2020 was a difficult year for the Indian cinema viewers, especially considering the filth that was served on the streaming platforms packaged as ‘coming-of-age-dramas’. But looks like 2021 is set to emulate 2020 and step several notches further. Amazon Prime video recently released a new, so-called gripping, political thriller 9-part web-series named ‘Tandav’ which does everything but entertain the audience. Albeit the show slowly tries to choke the viewers with usual tropes of wokeism, excessive pandering to the leftist ideology, and last but not the least, some zombie brain dead writing that seems to have been penned by a rebellious 17-year old that has just read about Communism and is intrigued in calling his pre-pubescent teenager friends – comrades.
Streaming on Amazon Prime, Tandav is a political drama directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, with Saif Ali Khan, Sunil Grover, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub and Dimple Kapadia in the lead roles, along with Tigmanshu Dhulia, Kumud Mishra, Kritika Kamra, Dino Morea, Gauhar Khan, and Sandhya Mridul. The series is based on a young leader named Samar Pratap Singh, whose father and the country’s Prime Minister Devkinandan dies suddenly. The whole web series is based on how he fulfils his responsibilities, what challenges he fights, and how people become his enemies.
Stopped watching #Tandav after first two episodes. The takeaways from the first two episodes are:
– Shiv ji is upset because Shri Ram is getting popular
– Government is suppressing farmers’ protest
– Cops are killing Muslims after getting upar se aadesh
– UAPA is horribleContd
— Atul Kumar Mishra (@TheAtulMishra) January 15, 2021
Right off the bat, the 9-part show is unimaginative, pedestrian, lacklustre, tepid, boring and horrible in both writing (Gaurav Solanki is the writer who also wrote Article 15) as well as execution.
Understandably, left-liberal cabal and its members masquerading as Social Justice Warriors (SJW) have always been at the helm of power in cinema and TV but there used to be certain artistry in which they spewed their propaganda in the past. It used to be subtle, slow-burning and used to effectively brainwash the viewers who did not have a clue that they were being swayed around.
However, in an attempt to become a leftist commentary of our times, the TV series falls flat in trying to excessively push its vile agenda. Mixing politics with movies worked in the past because the conservatives or the right-wing had remained dormant but with social media bringing out the intellectual coterie of the RW, series like Tandav are running on borrowed times.
6. This series a well propagated brainwash when it comes to defending the charges that are put against the JNU Separatists such as UAPA & sedition charges. Whereas the fact is – They did not ask for freedom within the country, they asked “Freedom from the country’ !
— Prerna Bhardwaj (@prernabhardwaj_) January 15, 2021
Subtly is a virtue that has been meted out step-brotherly treatment by the creators of the series. There is Vivekanand National Univerity (VNU) which is modelled closely on the lines of JNU. While the premise of politics is not necessarily JNU but the series tries to create a hypothetical reality by attempting to clear out images of separatists and create sympathy for people like Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar, and the Tukde-Tukde gang.
The government is shown going after the farmers and trying to suppress them. Also, UAPA is suggested as bad juju for the terrorists. Furthermore, the minority gets killed brazenly by a cop because the script needs the plot to happen. And let’s be honest, what can be more cliché in Indian cinema than a powerful ‘Bahubaali Neta’ at the top of the political food chain, ringing up a corrupt police officer and instructing him to kill a Muslim. Where have we seen that before, we wonder?
Smashing Brahmanism, idolatry, and cussing the Hindu gods are the usual ingredients required to churn out an Indian drama. Add some sprinkles of how backward classes are only derided day in and out and you can, for all practical purposes, present the Oscar Razzies for the Best Woke cinema to Taandav, without thinking for a heartbeat.
Tandav is supposed to be a series that can only cater to the taste of viewers who have done their PhD in African studies or those fat positivity movement activists who are horribly overweight.
The web series also falls flat because it tries too much at times. In an attempt to model itself as a much suave version of the hit American TV series “House of Cards”, Tandav ends up being a cheap, second-hand copy of the first draft of ‘Paatal Lok’ season 1, and remember the Anushka Sharma produced series was top tier garbage as well.
Read More: ‘It will be a gamechanger,’ Dear Netflix and Amazon Prime, Doordarshan is coming for you
Well, we saw the entire series so you do not have to endure the severe brain aneurysm that one of our team members suffered. COVID is still raging around, you all have time to sit with your families and create memories – do that and for the love of everyone in your family, abhor from watching Tandav for the vaccine for people who just watched this show is still in the pre-clinical trials. Stay woke, stay healthy!