Raakh - Hindi web series

Raakh 

is a Hindi crime thriller adult web series. By adult, I mean it contains a lot of bloodshed, violence, and harsh language. Among the familiar faces are Sonali Bendre, Ali Fazal from Mirzapur, and after some searching I also found the names Divya Sharma and Anshul Chauhan. Anyway, let us talk about my experience watching this series.

According to the story, there are two men name Rajjo and Babu. From their childhood itself, the way they treat other people is enough to make anyone uncomfortable and disgusted. The story takes place during the 1980s. There are no mobile phones, no forensic technology worth mentioning, and no CCTV cameras. So watching the police slowly figure out that these two men are behind a series of murders and robberies was genuinely fascinating.

An army man and a school teacher parent's son and daughter leave home to sing at a radio station. They never return. The girl's voice, which everyone is waiting to hear on the radio, never comes on air either. When people go to investigate, they discover that the children never even reached the radio station. The story is about finding out what happened to them.

As we sadly expect, both children are later found dead in a forest, covered in blood and injuries. That is when the new Inspector Jayaprakash enters the story. If even he struggles to process the sight of those two children lying dead in a pool of blood while holding each other, imagine the condition of their parents.

Why were they killed? What was the motive? Was it revenge? Was it personal hatred? The police work tirelessly to find answers. During this investigation, forensic science begins to play an important role. The series shows in a practical way how forensic methods help the police. From analysing the murder weapon to identifying the colour of the vehicle used to abduct the children, the investigation gradually moves forward because of these techniques.

But despite all that effort, the police are unable to identify the real culprits for a very long time. They can get close to almost everyone else except Babu and Rajjo. They cannot even discover their names. The reason is simple. Neither of them has a regular job or any proper social identity. They survive by drifting from place to place committing robberies and murders. That criminal lifestyle itself becomes their identity.

The way these two men interact with people is disturbing. Personally, every time they opened their mouths or appeared on screen, I felt uncomfortable. They are portrayed as truly horrible human beings. Whenever the series showed their murders and robberies, I kept thinking When will this scene end and when will we get back to the police investigation? The violence is not presented in an entertaining way. It feels raw and ugly.

Sonali Bendre plays Mona, the mother of the two murdered children. I honestly felt sad realizing how much time has passed. I have not really watched her movies before, but I have seen some of her duet songs with Arjun and knew who she was because of that. She does not get a huge amount of screen time, but her performance feels natural. During some scenes, I was worried she might suddenly break down and start screaming emotionally. That does happen eventually, but not in the scene where I expected it.

Ali Fazal plays Inspector Jayaprakash. I have seen him before in Mirzapur and do not remember seeing him anywhere else. He has such a young face that he almost looks like a college student. Combining that youthful appearance with the authority of a police officer feels a little unusual at first. Whenever he switches between showing respect to his superiors and expressing affection toward his father, it reminded me of that famous moment from Thillu Mullu where Thengai Srinivasan slowly understands Rajinikanth's exaggerated gestures of respect and reacts with What is this? Oh, this is what it means! In the same way, we have to interpret Ali Fazal's subtle expressions as respect and affection.

Next comes Nisar, Jayaprakash's partner. Looking at her immediately reminded me of Aparna Gopinath from Munnariyippu. The short haircut, the glasses, and the overall appearance felt very similar. After searching, I found that the actress is Anshul Chauhan. She seems relatively new to the industry because I could not find much information about her. In this series, she performs well and has some decent romantic scenes and dialogues.

There are no performances here that made me stop and say wow. Everything stays grounded and natural, including the villains, who are probably the strongest performers in the cast.

Then there are Suman and Sahil, the two murdered children. Sahil is only around ten years old, while Suman Arora is sixteen. Generally, I do not enjoy watching violence against children even when it is fictional. In this series, the full details of what happened to them are shown through an extended flashback that takes up most of an episode near the end. I skipped through many parts of it.

The series first introduces these children and makes us care about them. Then almost immediately it tells us they are dead. After that, it spends an entire season making us remember who they were, how they died, and who was responsible. By the end, it left me feeling emotionally drained rather than entertained.

If scenes involving violence against children do not bother you and you are interested in dark crime investigations, you may want to watch it.

Let's meet again in the next post, everyone.

See ya!