'Tanaav' review: Cashmere if you can

Series Name TanvaavOn SonyLIVDir Sudhir MishraCast Manav Vij Shashank AroraRating 35Unsure if the fact that I never watched the original Fauda on Netflix enhances my cleanslate experience of catching its official Hindustani remake on SonyLIV Or does that deprive me of context plus measure for comparisonEither way the reason Irsquod refrained from Fauda in the first place was a perception coloured by folks whose opinions I trust mdash that the global superhit show developed by former members of Israel Defence Forces was indeed a latent if not blatant propaganda machine against Palestine Could be wrong mdash just didnrsquot feel inclined enough to verify that claimAlso ReadBhediya movie review Wolf against Wall StreetWhatrsquos propaganda anyway Onesided view of any world mdash veering towards subjective omissions and sometimes fullon falsifications too But then people will believe what theyrsquove already adjustedconditioned their brains to Unlikely that Palestinians were Faudarsquos coreaudienceSimilarly I suspect a fair example of a propaganda film for Indian viewers would be The Kashmir Files 2022 on the ghastly exodusgenocide of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in 1990 Indeed polemics with an overtcovert political purpose is a legit popular genre in filmsbooksshowsThis series is likewise set in Kashmir mdash caught between nations with nukes Only that instead of getting caught up with either or any other side the series perfectly zoomszeroes in on individualsWhether that be Indian secret service agents mdash say Satyadeep Misrarsquos character who strangely disappears too soon in deathbed longing for a ldquocivilian liferdquo mdash screw this bloodshed and IndoPak lsquomaslarsquo issue anywaySame with the girl who lost her fianceacute in a gunfire by the same security operatives on her engagement day and is recruited to avenge that massacre ldquoWho wants to set an examplerdquo she asks She just wished to spend her life with her lover Both the young girl and that guy and sure enough most other characters belong to the same land on fire What if you were to treat Kashmir as a religious war mdash almost everyone here is Muslim as wellEven if there are two men with the same last name Malik mdash it mustnrsquot matter that one is Hindu Rajat Kapoor the other Muslim Danish Hussain Theyrsquore from India and Pakistan They unofficially interact still You can have your sympathies humanism will trump nationalism and all other isms inevitablyTanaav Conflict is written directed by Sudhir Mishra disclaimer friend also a philosopher of sorts for me mdash best known for Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi 2005 possibly Indiarsquos best political film still As a thinking artiste his voice robustly belongs just as well in the opinioneditorial space But he cleverly desists from all of that in this adaptationWhich is the first thing you take away from this 12episode series mdash that itrsquos possible to pull off one on Kashmir without devolving into the obvious siyasipolitical stuff Everybody knows the contentious background to this manmade crisis anywayAlso as a character roughly puts it here mdash one manrsquos martyr may well be another dying a dogrsquos death The ruinous lsquoeye for an eyersquo argument hardly needs overstatement anymore The messaging mdash ldquoWhat does one choose between a fanatical goal and the future of childrenrdquo mdash is all thereOnly that as an audience like this thriller itself wersquore rightly more focussed on the plot all through That is an allout 24x7 manhunt for a terrorist nicknamed Panther otherwise known to be dead to the worldA solidly calm brooding broad boarlike Manav Vijrsquos character leads this manhunt from the Indian spy agencyrsquos endmdashwith the same fanatical fatal junoon passion that you find in the supposed jehadi at the other endAround similarly harried excellently performed warring men Shashank Arora et al with no life beyond their mission is obviously Kashmir mdash how green is this valley authentic real shot by cinematographer codirector Sachin Mamta KrishnEveryonersquos evidently on the move Does the narrative grip you therefore All through mdash nope not in a way that say a spysensation like Family Man would similarly in Kashmir designed like lsquoJames Bondrsquo only with a character whorsquos his polar oppositeAlthough this isnrsquot that show and I donrsquot mean it merely in terms of the action mdash just some pacier editing could help us get to the point in far less time retaining more excitement There really arenrsquot many segues in this story about nabbing a guy either It can feel flat over long stretches with no mystery left to unravel mdash just a question of how many times theyrsquoll find him andor missWe could further explore others facets of the characters mdash as they go about love and life in the time of terrorism yes But thatrsquod be riskier deviation tooTough to maintain that balance I guess As tough to delve into current Kashmir skimming over specificities even as you change names of Hurriyat to Harqat or IB to ISAThe scrapping of Article 370 2019 is also a reality that changes everything about JampK mdash notably freedom of press that the ISA boss here seems concerned about in 2017 Curious to know what sort of leap the showrsquos second season will takeYUCK WHATEVER GOOD SUPER AWESOME

'Tanaav' review: Cashmere if you can

Series Name: Tanvaav
On: SonyLIV
Dir: Sudhir Mishra
Cast: Manav Vij, Shashank Arora
Rating: 3/5

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Home / Entertainment / Web Series / Article / 'Tanaav' review: Cashmere if you can

'Tanaav' review: Cashmere if you can

Series Name: TanvaavOn: SonyLIVDir: Sudhir MishraCast: Manav Vij, Shashank AroraRating: 3/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Series Name: Tanvaav
On: SonyLIV
Dir: Sudhir Mishra
Cast: Manav Vij, Shashank Arora
Rating: 3/5