'P.I. Meena' web series review: Tanya Maniktala tries her best to lift the convoluted show but…

Cast: Tanya Maniktala, Parambrata Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Vinay Pathak

Director: Debaloy Bhattacharya

Language: Hindi

Mysterious deaths, mysterious murders, and a complex narrative; that’s what makers have in store for viewers while penning and giving whodunnits today. Amazon Prime Video IN has come up with a show called P.I Meena, PI stands for private investigator, and the character is played by Tanya Maniktala. She emotes sparely, and the show revels in its dark frames, both to justify the bruised demeanour of the protagonist and the supposed thrills the story has to offer.

She’s investigating a case and as the series digs deeper, we are told there’s a mysterious fever looming large. Inserting COVID-19 into the narrative is clearly fascinating the landscape of content these days, with The Vaccine War and Bloody Daddy most recently. The show is set against the backdrop of Kolkata, but the city never blends into the story like it did so effortlessly in Sujoy Ghosh’s 2012 Kahaani. Also, director Debaloy Bhattacharya is not content by making a pure, pulpy suspense thriller, he wants to delve deeper into the complexities of the genre, even at the cost of making the show convoluted.

Maniktala has a lovely screen presence but as stated above, the genre itself is so obsessed with its shock value that it barely gives her an opportunity to open up. In a statement, while talking about her character, she said, “Meena is very different from what I have done in the past. Her determination to fight for what’s right, her emotional overdrive and the nuances of her persona are what convinced me to not miss the opportunity to play her.”

She’s not entirely wrong. The character is a far departure from what we saw of her in A Suitable Boy, Flames, or even Tooth Pari. These were the shows where she smiled quite often, here, she’s sulking and mostly solemn. Even detectives and investigators can break into a smile, at least when they know they are taking the right direction to solve the mystery. Maybe next time.

P.I. Meena is streaming on Amazon Prime Video

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