Bestseller Season 1 review: Shruti Haasan, Gauahar Khan try in vain to save this predictable but pacy thriller series

1.5/5

Based on Ravi Subramaniam's novel The Bestseller She Wrote, Amazon Prime Video’s latest web series Bestseller revolves around Tahir Wazir (Arjan Bajwa) – the author of a bestselling book who has been struggling to get past his writer’s block for a decade. He happens to meet the meek, wide-eyed fangirl and aspiring writer, Meetu Mathur (Shruti Haasan), at a café he frequents. This chance encounter makes him realise that the story behind the scars on her wrist could make for a sequel to his last (and only) hit novel- Raand, Saand, Seedhi Sanyasi (the title being borrowed from a couplet by Saint Kabir). On the other hand, Mayanka Kapoor (Gauahar Khan) is an award-winning ad filmmaker who’s married to Tahir. She hires a new intern, Parth Acharya (Satyajeet Dubey), and doesn’t have the slightest idea of his true intentions or what he’s capable of doing, being an IT expert. What happens when the ones close to Tahir find themselves in a web of danger, death, deceit, and revenge that forms the rest of the story.

The most important aspect of a well-made thriller is when the viewer is invested enough to keep playing the guessing game until the big reveal. Writers Anvita Dutt and Althea Kaushal along with director Mukul Abhyankar fail to deliver on this crucial aspect in Bestseller. They end up revealing too much too soon. No matter how promising and interesting the premise of the story is if the story gives away everything before half the series is over, it becomes very difficult to keep the viewer engaged enough to sit through the other half. 

Bestseller disappoints in keeping the mystery intact around the leads, right from the very first episode, where it reveals the true identity of one of the antagonists. Just when you’re beginning to get past this, three episodes later, there’s another major reveal that leaves nothing to the imagination and makes things very evident to the viewer in terms of who is doing what. The only loose thread by which the remaining four episodes (of this eight-episode long series) hang is the desire to know the "why" behind the antagonists' actions. And frankly, the viewers today are smart enough to see the reason for it much more easily in advance, which makes the show a lot more predictable than it should have been. The background score, too, does little to help in building the required tension. 

What works in Bestseller's favour, though, is the pace and length of every episode. It’s a smart move, a welcome respite, to keep each episode around 30 minutes or so and not stretch it unnecessarily. You wouldn’t want to wait endlessly to get to the chase when you already know the truth about the characters and can anticipate what’s going to happen next.

When it comes to performances, Shruti Haasan tries her best to get into the skin of her character. In the first four episodes, her timid, fan-girl demeanour sometimes hits but mostly misses the mark. However, she does shine in the second half of the series, especially in a couple of single-take scenes where she effortlessly switches between her character traits. Arjan Bajwa does a fair job as the self-absorbed snob who doesn’t even want to acknowledge the consequences of his actions, let alone take responsibility for them. Gauahar Khan’s portrayal of Mayanka stands out, and you can’t help but laud her sincere efforts to rescue some poorly written scenes with her acting chops. Towards the end, there’s a scene where she’s given the most absurd lines to mock Tahir when he’s told the truth about Meetu and Parth, and she still delivers them with conviction.

Mithun Chakraborty is in his element as the cop, Lokesh Pramanik. It’s a pity that he doesn’t get enough room to shine, especially since Bestseller is his OTT debut. Sonalee Kulkarni, who is otherwise a good actress, is utterly wasted as the cybercrime officer, Urmila Ranade. Satyajeet Dubey comes as a surprise package with his portrayal of Parth. We only saw glimpses of his mettle as an actor in 2021’s Mumbai Diaries 26/11. In Bestseller, he gets more opportunities to explore the greys of his character, only to be let down by the terrible screenplay.

There are a plethora of good thrillers available on OTTs to watch this weekend. It wouldn’t hurt to skip this one.