The trainwreck that Sadak 2 was, had a subject dealing with the blind faith amongst the followers of a few Godmen. While in no way did that even scratch the surface, another new release this week, Aashram tackles a similar subject. Right from the time its trailer released, I was excited to watch this webseries. Was it worth a watch, lets find out.

Aashram follows the story of blind followers of a Godman, who is a saint on the face of it while criminally and politically driven beneath. The story seems to be an unofficial biopic of Ram Rahim. And the story is engrossing. The screenplay is also extremely well written. To be fair, there are moments that are a little repetitive especially in the middle, yet the drama is interesting and seamlessly tackles on the evil practices followed without much fuss. Also, with multiple characters and its side tracks, the screenplay will leave you hooked and booked. The dialogues are pretty good, so is the music. Director Prakash Jha, who has his second release of the month after Pareeksha, is yet again in phenomenal form. This is indeed his forte and he never lets go of the drama.

Adhyayan Suman as Tinka impresses in a cameo though I am not sure how important his character is to this story(maybe continued in season 2). Jahangir Khan as Michael, Anuritta Jha as Kavita, Parinitaa Seth as Sadvi Mata, Preeti as Sanober and Kanupriya Gupta as Sohini all have their moments to shine. Rajeev Siddhartha as Akki is a vital cog in the storyline and he definitely shines. So does Vikram Kochchar as Sadhu. Sachin Shroff as Hukum Singh is decent. Anupriya Goenka as Dr Natasha is outstanding and the more I see her, the more impressed I am with her acting chops! Tridha Choudhary as Babita is such a natural actress. I really hope she keeps getting such meaty roles. Darshan Kumaar as Ujagir Singh is once again underrated and he has been a consistent performer. Here, he is no different! Tushar Pandey(Mummy from Chhichhore) as Satti is outstanding and probably one of the best actors on display. Such a pleasure watching him here. Aaditi Pohankar as Pammi has once again proved What a fine actress she is after ‘She'(where she stood out in an otherwise poor webseries). Wish to see more of her. Chandan Roy Sanyal as Bhopa, Oh Boy! What a deliciously evil character and he totally eats into his part. Such an underrated actor(again) and what a talent! Bobby Deol has been in the form of his life. He impressed as Inspector Vijay in the Class of ’83. And here he is totally convincing as Babaji, soft on the outside but a beast inside. You may have earned a new fan, sir!

After the trainwreck(for the millionth time) this morning, I had great time watching Aashram. The series hasn’t concluded but is nicely setup for season 2! Available for free on MX Player and Highly Highly Recommended!