Yet it leaves out the most important element: the wit at the heart of this fable. The entertaining & morally enlightening Vikram Aur Betaal is based.
VIKRAM AUR BETAAL SERIES
Patrick’s series is sturdily built and features some stunning prosthetic work. These are spellbinding stories told to the wise King Vikramaditya by the wily ghost Betaal. The tacky aesthetics might not draw new viewers, though there are those who remember the show fondly, an endlessly loopy yarn of clever dilemmas, to be discussed and dissected with the whole family. Watching it now on YouTube, the gaudy make-up and terrible sound effects seem out of touch.
VIKRAM AUR BETAAL TV
In the 1980s, Ramanand Sagar produced the Vikram Aur Betaal TV series for Doordarshan. The shadowy temple and occult figurines might recall Tumbbad (2018), but the myth being spun here feels half-baked, while the Betaal statue looks modeled on late actor Rajesh Vivek. There are nods to Naxal killings and tribal displacement, but the commentary doesn’t cut as deep as Dibakar Banerjee’s short film in Ghost Stories. This leads to the same moral hand-wringing so elemental to the genre (Sirohi appears more confused than conflicted about his choices).
Bitten survivors are deemed ‘infected’, to be killed off before they flip. The characters are dull and one-note: Sacred Games’ Jitendra Joshi is hard to take seriously as a villain, coolly negotiating with the dead in reasonable tones, like a liquor peddler during lockdown (“I can get what you crave.”). With the zombies held off by impenetrable doors, the show languishes in vain strategising, none of it interesting or particularly clever. Yet, Betaal does not commit to its inherent gaminess for the most part. “Think of this as a game,” Sirohi tells a young girl in the show (the moment itself is a trope, a hardened mercenary leading a special kid to safety). Pitting modern colonizers against their bygone bosses is a fun idea, and the perfect excuse for a grisly gunfight, the kind seen in online zombie shooter games. But this forest holds a mountain - named for the infernal ‘Betaal’ - and in meddling with its ancient underpass, the squad ends up reviving an army of redcoat zombies. They are ordered to clear out a highway route through a forest all hostiles promptly neutralized. Vineet plays Vikram Sirohi, the deputy in an elite counter-insurgency squad. It stars Vineet Kumar - an odd fit for the material, given the actor’s tendency to take every narrative beat seriously (though he eases up wonderfully near the end). Collection of Vikram Betal Stories (Popular Bed Time Story for Kids / Short Stories) Story 1 Vikram Aur Betaal Heart of Goodness (Popular Bed Time Stories for Kids) Story 2 Vikram Betal Who would be her husband Story 3 Vikram Betal The Blind Judges.
Streaming on Netflix, the 4-part miniseries is produced by Red Chillies Entertainment and directed by Patrick and Nikhil Mahajan.
Imagine being shown the kick-off of your favorite derby match and then having to wait while the players sit out the rain. After giving us a glimpse of its undead breakout - at a tunnel being cleared by a team of commandos - Patrick Graham’s series grinds to a halt, as the surviving characters scurry into an old barrack and ponder their means. The breakneck pacing would have worked if the show wanted to throw down quick, bring out the zombies and the gore.
0 kommentar(er)
