What Is the Story About?
Disney Plus Hotstar‘s latest series ‘PariWar’ is, as the name suggests, about a family at war. The war here is not your blood-spilling battle of gore and grit. It’s more a war of words between two brothers – bickering, bantering, bettering the other — sometimes tittery, sometimes tedious, but all the time, petty!
The story goes thus — the patriarch of the Allahabad-based Narayan family, Kashiram (Gajraj Rao) fakes a heart attack to lure his kids back to their hometown. The three kids, who have flown the coop long ago, rush to Allahabad in a flurry, as soon as they get the picture sent by their Papa’s Man Friday Babloo (Kumar Varun), with Kashiram laid up in hospital, an oxygen mask on his mouth.
Barely have the kids, Mahipal (Yashpal Sharma) aka badke, with wife Manju (Anurita Jha); Shishupal (Ranvir Shorey), aka chhutke, with wife Anju (Sadiya Siddiqui); and Mandakini, aka Guddan (Nidhi Singh), settled down at home, when all hell breaks loose. They learn that their old man plans to give away his entire land, worth 30 Crores, to a con cum theatre artist, Gangaram (Vijay Raaz), to build a world class old age home – complete with gym, pool, movie room, EDM zone, football field and other what-nots.
Though Guddan is more interested in picking up the threads of her childhood love story with Gangaram’s son, Munna (Abhishek Banerjee), the brothers are interested only in the land. Their war intensifies as each brother wants to grab the lucrative piece of land. But….Gangaram’s not giving!
PariWar has been produced by Arré Studios, written by Gaganjeet Singh and Shantanu Anam, and directed by Sagar Ballary.
Performances?
Performances?PariWar is loaded with heavy-duty performers, and each of them brings their special brand of buffoonery to the narrative. What’s more, since each of them is a veteran, none strikes a false note, pulling off flawless performances all around. Gajraj Rao, Vijay Raaz, Ranvir Shorey and Yashpal Sharma are, of course, masters of their field, and they prove it yet again in PariWar. Abhishek Banerjee and Nidhi Singh are cute, though they don’t have much to do. Sadiya Siddiqui and Anurita Jha are equally good in their roles.
The striking thing about the cast is the way they take to the typical UP – Allahabad dialect – with consummate skill and ease. Also, the dialect sounds delightful to the ears, used to as we are to the edgy dialogues of the standard web series of today.
Analysis
PariWar is loaded with star power, boasting some of the best performers of this era. It is a dream ensemble cast, with the potential to make any filmmaker go into a delirious tizzy — decorous and dazzling; astounding and awe-inspiring. But this dazzling dream cast has been given a screenplay that is woefully inadequate in every department — humour, wit, intelligence, excitement, thrill, surprise, drama, emotion, snarky dialogue, – you name it, PariWar doesn’t have it.
The narrative, hence, stutters and stumbles in the absence of a stellar script to go along with the superlative cast. Director Sagar Ballary can do but this much to salvage the show. There is not a single laugh out loud scene in the entire six episodes of the series. The dialogue is clunky and outdated — it seems as if the story is stuck in the last century. Cheesy lines and a simplistic plot combine to make PariWar a mediocre product – and sadly – a criminal waste of resources.
The last episode does redeem the show to some extent. But it is a case of too little, too late. The long-winded shenanigans of the previous five episodes kill one’s enthusiasm for the final hurrah.
All said and done, PariWar could have been better, had the writers, Gaganjeet Singh and Shantanu Anam, applied their skills to get the screenplay right. It is arguably the most important aspect of a memorable comedy drama. Hardly two months ago, the same trio of Ranvir Shorey, Gajraj Rao and Vijay Raaz had given us the laugh riot, Lootcase. As they say, script and screenplay make the world of content creation go round. And in PariWar, both come up short.
Music and Other Departments?
Music and Other Departments?Highlights?
Drawbacks?
Did I Enjoy It?
Not so much
Will You Recommend It?
Watch it only if you have nothing better to do
PariWar Web Series Review by Binged Bureau
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