Jamtara Review

During the first few episodes, I thought I will be starting this review with, ‘WOW, what a series!’, but unfortunately, now I am confused. Why? I truly believe that the end defines the story and the end is what disappointed me a bit. If I keep that part aside, I can still say, ‘WOW! What a series!’ 

You know why people are skipping movies, TV serials, and moving towards digital? Because digital gives you stories that have the power to stay with you forever. Not just stories, this medium gives you actors, not celebrities. The medium’s focus is on good content and praise-worthy performances. Jamtara belongs to the kind of content that made us fall in love with web series in the first place. 

I do not personally like violence or series that has abusive language or has a backdrop of politics. Reason? These stories have nothing new to tell. There have been movies that have narrated the police side of the story. How they suffer due to influential people’s strong connections in all the possible fields. How they must pretend to have not witnessed anything even when they know all sides of the story. But Jamtara is different. I chose this series for Friday night as I thought it tells us the story of phishing and money laundering. As the trailer says, ‘Based on True Events,’ I could relate it to the phishing story featured in one of the Crime Patrol episodes. Back then, I did not understand how the crime takes place, so I thought let’s watch a full-fledged series as they might have shown the crime in detail. How do they loot, how does the money transfer happen, where do they get their data from, and many such things. In Jamtara, the crime is just the backdrop. Still, the twists and turns in the story keep you hooked. 

What makes Jamtara a hit? Its outstanding direction and jaw-dropping performances. The first episode is so riveting, so tension-building that you will want to pause for a moment, take a deep breath and then move on to the second episode. But you won’t stop, even for a moment. 

I would like to mention the group of young boys here. What performances! The way they speak, the way they behave, the way they look at each other, their mannerisms – they are so much their characters that at one point, it feels like, it’s not at all scripted or made-up; it feels like a camera is set up in some of the infamous Jamtara’s gullies and this is what they caught on camera. It was so real, so effortless. A special mention to Sparsh Srivastav and Anshumaan Pushkar for proving to the industry that ‘actors make blockbusters, celebrities don’t.’ Their bond is every sibling’s love-hate relationship which you want more of. From when they want to kill each other to the other trying his best to save his brother was a convincing transition that once again underlines the beauty of this love-hate relationship. 

Monika Panwar was a surprise element. We have strong ladies everywhere and she represents a woman’s ‘strength’ in every sense. Again, I would say, ‘What a performance!’ Saying everything without saying anything is an art every actor should learn, and the one who knows how to do it has already won hearts. Monika Panwar, in Jamtara, does exactly that. Dibyendu Bhattacharya and Amit Sial are another strong pillars on whose shoulders Jamtara stands tall. Speaking of the performances, I really felt that for the SP’s role, there should have been a strong personality. A young woman who is the SP of a city like Jamtara, is not afraid to question the most influential person in the city should have been a lady whose only body language would be so powerful that it intimidates the other person. Or at least, it would have given the audience the chance to applaud her bravery and courage which Monika Pawar’s character did. There is this scene where the politician enters her house, throws her husband out of the house and scares her with rape threats – he doesn’t rape her or say inappropriate things but his actions are enough to give even the audience goosebumps and a yucky feeling. In the next scene when her husband rushes to her and asks her if she is fine, you assume that she will break down, but she doesn’t. The way she says, ‘how dare he touch me’ is the exact fearlessness we expect from the SP.

Let us now quickly speak about what’s disappointing. Jamtara is undoubtedly different, but not towards the end. The twists at the end are filmy. The entire Season 1 was so unpredictable and ‘edge-of-the-seat’ narrative, then what made the writer make the story predictable and filmy towards the very end? What could the makers have changed to make it better? The whole police and political drama. If the focus would have been only on the crime and lives of the boys involved, it would have made the plot unique and unusual. Also what I didn’t understand was when Police were around why did they not inquire about Sunny and go looking for him? That would have been a safer option, isn’t it? 

ALSO READ: Jamtara 2 Review

Where to Watch? Netflix