One of the key components of popular entertainment in India is that of spelling it out. If cinema tries to be subtle while telling you A to Z, television is brazen about the exposition. It holds you quite literally by the hand, and speaks it out loud, vigorously and assertively, until you submit to its world of understanding.
The new mega show of Star Plus, P.O.W.- Bandi Yuddh Ke lies somewhere between the ambition of cinema to be restrained and the dimness of television to be understood. It chugs along well with occasional attempts of expansive frames, overhead shots, and an enlightened understanding of relationships till the key scene - which quite honestly, disappoints.
Take the scene in which the two prisoners of war, Sartaaj Singh (played by Purab Kohli) and Imaan Khan (played by Satyadeep Mishra) are reunited with their respective families after 17 years. Had the scene been aptly handled, it could have cemented the aspiration of the show. Instead it gives in to TV’s idea of elucidation.
It focuses on one character’s reunion with his family, and then moves on to another, though both of them are presented to their families at the same time, in the same room and in the same visual frame. A sad break in logic that. Instead of broadening the emotional veracity by letting both reunions happen simultaneously, the scene tries to wring out as much emotional heft as possible by playing the trick of individual focus, like we see in every show on our small screen.
Imagine a family reunion after 17 years, imagine the tsunami of emotions. No, the characters have to wait for their cue to react even if they are in the same frame.
Adapting Gideon Raff’s acclaimed Israeli TV drama Hatufim, which also gave birth to its American edition, Homeland, Star has entrusted Nikhil Advani to helm the show, in an attempt to connect with the young audiences who are not interested soapy dramas emerging out of the kitchen. Advani showed a surprising command in his 2013 release D-Day, despite his many other cinematic misfires, and much rests on his shoulders to deliver with P.O.W.
At the line of control where the show begins, with two infiltrators raising alarm, the scene is staged sans clarity, but as the drama moves to the homes of the said soldiers, it settles slowly but surely - partly because a chunk of the supporting cast of the show are not cut out of the melodramatic fabric.
If Sandhya Mridul’s track of a woman with two grown-up kids and a lover-in-waiting has the actor’s fine sensibilities on display, Amrita Puri’s track has every behavioural pattern you expect out of a family in Punjab.
The press release states gloriously that the female protagonists of the show reflect the brand new thought of the channel, breaking away from stereotypical female characterisation. That’s a tall claim, given the medium’s tenacity to make women suffer long before they emerge victorious. But in the space of a thriller such as this, there is hope.
The 126-episode finite series about two Missing in Action (MIA) soldiers returning home after a long gap and raising questions about brainwashing by the neighbouring nation, will be telecast from Monday to Saturday.
Judging the first episode in a sea of international films at the 18th Mumbai Film Festival would be a bit unfair, specially since on a narrative path, even if made for television, the show has a lot to prove. The latter episodes hold the key of its fortune, and if done well, Indian TV could get its able Manchurian Candidates.
Over to you, Mr Advani.
(The writer is a journalist and a screenwriter who believes in the insanity of words, in print or otherwise. Follow him on Twitter: @RanjibMazumder)
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