Raanbaazaar series review: Abhijit Panse and Tejaswini Pandit steal the show which makes every minute of your time worth it

4/5

Story:

Ayesha (Tejaswini Pandit) is the lead suspect in Sayajirao (Manoj Joshi)'s murder. Suspended cop Charu Mokashi (Abhijit Panse) comes back to his job for this case and his world turns upside down with the change.

Review:

Abhijit Panse's Raanbaazaar is one of the few Marathi series that leaves an impact. This one has something going on in every minute, if not every second, that captures your attention.

All the actors, including Abhijit, Tejaswini Pandit, Sachin Khedekar, Dr. Mohan Agashe, Prajakti Mali, Anant Jog, Makrand Deshpande and Madhuri Pawar know their roles and nail every minute of it. Special applauds go to Madhuri, Makrand and of course, Abhijit, who literally never wavered in one episode and gave brilliant performances consistently, even if they appeared in cameos. All the other actors performed brilliantly too but their character graph is only a little less impressive than the three.

The title - Raanbaazaar - is actually misleading in one sense. The story is not based on women from the red light area, at least not completely. This story is about every person being a puppet - almost a pimp - at the hands of the wealthy and powerful. So, the story is actually about powerplay.

The best part about Raanbaazaar is also that even if the story is about the shifting power and how every person plays a role in that, the show never turns dramatic for effect or tries to be too sophisticated. It tells you the tale, raw and unearthed. By raw, again, it does not go too deep into the gory politics but conveys the message beautifully and in a power-packed but cryptic way. Raanbaazaar, instead, takes a natural turn at almost every step. Even if you feel there are loose ends, that feeling completely disappears when you can join the dots by the end of the series. 

Imagine this powerful story - about where the power lies - mixed with some brilliant actors on screen. That is what Raanbaazaar offers you - an experience worth investing in.

This show has serious issues like bullying, losing control over self among other things and just like in real life, it shows how these things come naturally in situations when there is insecurity and injustice - the root problems a common and truthful man faces. The matter of fact that these issues haven't been forcefully added and almost gel in with the story in its natural progression, says a lot about what this show is like. It is kept as real as possible and in its rawest form.

Verdict:

Every minute you invest in Raanbaazaar is worth your time. This is not a story that takes you into the life of a prostitute or many prostitutes, so do not expect that. The show offers you something much better - about how a prostitute, whether lower or higher class, everybody from the police force, politicians and journalists are interlinked and work hand-in-hand. The story could possibly not have been told in a better way and so, Raanbaazaar should be in your list of must-watch shows.