The Last Hour review: Karma’s shaman barely manages to save this doomed web show

It appears that director Amit Kumar aimed to make an Indian version of the German sci-fi, thriller Dark but achieved only 20% of that goal,

A still from The Last Hour

The Last Hour

Amazon Prime Video’s The Last Hour is not your typical Indian web series. It deals with people who have the ability to change time, shamans who can communicate with the dead and of course, mere mortals.

Being a supernatural crime-thriller, this one has forces of good and evil vying against each other. In the good camp, you have shaman Dev (Karma Tapaka) and cops Arup (Sanjay Kapoor) and Lupika (Shahana Goswami). Yama Nadu (Robin Tamang) is the evil shaman here while the entire story revolves around debutante Shaylee Krishen’s weak protagonist, Pari.

It appears that director Amit Kumar aimed to make an Indian version of the German sci-fi thriller Dark but achieves only 20% of that goal. It also explores time travel and loops, with the shamans revisiting the last hour of the deceased and hence the title.

The series also suffers due to below-par editing, which robs the viewers an opportunity to sink into any scene. So, even though the show has a few special moments, they appear rushed, impacting the overall storyline. The Last Hour, however, does become redundant and hence boring soon.

The show sets the dark tone right from the start, with a mad man shrieking and screaming that death is everywhere. Sanjay’s Arup is introduced early, but suffers from limited character growth. Apart from a few father-daughter moments, the makers hardly make use of his presence.

Newcomer Karma’s character is the one that brings some semblance of life to the show. He makes his role as shaman convincing, acting with his eyes and fluent body language. But even this isn’t enough to help salvage The Last Hour.

While the heroes and villains are all men in the show, it’s the female characters that are fleshed out well through some good writing. The character of Doma (Tenzien Choden), who has hidden abilities, impresses. Supporting actors such as Raima Sen and Shahana too shine in their limited roles. While Raima, for most part only has to walk through the forest, kills it with her expressions, Shahana’s Lupika, despite being a supporting act, has more impact than Sanjay’s Arup in most scenes.

Unless you are a huge fan of Raima or Shahana, you wouldn’t mind skipping this show. And even if you are, the time would be better spent watching their previous films.

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