What Is the Story About?
Dr. Saira Sabharwal has returned to her home city of Bhopal to work at the prestigious multispecialty hospital of Manthan. The best part of her job – she gets to see her idol work up close, Dr. Gauri Nath, who is the managing director of Manthan as well as the HOD of the Neurosurgery Department. However, everything looks good on the outside; it seems that Gauri might have had an ulterior motive behind hiring Saira. What does Gauri want with Saira? And what does the new clinical trial drug, S97R have to do with all this?
Performances?
For a show as complex as Human to be successful, every aspect of it should be perfect. While the show needs a lot more work; the acting, however, is worth the watch. In fact, the acting and the fleshed-out characters are pretty much the only redeeming qualities of Human. Kirti Kulhari, Shefali Shah and Vishal Jethwa portray the three main characters in the series – Dr. Saira Sabharwal, Dr. Gauri Nath and Mangu, respectively. However, similar to the brilliant Netflix series, House of Cards, the series is filled with well written characters that have their own motivations and ambitions. But the aforementioned actors are the ones who get the most screen time. Well… they and an actress named Riddhi Kumar, who plays a nurse called Deepali.
There are problems in the screenplay, which translates to the dialogue but the actors, primarily Shefali and Kirti, do a brilliant job. They are required to play characters with traumatic backstories and their nuanced performances make the show watchable. Vishal and Riddhi also deserve praise for their onscreen performances as well. While they have a comparatively lesser screen time, their performances help the Hotstar series.
Analysis
In simple terms, Human is a very ambitious show. It has the potential to be the Indian version of House of Cards. The show is filled with well written, complex characters and a cast who does well in portraying these nuanced characters. However, by the end that is all the series has left to show for itself. The show takes itself too seriously and becomes overly convoluted and dull, while dragging the show for ten episodes.
The issue of this series is in two parts – the screenplay and the direction. The show has an amazing premise, don’t get us wrong. The story, as a whole, is quite good. And many important scenes have been directed quite well. However, many intricate details of the screenplay (regarding character motivations) as well as the dialogue have problems. As for the director – he has somehow turned a good screenplay into a very average show. Human is a web series that has a lot of weight, and the viewer feels it with the content. But it doesn’t translate to much on screen.
Still, the characters and the cast are brilliant. Dr. Saira Sabharwal is our lead protagonist and an incredibly complex person. She is a closeted lesbian and a compulsive liar with flawed parents, but she wants to do good by helping others – hence her current profession. Dr. Gauri Nath is the lead antagonist who is willing to do anything to achieve her goals. She is a selfish person yet her deceased son was the one she loved over everyone (and everything) else. She has very complicated relationships – be it with family, friends or colleagues; but she does well in managing them while aligning them towards her goals. She only has one confidant, Roma Ma. Both characters (Saira and Gauri) are not clear cut good or bad, with both having both good and bad qualities – both very relatable. Kirti Kulhari and Shefali Shah portray these characters well.
However, even these characters are not fully developed – which is the problem. While the first two episodes make the show interesting; the set-up, the characters, motivations, etc. are done really well – they start to make less sense as time passes by. One example of this is Gauri’s reasoning for hiring Saira – which is still unclear at this point. Especially keeping Saira around after she did everything against Gauri’s wishes throughout the series. The character even addresses this issue in the last episode by mentioning that she gave Saira too much power too early, but we do not know why still. Similarly, the character of Saira comes with her own problems. Like how does a young doctor with relatively lesser experience become the HOD of a top hospital’s cardiac department within a month of joining? And how does she fall for blatant manipulation for a smart person?
These problems are also noticeable in Mangu’s storyline and Deepali’s storyline. While both characters have well defined backgrounds, their character arcs fizzle out midway. Mangu practically stays the same throughout, especially after a traumatic death in the family. While Deepali does manage to have a better character arc, for some reason, she is left to roam freely among her abusers, with Roma Ma being surprisingly lax with her security for a woman who uses corporal punishment and torture technique for discipline.
However, the biggest issue with the whole series is Gauri’s dream – to create a drug that will allow her to forget everything in her life. Or rather, forget all the bad memories of her life. Taking aside the fact that it might not even be possible to forget only certain memories (for we believe that modern medicine hasn’t reached that level of precision in “memory corruption” yet), her dream actually seems a little ridiculous, especially from the point of view of a neurosurgeon. A neurosurgeon who went through a pretty bad childhood and managed to be one of the best doctors in the country. Perhaps, her dream could have made a bit of sense if it is written better or directed better – but what we got is almost similar to what high school students want after an embarrassing incident. The final confrontation scene between Gauri and Saira is not even worth the wait of ten episodes. The best part takes place off screen, which is ridiculous.
The series is filled with these small problems (as mentioned earlier). While the series has a very interesting and promising premise, these issues make the series quite average. The editing is decent and the music is okay as well, but both are not all that great either. The cinematography is better and the location scouts deserve a shout out as well.
Overall, Human is a web series that has a very good and engaging premise, but it quickly loses steam halfway. If you have the patience, then it is a decent series to watch.
Other Artists?
As mentioned earlier, this series has a lot of characters. One of the best characters of the show is Pratap Munjal, Gauri’s husband. He is played by Ram Kapoor and the actor plays the character to perfection. Seema Biswas as the older Roma Ma, Aditya Srivastava as Ashok Vaidya, Indraneil Sengupta as Saira’s husband, Neil, Sandeep Kulkarni as Pramod Ahuja and Gaurav Dwivedi as Vivek Shekhawat all deserve special mentions as well.
Music and Other Departments?
As mentioned earlier, the music and editing were okay, but nothing to write home about. However, the cinematography team has done a good job and the location scouts deserve a mention. The casting director also deserves a special mention as well. The screenplay needs more work, but the initial premise is quite brilliant.
The director however, managed to keep everything grounded. While that is good in most cases, in this case, it was by being too slow, overly complex and a lot of dull scenes which could easily have been interesting if it was shot or edited the right way.
Highlights?
Acting
Well Written Characters
Complex Relationships
Drawbacks?
Slow Paced
Plot Holes
Unnecessarily Convoluted Plot
Nonsensical Ending
Did I Enjoy It?
It is okay
Will You Recommend It?
You can skip it if you do not like medical dramas. Otherwise, it is watchable
Human Web Series Review by Binged Bureau
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