Inspector Avinash review (Episodes 1-3): Randeep Hooda swings between clichés and charisma

Cast: Randeep Hooda, Urvashi Rautela, Abhimanyu Singh, Govind Namdev, Kiran Kumar, Freddy Daruwala

Director: Neerraj Pathak

Language: Hindi

The milieu of Uttar Pradesh, what we recognize as the heartland of India, or one of the heartlands, always gives filmmakers opportunities to create stories that brim with rust, gore, and dark humour. The deja vu of Dabangg looms large despite an earnest and arresting performance and aura of Randeep Hooda in his new show Inspector Avinash. He plays a cop and he has played a cop before in Jannat 2, Kick, Risk, and Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, and it’s to Hooda’s credit he succeeds in separating the same role from one another.

The show is directed by Neerraj Pathak, a filmmaker obsessed with extra letters and spelling his films’ monikers curiosity and amusingly, be it Right Yaaa Wrong or Bhaiyaji Superhittt. And this series combines the thrill of the former and the small-town comedy of the latter, with mildly captivating results. Pathak has penned the story, screenplay, dialogues, and produced the show too. Hooda’s eponymous character gets a masaledaar entry, emerging from inside a river after eliminating a gangster. It’s all a swing between cliches and charisma. Hooda has always been a reliable and solid actor often trapped in underwhelming stories. Here too, we have a father-son conflict, expletives for effect, and a doting, sanskari wife (Urvashi Rautela).

Filmmakers often defend the datedness of their work by citing real life examples of how this actually exists. But does that give them the license to escape from their lack of novelty? Avinash, a man with both swag and sanskar, soon breaks the fourth wall and asks the viewers if he’s the hero or the villain. The show is broken into chapters. The first one is about an assassination threat to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, played by Kiran Kumar. One of the joys of watching shows you initially have no virtual interest in is to see actors that nearly disappeared from the roost midway. Here, we get to see Kiran Kumar and Govind Namdev, and for a second it feels like we are back to the 90s, in good ways.

What’s perplexing today is how the makers split the series. The Jio Cinema app is currently streaming only three episodes and the remaining ones will air as days go by. It breaks the rhythm of the show and also the mood. Is this a new marketing tactic?

Inspector Avinash is currently streaming on Jio Cinema app

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