Keyur Seta
Mumbai, 05 Dec 2021 1:49 IST
The 10-episode third season of the Amazon Prime Video web-series created by Karan Anshuman again builds an entertaining story around cricket.
The T20 (20-overs-a-side) version of cricket is considered its most entertaining format for its fast pace and short duration. The first two seasons of Amazon Prime Video’s Inside Edge made good use of this format and some of the murkiness around it to create an entertaining narrative.
So to explore Test cricket, the longest and most traditional format, in Inside Edge (Season 3) was a gamble. But the show is not just about three Test matches between traditional rivals India and Pakistan. This time, it focuses a lot more on the dark doings of some evil stakeholders in the game.
At the end of the first season, Patil aka Bhaisahab (Aamir Bashir), chairman of the Indian Cricket Board (ICB), had made the owners of Mumbai Mavericks, his own daughter Mantra (Sapna Pabbi) and actress Zarina Malik (Richa Chadha), scapegoats in a match-fixing scandal to save his position. The two were arrested and Mavericks banned for two years from the Power Play League (PPL).
In the second season, Mantra and Zarina emerged from prison using some tactics of their own. Mantra, now dead-set against her father after what he had done to her, decided to push for betting to be legalized so that his illegal gambling empire and, consequently, links with match-fixing could be destroyed. She was helped by boyfriend and star India batsman Vayu Raghavan (Tanuj Virwani).
Zarina, on the other hand, teamed up with evil businessman and former Mavericks co-owner Vikrant Dhawan (Vivek Anand Oberoi) to bring Bhaisahab down.
After playing for the Mavericks, Vayu is now back in whites to play for India against the touring Pakistan. Through some manipulation, Bhaisahab snatches the Test captaincy from Rohit Shanbagh (Akshay Oberoi) and ensures that Vayu becomes the next skipper, all for his own motive.
Rohini (Sayani Gupta), Vayu’s younger sister, is now the analyst of the Indian team. The show also has a side track of Rohini learning the identity of her and Vayu’s late father.
Like the first two seasons, this one is fast-paced with tense moments among its interesting set of characters at regular intervals. Again, like in the previous seasons, a lot of creative liberty is taken in building the narrative, but the viewer is compensated with good doses of entertainment.
The behind-the-scenes explorations play a big role in this entertainment. The audience gets a sniff at what goes into brand endorsements, the battle among sports channels for match telecast rights, the selection of heads of various city and state cricket associations, groupism among players, and the like.
Interestingly, the show also uses some real-life incidents like the untimely death of disgraced former South Africa skipper Hansie Cronje who had admitted his role in fixing matches and political goons digging up a cricket pitch to ensure that Pakistan cannot play in India.
But the many layers and subplots also become a matter of concern as the viewer is frequently confused and finds it difficult to remember all the threads. The show would have done just as well with fewer parallel tracks. The angle of a murder in the latter half also feels out of place.
As far as technicalities go, the presentation of the matches, while still not perfect, is better than in the previous seasons. But the logical errors during the match scenes are bothersome. For instance, players get furious after they are run out but not when the other batsman is making major blunders. There is also a silly scene of two groups in the Indian team getting into a food-flinging match.
The makers have used real commentators like Gautam Bhimani, Atul Wassan and Maninder Singh for the commentary. Still there are moments when the commentary appears juvenile. For example, at one point, one commentator labels a player gaddaar, meaning traitor. Who does that?
Of the many negative or grey-shaded characters, Aamir Bashir is the best, followed by Richa Chadha. Vivek Oberoi, for some strange reason, has a smirk on his face for almost the entire duration of the show, which makes it difficult to take him seriously.
As far as the positive characters go, Tanuj Virwani again plays an impulsive, short-tempered cricketer who is otherwise a good person with a clear conscience. Sayani Gupta's character has more depth this time and she plays it well. Sapna Pabbi does fairly well again. New entrant Akshay Oberoi makes a mark. Renuka Shahane is the surprise package as India's prime minister.
Despite the hiccups, the positives take the lead this season. In other words, Inside Edge (Season 3) is a winning show, though not by a big margin.
Inside Edge (Season 3) is now available on Amazon Prime Video.