Jhansi review: A shoddy thriller about a woman who refuses to move beyond her dark past

1.5/5

Story:

Jhansi, a boutique owner, is an independent woman staying with her partner and his daughter. Whenever he broaches the topic of marriage, she refuses to take a step ahead. She is yet to move on from a personal tragedy that affected her five years ago. When she saves a girl from a molester at a wedding, Jhansi’s past catches up with her and rekindles several bitter memories from her childhood. Caught between her past and the present, where’s Jhansi’s destiny headed?

Review:

Jhansi, the latest entrant on Disney+ Hotstar, is a classic example of Telugu digital space’s inability to understand the grammar of a web show. Spanning six episodes, the show, at most parts, feels like a bloated feature film that doesn’t pay heed to details and relies on a few cinematic liberties in the garb of thrills. While the story is wafer-thin, the narrative aimlessly moves at a frenetic pace. The characters are caricaturish, the treatment is immensely outdated and the acting, largely substandard.

The show revolves around an amnesia patient who’s lost track of her past and is trying to connect the dots through a few images that haunt her repeatedly. She’s unable to come to terms with her present without finding answers to her past. Jhansi touches upon issues like trafficking, child abuse, sexuality and crime while unravelling vignettes from the early years of its titular character. However, it’s a half-baked effort where the absence of conviction in the making never lets you soak in its world.

When we say conviction or earnestness, we’re talking about the way Jhansi is written. Jhansi never feels like an authentic female-centric show at any point because there’s no effort to understand the mind of a woman and its tone is condescending across several instances. When Jhansi’s subordinate says, ‘The boutique is for those petty women who find happiness in fancy clothes over marriages,’ it’s very obvious that the line is coming from a man.

Another man judges his wife when she drowns herself at work and is not able to make time for her child. The man makes his partner feel guilty for giving her everything to work. A middle-aged woman who is busy watching television is portrayed as an example of a mother who can’t raise her children well. Amidst these inconsistencies, it’s hard to buy a so-called ‘empowering’ story of a female protagonist who stands up for her ilk that falls prey to trafficking.

The portrayal of the trafficking mafia and the exaggerated performances consistently make Jhansi look like a poorly made feature film trying hard to pass off as a web show. There’s a homosexual angle to the protagonist too but director Thiru struggles to establish that well. There are several loopholes in the storytelling and the filmmaker expects us to buy them in the name of artistic liberty.

Jhansi has a gamut of subplots - from a man fighting for his activist girlfriend to a prisoner trying to avenge his father’s death - though none of them strikes a chord. The antagonists are straight out of 70s Hindi masala films - loud, comically flamboyant parts who don jarring costumes, rolling out flashy one-liners from their pockets. The makers have little understanding of the nuances of screen-writing standards for the web and take the audiences for granted.

It’s extremely disappointing to see competent performers like Anjali and Chandini Chowdary trying to find some purpose in such a clueless setup. Chandini Chowdary as Barbie gets a poorly written role and the creators always can’t get away with the excuse of ‘we wanted to tell her story in the second season.’ Make the first season well and take care of the rest. Aadarsh Balakrishna, Aberaam Varma, Talluri Rameswari and Devi Prasad hardly make an impact.

Samyukta Hornad is miscast as a Telangana cop. Raj Arjun’s loud, over-the-top performance ensures some unintentional humour while Chaitanya Varma Sagiraju is passable at best. Surprisingly, Mumaith Khan leaves her mark in an intriguing role. While Jhansi may not have an out-of-the-box story, it could’ve been a better show with a sensitive writer/director who made a sincere effort to understand his material and paid attention to its nuances.

Verdict:

Jhansi is a poorly made web show - there are no two things about it. Anjali and Mumaith Khan deliver the goods while better writing and filmmaking could’ve salvaged it to an extent. If you’re looking to binge on this, think twice - we’ve warned you!