{ Page-Title / Story-Title }

Review

Mukti review: This glacially paced period drama is difficult to sit through

Release Date: 26 Jan 2022


Cinestaan Rating

  • Acting:
  • Direction:
  • Music:
  • Story:

Roushni Sarkar

Directed by Rohan Ghose, the series, which is set in the 1930s and sees the inmates of a prison take on their colonial masters on the football field, fails to engage.

The Zee5 original series Mukti, directed by Rohan Ghose, is a fictional tale set in the 1930s where the abused inmates of Midnapore Central Jail set aside their differences, unite and face-off against the forces of the oppressive jailer Alfred Petty on the football field.

In the prison, there are both rebellious political prisoners as well as criminals who wish to stay in the good books of their British overlords. Rehmat Ali (Sudip Sarkar), a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, refuses to take up violent forms of resistance while Dibakar Bandopadhyay (Arjun Chakraborty) often lands in solitary confinement for refusing to do the biding of Petty's cronies and occasionally teaching them a lesson during scuffles.

Petty devices new methods to torture the prisoners whom he treats like slaves, against the orders of his superior, Mr Bell, who is about to retire soon. Meanwhile, Ramkinkar (Ritwick Chakraborty), who is passionate about football, gets appointed as the new deputy jailer.

After Petty frames a teenage boy and makes sure he gets the death penalty, Dibakar and his associates outside prison who are involved in an armed struggle against the British hatch an ambitious scheme. They aim to execute the plan during the inauguration of the new wing of the jail in the presence of a dignitary named Lord Cuthbert. In honour of the guest, a football match is scheduled for the same day.

Why Dibakar and his associates choose to target Lord Cuthbert is not explained. MeanwhileA, Ramkinkar proposes to build a football team with prison inmates to attack the fragile pride of the British.

Both Dibakar and Rehmat, initially reluctant to entertain the British, agree to participate so that they can take advantage of the situation and protest in their own individual methods. Ramkinkar, a servant of the British Raj, eventually begins to channel his resentment about the relentless humiliation he and the prisoner receive from Petty.

The nine-episode series moves at such a slow pace that it becomes difficult to keep track of events. As the plot primarily revolves around politics and conspiracies to deprive the inmates of their rights, only the existence of the sadistic British officer and occasional chanting of Vande Mataram reminds the audience that the show is a period piece.

The build-up leads to the football match, but the series is primarily about how the repression of the colonizers eventually blurred the differences between ideologies when it came to the common goal of independence. While Rehmat’s character doesn’t undergo too many transformations, Ramkinkar’s journey is one of the primary subplots.

But the glacial pace and laid-back screenplay are not the only drawbacks of the series. The director also seems to have failed in extracting engaging performances from the cast and their reactions to certain important situations are way too placid.

Ritwick is consistent, but he fails to rise above his natural demeanour. Arjun tries his best to get into the skin of the fiery revolutionary despite the weak writing. Suhotra Mukhopadhyay is quite convincing as the sly and opportunistic minion of Petty.

Zachary Coffin epitomizes cruelty and shrewdness with his facial expressions and dialogue delivery. Ditipriya Roy stands out for her performance as Ramkinkar’s compassionate and intelligent wife Minu.

The product design fails to lend the series the appearance of a period drama, and neither does Indranath Marick’s camerawork make the series visually appealing and engaging. Editor Anirban Maity perhaps wanted to adopt a life-like pace, which has proved to be a poor choice.

Composer Indraadip Dasgupta's songs, especially the ghazal that is sung and performed by the courtesan Gulshan (Chandreyee Ghosh) is rich and captivating; however, the background score, instead of being uplifting, is unnecessarily sentimental.

Though the series attempts to show how the British survived for so long in the sub-continent with the aid of a coterie of bootlickers and convey the natives' passionate zeal for independence. it becomes quite a task to sit through each episode. It seems that in trying to play it safe, the makers missed a good opportunity to create impactful content and extract powerful performances too.

Mukti is being streamed on Zee5.

 

Related topics

Zee5