Category
Film
Tv show
Documentary
Stand-up Comedy
Short Film
View All
Genres
Action
Adventure
Animation
Biography
Comedy
Crime
Documentary
Drama
Family
Fantasy
Film-Noir
Game-Show
History
Horror
Kids
Music
Musical
Mystery
News
Reality-TV
Political
Romance
Sci-Fi
Social
Sports
Talk-Show
Thriller
War
Western
View All
Language
Hindi
Telugu
Tamil
Malayalam
Kannada
Abkhazian
Afar
Afrikaans
Akan
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Aragonese
Armenian
Assamese
Avaric
Avestan
Aymara
Azerbaijani
Bambara
Bashkir
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bhojpuri
Bislama
Bosnian
Breton
Bulgarian
Burmese
Cantonese
Catalan
Chamorro
Chechen
Chichewa; Nyanja
Chuvash
Cornish
Corsican
Cree
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Divehi
Dutch
Dzongkha
English
Esperanto
Estonian
Ewe
Faroese
Fijian
Finnish
French
Frisian
Fulah
Gaelic
Galician
Ganda
Georgian
German
Greek
Guarani
Gujarati
Haitian; Haitian Creole
Haryanvi
Hausa
Hebrew
Herero
Hiri Motu
Hungarian
Icelandic
Ido
Igbo
Indonesian
Interlingua
Interlingue
Inuktitut
Inupiaq
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kalaallisut
Kanuri
Kashmiri
Kazakh
Khmer
Kikuyu
Kinyarwanda
Kirghiz
Komi
Kongo
Korean
Kuanyama
Kurdish
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Letzeburgesch
Limburgish
Lingala
Lithuanian
Luba-Katanga
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Maltese
Mandarin
Manipuri
Manx
Maori
Marathi
Marshall
Moldavian
Mongolian
Nauru
Navajo
Ndebele
Ndebele
Ndonga
Nepali
Northern Sami
Norwegian
Norwegian Bokmål
Norwegian Nynorsk
Occitan
Ojibwa
Oriya
Oromo
Ossetian; Ossetic
Other
Pali
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Pushto
Quechua
Raeto-Romance
Romanian
Rundi
Russian
Samoan
Sango
Sanskrit
Sardinian
Serbian
Serbo-Croatian
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhalese
Slavic
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Sotho
Spanish
Sundanese
Swahili
Swati
Swedish
Tagalog
Tahitian
Tajik
Tatar
Thai
Tibetan
Tigrinya
Tonga
Tsonga
Tswana
Turkish
Turkmen
Twi
Uighur
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Venda
Vietnamese
Volapük
Walloon
Welsh
Wolof
Xhosa
Yi
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zhuang
Zulu
View All
Release year
2024
1900
Rating
Must Watch
Good
Passable
Poor
Skip
Yet to Review
View All
Platform
View All
Search

Grahan Review – An Emotional Investigative Drama

By Binged Bureau - Jun 25, 2021 @ 04:06 pm
5.75 / 10
BOTTOM LINE: An Emotional Investigative Drama
Rating
5.75 / 10
Skin N Swear
Frequent Usage Of Cuss Words
Action, Drama, Thriller

What Is the Story About?

Grahan happens in two timelines. The present is set in 2016’s Ranchi, where Amrita Singh (Zoya Hussain) is heading an investigation. The past is related to communal riots that happened in 1984. Rishi Pawan Malhotra), Amrita’s father is central to both events. What is the truth uncovered by Amrita? Why Amrita’s father didn’t want her to track the case, form the basic story of the emotional drama.

Performances?

Grahan Series ReviewThe entire series hinged on the performances of Zoya Hussain and Pawan Malhotra. Among the two, the latter is easily the best. Pawan Malhotra gives a compelling character study with his acting. Many scenes involving him stand out from the moment, the fear of his past resurfacing stares in his face. Zoya Hussain has dull moments in between but has a strong beginning and ending to the role. She enacts them poignantly. 

Analysis

Shailendra Kumar Jha is the creator of the series Grahan whereas Ranjan Chandel directs it. The basic story is about politics, riots, and drama related to the survivors (based on a novel). It would have then become a documentary. But, to evade that, we have an investigative thriller angle all over the narrative.

The beginning of the series is intriguing.  The murder of a journalist and establishing the character of the ‘righteous’ SP is brilliantly done. It continues the momentum further with the introduction of period and political element, both in the past and the present.

When we think Grahan will be an investigative drama – thriller with the backdrop of the 1984 Bokaro riots, things take a romantic and sappy turn. It is not bad, but it takes away the focus from the core content.

The love story between Manu and Rishi is crucial to the narrative. It is done well, and yet it is where Grahan falters. The problem here is the uneasy mixture of different genres. The change in tone, despite a lengthy and slow-paced runtime, creates turbulences in the proceedings.

Grahan -Web Series Review

It gets challenging to sustain the gripping narrative due to the mixing of multiple genres. In addition, the routine portions in them drag the story.

Among the different elements, the investigative angle and emotional drama are what works the most. On the other hand, the political games and romance feel very run of the mill even though they are done decently.

The ‘message’ involving communal riots and how people fester it feels more relevant than ever, but the way they are integrated into the narrative and executed leaves a lot to be desired.

The emotional ending is good, mainly due to the terrific performances. However, It still doesn’t hit the required high. It is good but leaves us with a something is missing kind of feeling.

Overall, Grahan has a terrific ensemble cast doing their jobs well. It has a very relevant theme, but the uneven tone and routine parts don’t let Grahan have the full-fledged impact. Nevertheless, it is a passable affair, still due to the casting and the setting.

Other Artists?

If the father and daughter pair of Pawan Malhotra and Zoya Hussain are the extensive gloriously designed exterior of the building, then Anshuman Pushkar and Wamiqa Gabbi are the invisible but vital foundation. The pair tries their best to hold the interest in the period segments with their honest and pure love story. Both have done well.

The rest of the cast, too, is good. When faces are instantly recognisable, even for their small parts, it means they have been cast well and did well performance-wise. We see that here in Grahan.

Music and Other Departments?

Grahan Review

Amit Trivedi provides songs for the series. It is fine and goes well with the mood of the film, especially period one. The background score by Daniel B George is lovely but feels overdone during the emotional sequences. The cinematography by Kamaljeet Negi is neat. The work involving the past is better compared to the present, though. The editing by Shan Mohammed could have been tighter.  The writing is solid in parts, but it fails to maintain the same consistency throughout.

Highlights?

Emotional Drama

Investigative Parts

Casting

BGM

Drawbacks?

Uneven Narrative

Drag At Times

Routine Sequences

Did I Enjoy It?

Yes

Will You Recommend It?

Yes, But With Little Reservations

Grahan Web Series Review by Binged Bureau 

We’re hiring!

We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.