Tabbar review: The Good, The Bad & A Family

Tabbar web series synopsis

All is well and normal in the life of retired police constable Omkar (Pavan Raj Malhotra). Omkar and his sweet loving diabetic wife Sargun (Supriya Pathak Kapur) have high hopes pinned on their IPS aspirant elder son Happy (Gagan Arora). Their younger son a junkie cum aspiring YouTube rapper Tegi (Sahil Mehta) is not taken seriously. One day suddenly at night during Happy’s visit to his house a shocking incident happens where Maheep - drug peddling younger brother of a local businessman-politician (Ranvir Shorey) gets shot in the house of Omakar.

What will the happy normal family of Omkar do.  Who shot Maheep, What will Omkar do to protect his family, how long will Omkar go?.

Tabbar web series review

Tabbar is not about how to be a happy family like those extra syrupy family dramas we see in mainstream, it’s about choices we make and the action we take at challenging situations that questions our morality and brings out the hidden personality in us which we may have kept it quite otherwise.

Writer Harman Wadala (also the creator) along with his fellow writer Sandeep Jain gives space and nuances to every character. Yes Pavan Malhotra heads the show but the way each and every character gets his space and chance to add the required intensity, guilt, redemption, pain, fear etc is highly commendable.

There are good movies, great movie and movies that make you ponder, it has the ability to stay with you for a while. The self taught director Ajitpal Singh’s Tabbar  falls in the last category, it’s a kind of a lesson an update/revision on our idea of the good the bad and a family.

Another major highlight is the presentation of the Punjabi Sikh families/community in Tabbar, it’s rooted to the ground and authentic.

Yes of course the influence of Shakespeare that makes you scare along with Supriya Pathak and when Pavan Malhotra convinces her, you are also convinced knowing well that he is wrong but is doing for his family.

What an irony, a simple common person can take the horribly wrong path for his family and a wronged person a criminal/a gangster when comes home can be nice to his family.

Special mention for the use of Baba Farid in every episode especially this one ‘Kaale mere kapde, kaala mera ves,/ gunhi bhariyan main phiraan, lok kahein darves.’ (Black are my clothes, black is my garb,/ Full of failings I wander, people call me sage.’)

A flash of Kabir’s (not entirely to an extent for a while crossed my mind) - Bura Jo Dekhan Main Chala, Bura Naa Milya Koye, Jo Mann Khoja Apnaa, To Mujhse Bura Naa Koye (I searched for the bad ones, met not a single one

When searched myself, "I" found the worst one)

Tabbar has the power to create such impact

Technicalities

Cinematography by Arun Kumar Pandey and the atmospheric music by Sneha Khanwalkar’s serves perfect.

Flaws

The basic plotline isn,t that great. A couple of happy days showing the young Omkar and the kids as toddlers may have added more impact and/or mellowed the intense dark tones for a while.

Any remarkable dialogue/scene in Tabbar

There are quite a few but will highlight these two

The one where Pavan Malhotra gets drunk in a roadside joint and drunk freely like no one is watching and the other when he makes gajar ka halwa for Supriya Pathak.

Final words

Tabbar is terrifically intense, brilliantly directed and superbly acted, one of the finest dark intense crime family drama to come after a while. Missing Tabbar will be a crime.