Aashram Review: A powerfully solid eye opener

What: Bobby Deol and Prakash Jha’s entry into the OTT web series space is a powerfully solid eye opener on the business of faith.

Aashram synopsis

Baba Nirala (Bobby Deol) is a god man, having millions of followers from the lesser privileged section. A messiah of the lower caste – Baba Nirala lives like a King and enjoys the blind faith of his followers. The good looking smart and innocent Baba Nirala is actually a charming con man who manages to dupe his devotees wealth or trust for his benefits and be a part of his growing Asharam’s population.

Bhopa Bhai aka Bhopa Swami (Chandan Roy Sanyal) is the one who manages everything – Baba’s close friend and most trusted ally. An upcoming wrestler Pammi  aka Parminder (Aaditi Pohankar) is the latest bhakht (follower) of Baba. Baba has made a dramatic entry into her life and saved Pammi’s brother Satti aka Satwinder Lochan (Tushar Pandey) lying seriously wounded in a hospital from that deadly threat by the people from Bada Mohalla – an area dominated by upper caste.

In a chain of events, SI Ujagar Singh (Darshan Kumar) and Dr. Natasha ( Anupriya Goenka) get involved in a case that leads to the dark secrets behind the huge empire of Baba Nirala.

While the blind faith of Pammi and Satti increases day by day that includes the marriage of Satti with a prostitute Babita (Tridha Choudhury), SI Ujagar Singh his assistant Sadhu Sharma (Vikram Kochhar) and Dr. Natasha start investigating the mystery behind Baba Nirala and the secrets behind some people gone missing with the help of the local journalist Akki (Rajeev Siddhartha).

OTT web series Aashram review

Certainly one of the best web series in India that entertains enlightens and instigates while it makes a seeping statement that serves as an eye opener on the blind faith and fake god man/woman.

Aashram sees the prolific Prakash Jha in his complete command over his known elements – caste struggle, politics and the business of politics in the hinterland. This time he adds the deadly lead of faith in his ammunition and fires at all cylinders and hits the bulls eye most of the time.

The terrific screenplay by Madhvi Bhatt, Avinash Kumar, Sanjay Masoomm and Kuldeep Ruhil to Habib Faisal’s relevant and brilliant story begins bang on with Pammi attacking two of Asharam’s goons Sunny (Navdeep Tomar) and Gabha (Mirza Ajhar Beg) and fleeing from the kingdom of Baba Nirala.

Prakash Jha’s story telling in Asharam is smartly structured with layers that hit the buttons of caste struggle, blind faith, favoritisms, the ugly politics, capitalism, socialism, need, greed, love, lust, trust, faith, fate and more.

Special mention for the confidence of Prakash Jha and his team is a must. The trailer of Season 2 shown at the end of the last episode speaks volumes. Though it is reportedly shot already but the makers and MX Player went ahead to show it its viewers – they knew this will work. Amazing indeed!!.

Performances

Bobby Deol as Baba Kashipurwale has delivered the role of his life time. Astonishing right from the word go, Bobby excels and wins heart as the cute, charming but dangerously mean Baba.

Chandan Roy Sanyal as Bhopa is incredible.

Aaditi Pohankar – outstanding.

Tushar Pandey – excellent.

Darshan Kumar – fantastic.

Anupriya Goenka – effortless.

Tridha Choudhury – mesmerizing.

Vikram Kochhar – very confident.

Anil Rastogi – competent.

Sachin Shroff – fabulous.

Anurita Jha as Kavita – very impressive.

Rajeev Siddhartha –strong and very convincing.

Adhyayan Suman as Tinka Singh –so natural.

Dimpy Mishra – incredible.

Other supporting cast chip in with excellent support. Navdeep Tomar as Sunny and  Mirza Ajhar Beg as Gabha - the Aashram Goons. Nawal Shukla as Gurusharan, Pammi’s Father, Puneeta Awasthy as Navjot, Pammi’s Mother, Uday Veer Singh Yadav as Ishwar Nath - Snober’s Father and Baba Mansukh’s close person, Parinitaa Seth as Sadhvi Mata and Preeti Sood as Sanober.

Technicalities

Rich production values. Cinematography by Chandan Kowli is classy that captures the different colors and shades very effectively. Santosh Mandal’s editing is in sync. A special shout for Shruti Mahajan (Casting), Udai Prakash Singh (Production Design), Vishakha Choudhary (Costume Design) is a must. Advait Nemlekar’s music is another major plus.

Any memorable dialogue/scene

Bhakti ki zaroorat, kamzor aur gareeb logon ko zyaada hoti hain na (rough translation – the poor and weak need more faith)

Scene that should have been deleted at once

None

Flaws

Baba’s past is not explored, not much of a hint either, may be in the next season. At times it gets into repeat mode.

Final words

Aashram is one of the best web series to come, it’s not only powerful and terrifically performed crime drama that sees Bobby Deol in his career best and Prakash Jha back to his  prime, the series is a much needed eye opener on the blind faith and business of faith run by these fake god man/woman all over the world.