Andhera review
Cast: Priya Bapat, Karanvir Malhotra, Prajakta Koli, Surveen Chawla, Vatsal Sheth, Parvin Dabas, Pranay Pachauri
Director: Raaghav Dar
Star rating: ★★
No one, as far as I can imagine, wants to be left alone in this world. It is the fear of abandonment, yes, but also the fear of not being understood that drives us to be seen and heard. These are primary, urgent impulses that today’s youth are concerned about. Andhera, the latest horror/sci-fi entry on Amazon Prime Video is concerned about the traumas and anxieties of the youth and their capacity to be understood in a world that is largely growing distant. It is the manifestation of these internal fears that this show is concerned about. Great on paper, but unfortunately, that does not translate on screen as Andhera walks within a timid, misguided circle of what is scary.
The premise
Andhera, which translates to darkness, starts off with quite a promise. The seedy lanes and corridors of Mumbai at night trace back to the frantic cries of a distressed woman running away from something, and seeking help from a certain Dr. Prithvi, inside a hotel room. That is of no avail as a dark matter emerges from the walls, creeps up to her, and seemingly, engulfs her. This leads to an almost failed police investigation, but Inspector Kalpana Kadam (Priya Bapat) is reassigned to the case, and this leads her to the woman, named Bani Baruah, who was presumed to have fallen, mysteriously, from the hotel window.
In a parallel track, we also track the recurring hallucinations that Jay Sheth (Karanvir Malhotra) keeps having about the same woman and a sinister force of darkness that comes alive. It will be revealed that his brother Prithvi (Pranay Pachauri) is in a coma- and that Jay’s visions are, incidentally, linked to the disappearance of Bani. Jay gets in touch with Rumi (Prajakta Koli), a YouTuber with a show on paranormal presence in Mumbai- a track only the makers can make sense because I failed to do so. Together, they have their own search for what this ‘andhera’ means, and whether it is a bigger threat than what is imagined.
What doesn’t work
Andhera is clearly ambitious in its concept and design. Created by Gaurav Desai, Andhera sprawls over a range of characters and is interested in exploring the space between supernatural horror and sci-fi. The catalyst for these ideas to land is, however, thinly imagined, where this central entity of this ‘andhera’ and whether this can be pulled into create another realm of human unconsciousness.
To land these ideas, it needed a tighter, more ruthless script that could push these characters to their extremes so that Jay’s fear and emotional disconnect, in particular, would feel palpably real. It is not just internal horror but even external forms of fear as well, and the show seems heavily disconnected in cracking where to draw the line between the two. Even as Ketan Sodha’s brooding music is quite effective here, the show quickly crumbles under its own weight. Chances are taken, but is that all there is to Andhera?
Final thoughts
In a show where there is an element of suspense and intrigue, the viewer is already two steps ahead in calculating what might arrive next. In Andhera, Bani’s disappearance is the focal point, and the viewer is not kept in secret about the fact that there are threads which will connect her case to Prithvi, and then to this healing centre called Aatma (herein comes Surveen Chawla as the manager, in a thankless role).
The point is, by the time the show connects these dots and arrives at the conclusion, the plot is lost in overwrought thrills and thankless suspense. The subtext of mental health issues, which starts from Jay’s anxieties and panic attacks, leads nowhere after a point. It goes from a missing person case to a missing context case. The looming dread of AI is somewhere in the close vicinity, mainly with the experiment that Andhera focuses on later on, but even that is not given any vitality. The horror fails to land. The ambition starts to feel misplaced.
Fear is a very valid emotional response today, given the amount of misinformation, displacement, and violations that take place in the world around us. Is it not scary to see where the world is headed, driven by capitalism and greed? Of course it is. It appears that Andhera started off somewhere in these discussions and amalgamated into a stagnant mess, after which there were no answers. Andhera drags on, testing your patience.
