Star Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Amruta Khanvilkar, Nandish Sandhu, Anurag Sinha, Sharad Kelkar, Zoya Afroz
Director: Neeraj Pandey, Raghav M Jairath, B A Fida
Synopsis:
TASKAREE: THE SMUGGLER’S WEB is the story of honest officers on a daring mission. The Parliament is rocked by allegations that the Government of India is not doing enough to curb smuggling. With the Elections just a few months away, the Finance Minister pressurises the Customs to act tough. Accordingly, Prakash Kumar (Anurag Sinha) joins as the Assistant Commissioner at the international airport in Mumbai. As soon as he joins duty, he asks his senior that he wants the suspension order of Arjun Meena (Emraan Hashmi), Mitali Kamath (Amruta Khanvilkar) and Ravinder Gujjar (Nandish Sandhu) be revoked and that that they should join his team. Prakash believes that all three of them are quite honest and would prove to be great assets. Arjun, Mitali and Ravinder excitedly resume working. Prakash tells them to expand their team and bring in more honest officers. He also tells the trio that their mission is to bring down the Choudhary syndicate, run by Ranjeet Choudhary aka Bada Choudhary (Sharad Kelkar). Choudhary lives in Lake Como, Italy and has a base in Rome, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and the Middle-Eastern city of Al Dera. With smart planning and help from a mole, Priya Khubchandani (Zoya Afroz), Choudhary is motivated to smuggle a large consignment of gold, drugs, watches, etc, into India through Mumbai’s airport. He takes this decision as he gets a ‘tip’ that there won’t be any checks at the airport on a particular day. Meanwhile, Arjun and his team prep for what could be the biggest seizure in the history of the Mumbai Customs Department in a day. However, several challenges remain and there could be serious consequences if they get into the bad books of Choudhary. What happens next forms the rest of the series.
Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web Story Review:
Neeraj Pandey and Vipul K Rawal’s story is informative and also entertaining. Neeraj Pandey and Vipul K Rawal’s screenplay is overall light. Unlike Neeraj Pandey’s earlier works in the same zone like BABY and SPECIAL OPS, the tone is humorous. The intention seems to be that the viewers should be amused with the world of smuggling. However, the writing is not without its share of loose ends. Neeraj Pandey and Vipul K Rawal’s dialogues are realistic and raise laughs and drama.
Neeraj Pandey, Raghav M Jairath and B A Fida’s direction is smooth and the narrative style is a bit unusual. The show consists of 7 episodes, but almost 2 or 3 episodes are spent in explaining the world of customs, cross-border smuggling, back stories of characters, etc. The directors keep the narrative easy to comprehend. This was very crucial as there has never been a show on this subject. But thanks to the execution, one is not just able to fully understand what’s going on but also get sucked into the world. The narrative also goes back and forth, and it adds to the fun and intrigue value. One sequence that stands out here is that of the flashback of Bada Choudhary. The SIN CITY-style colour tone makes for an arresting effect. Moreover, there are several twists in the narrative and a few of them are highly unexpected.
On the flipside, things happen at convenience. The moles on both sides get planted rather easily. The manner in which Priya decides to leave a stable job and become an undercover agent is a bit hard to digest. The scene where Rahul (Freddy Daruwala) is left in the desert starts on an amusing note. But to see that he took almost a day to reach the city limits was very unconvincing. After all, the fake cops didn’t leave him hours away from Al Dera. The climax is also convenient. Viewers would wonder whether it could be so easy to defeat such a powerful villain. In reality, someone like Choudhary would have been hand-in-glove with the top authorities in a country and they would have gone all out to stop the honest officers from bringing him down. Lastly, the colour grading and visual tone of the show are too gaudy and jarring in several scenes.
Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web Performances:
Emraan Hashmi, as always, is a delight on screen. He brings the required charisma, comic timing and depth for this performance. Amruta Khanvilkar gets completely into the skin of the character and raises laughs as well. Her action scene is lovely. Nandish Sandhu is dependable. Anurag Sinha, highly remembered for his debut role in Subhash Ghai’s BLACK & WHITE [2008], is the surprise of the show and leaves a mark. Sharad Kelkar is aptly cast and as always, he puts up a good show. However, his role is too similar to the antagonist in Neeraj Pandey’s SPECIAL OPS 2. In fact, both are two sides of the same coin. Zoya Afroz looks stunning and performance-wise, she’s first-rate; an actor who deserves to be seen more. Freddy Daruwala, Akash Ayyar (Custom Officer Kulvir Dhuria), Jameel Khan (Suresh Kaka), Hemant Kher (Customs Officer Patel) and Virendra Saxena (Srikant Saxena) lend able support. Akshaya Nauk (Swati Salunkhe) is too good. Chirag Pandya (Siddharth Gupta; VIP who is stopped) is there just for a few minutes and yet, his performance gets registered. Hrishikesh Joshi (Customs Officer Aabhas Pawar), Anuja Sathe (Meenakshi; Ravinder’s love interest), Krishan Tandon (Sharma ji; Choudhary’s manager), Shahid Lateef (Arbab), Ujjawal Gauraha (COIN Officer Govind), Shubham Kumar (Mukeem) and Pradeep Bhaskar (Aslam) do well. Sumit Nijhawan (Anna) and Ekavalli Khanna (Mrs Syed) don’t get much scope.
Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web music and other technical aspects:
TASKAREE: THE SMUGGLER’S WEB is a song-less show. Advait Nemlekar’s background score is quirky and cinematic. Sudheer Palsane and Arvind Singh’s cinematography is breathtaking. Sandeep Sharad Rawade’s production design deserves brownie points as it’s straight out of life. Falguni Thakore’s costumes are realistic. The same applies to Abbas Ali Moghul and Cyril Raffaelli’s action. Praveen Kathikuloth’s editing is slick.
Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web Review Conclusion:
On the whole, TASKAREE: THE SMUGGLER’S WEB is a unique one-of-a-kind show on customs and smuggling and impresses with its light-hearted narrative, comic and dramatic moments, a few twists and performances by the lead cast. At the same time, the show doesn’t reach its full potential due to loose ends in the writing and a weak climax. Nevertheless, the fresh subject and strong casting should ensure healthy viewership.
Rating – 3 stars
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