Tetris follows the story an American salesman who discovers the game Tetris only to be entrapped in a web of lies and corruption with respect to the rights of the game. The story here is refreshing and almost unassuming as a thriller. Being set in the late 80s, the thing to be noted is that the series of events that took place amidst the backdrop of the Cold War between US and the erstwhile Soviet Union. The screenplay standing at a shade under 2 hours does make for a compelling watch that would keep you on your toes right throughout.

The drama does open with the introduction of the protagonist who accidently does stumble upon the new game Tetris at an event. He is definitely interested in procuring the rights for the game and here the writers do well in introducing the viewers to the other main ‘players’ involved. The scene transitions are designed to be a video game by almost being pixelated that does give an impression to the viewer that the entire setup is a video game in itself. Soon, you are introduced to the main conflict wherein the writers tactful integrate the geo-politics which was unfolding during the time with US and USSR being are logger heads with one another!

The proceedings are engaging and engrossing and at times I did find it slightly difficult to even keep pace with the drama. The events are filled with jargons related to the erstwhile technology with traces of business terms which might be slightly overwhelming for a viewer. But I found myself drawn to the drama unassumingly given my technical(and now business) background. In fact, it was almost fascinating to understand the chain of events to acquire the rights of the game in an era where spying on people was a common phenomena. The politics in the drama does make the drama textured and flavourful wherein the prevalent game of one upmanship was nicely established here.

In between the chaos and the politics, the writers do integrate a tender little subplot of friendship between two unlikely individuals. The concepts of a communist nation followed by a steady eye on every indivudual was nicely touched upon. The events leading up to the final act are exhilarating but my one criticism here being that it ended prematurely. The setup was very much there for an Argo or a Baby type finale and the writers could have further escalated the tensions as opposed to just tapering off the drama. But taking nothing away from the journey which can best be termed as unassuming and something that almost unfolds like a thriller despite this being a biographical drama(ofcourse with liberties).