screenplay
Written by Neeraj Pandey and Vipul K Rawal, the interesting aspect of Taskaree remains its characterization. This is because the world created almost seems like a reimagination of Neeraj Pandey’s Special Ops, except that the spies are replaced with custom officers. So while Mitali gets a kickass entry, and Ravinder formulates a different shade of a comedic heartbreak because he is an honest individual, the most interesting remains Arjun. In a scene, you see him casually taking a bribe when he is suspended (a classic setup for Taskaree 1.5 if need be), something that reveals greyer shades of his personality. Arjun remains that batter who doesn’t play copybook strokes – he innovates, recalibrates and formulates his own technique, something that increasingly becomes evident with his tryst with Priya (Zoya Afroz), his mole in Chaudhary’s gang.
Pleasantly enough, the events are fairly engaging in the first half of the show, even when you see Arjun’s team slowly assembling and nailing the offenders at the airport. The various stretches again plays out like a secret mission from Special Ops wherein the ‘hunters’ converge on the ‘prey’, while dropping insights into the various techniques employed by the perpetrators along the way. The politics in the fray is the only missing link, even as the show follows a specific narrative style of foreshadowing – snipping and cutting short an important scene, only to circle back to it with the incorporation of a twist that completes the loop. And I must say that this technique does work well when it is playing in broadstrokes – you see individual planning in play by the perpetrators before culminating at the airport, only for a filler recall to indicate on how Arjun’s clan was always two-steps ahead!
One of the biggest highlights of the show remains the extended sequence at about the halfway mark that keeps you on tenterhooks. In the midst, there is a grey area tapped into with respect to various characters. On one hand you have Priya who is on the march with her honeytrap mission with Rahul (Freddy Daruwala) while passing on crucial information to Arjun. And on the other hand, you witness a mild transformation of Custom Officer Jainesh Patel (Hemant Kher) starting off as a corrupt soul, only to keep you guessing about his motives through a chase sequence that is tense and very well-planned. It is in fact so well executed that you almost smell a fumble in the second half of the show. And that does arrive, sadly!
The second half of the show has a dated feel to it, wherein I could easily draws parallels with 70s Bollywood films featuring stereotypical antagonists who would utter the words – ‘Sona Kahaan Hai’ (where is the gold). There is a streak of familiarity even in the unpredictability of the drama. There are a handful of twists incorporated – a character going rogue ala Jim (John Abraham) from Pathaan (2023), a character who is given a foreshadow of being happy and in love again before bumping him off, a little fry who turns out to be a mole, a counter mole also being discovered on the other side (and nope, the foreshadowing did not work too while slowly beginning to slide) . It felt like Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (2006) minus the thrills and emotions with a lot of convenience thrown in. Somewhere a subtext of the plight of the custom officers going about their duties honestly, was lost.
Even the climax felt abrupt while being so convenient with the writing that it made me wonder on why would an intelligent villain like Bada Chaudhary make the same mistake twice of trusting a girl whom he knew was undercover. It just felt underwhelming with the only respite being that the show wasn’t bogged down. But the elementary mistakes couldn’t be ignored in the garb of the characters walking and walking and walking. In other words, the proceedings are watchable yes, but the second half dearly missed the pounding momentum of the first half!
Dialogues, Music & Direction
Pick any Neeraj Pandey film/show, and you’ll know that there is little to no expectations on subtlety in terms of the lines. And yet to his credit, the lines always have that sense of urgency that deviates your focus on the organic exchange between the characters, no matter how far-fetched they may appear to be. And Taskaree treads the same road. The BGM is decent but not stellar while committing to the mood of the drama and the various scenes, yes – but also being generic with its outlook. I was impressed with the cinematography and the production design, given how so many frames were captured seemingly at real locations including airports or scenic areas overseas. The stellar locations definitely contributed to the fabric and scale of the drama, even if I was admittedly distracted by the colour grading of the locations that ranged from hues of yellow to blue, with skies that typically ignored the AQI in India (but then again, the drama isn’t political here).
The editing pattern is crisp but at times too crisp for my liking. The foreshadow that works well in the first half, gets increasingly repetitive in the second hour – with the editing using a shock technique to hold back a rather ‘predictable’ twist. My point being that the editing style didn’t always serve the purpose of shocking the viewers. Directors Neeraj Pandey and Raghav Jairath manage to do a fair job with the characterization, even though they seemingly get carried away with the ‘Bollywoodization’ of the drama in the last three episodes. But to their credit, they maintain the pace of the proceedings such that the drama is never bogged down at any juncture. The urgency is maintained too like a connecting tissue, and that remained one of the big reasons as to why the show was snackable.
Performances
The performances are pretty solid by the members of the cast. The likes of Vijay Vikram Singh, Smita Ray, Shailesh Dattar, Shahid Lateef, Krishan Tondon, and Akshaya Naik have their moments to shine, and each of them manage to impress. Virendra Saxena as Shrikant is brilliant while having lots of fun with his character. Pradeep Bhaskar as Aslam, Shubham Kumar as Mukeem and Nitin Rao as Raghu are terrific performers, and all of them leave a lasting impression. Hemant Kher as Jainath is a treat to witness, and he absolutely owns the scenes that he features in. Nancy Marwah as Srilata and Ekavalli Khanna as Mrs Syed are understated, as are Rajat Bhasin as Sajjad and Raghavendra Tiwary as Vincent. Akash Ayyar as Dhuria uses his innocent expressions to his advantage, in a job well done. Anuja Sathe as Meenakshi has a superior presence onscreen, and she leaves a mark despite a lesser screentime.
Jameel Khan as Suresh Kaka is wonderful to witness here with his minimalistic and measured approach that works superbly for his character. Freddy Daruwala as Rahul is decent although the writing of his character could have been a little more cerebral and menacing. Amruta Khanvilkar as Mitali is excellent in a couple of combat sequences, and she definitely packs a punch here. Zoya Afroz as Priya plays on the principle of ‘looks could be deceptive’, and she is commendable to witness here. Nandish Sandhu as Ravinder has different shades to his character – from being the victim of a situational comedy, to being in the thick of things during scenes of interrogation and combat. To Nandish’s credit, he brings some level of depth with the emotions while also putting forth a solid act.
Sharad Kelkar as Bada Chaudhary underplays his character, and inspite of his character being generic in terms of the writing, he leaves a mark. Anurag Sinha (you may know him from Subhash Ghai’s Black & White) as Prakash is aptly cast, using his dashing persona to good effect while delivering a sharp and resolute act that is understated and suave. Emraan Hashmi as Arjun Meena is impeccable as always – surrendering to the ensemble initially before shouldering the responsibility later on. There is a trademark ‘Emraan Hashmi’ charm in play that drives his character, even as Hashmi ensures that his wonderful performance steers the wobbly show to safety.
Conclusion
Despite an underwhelming second half and an abrupt finale, the first season of Taskaree is a snackable thriller featuring solid performances that make for a satisfactory watch. Available on Netflix.