Mithya (2022) :
Movie Review -
The concept of mini-series isn't quite familiar to our industry, despite the fact that it trims a lot of unnecessary elements and makes your viewing experience better. Particularly when it comes to a thriller, pacing is the most important aspect, but many of our modern thrillers that came on OTT have forgotten this basic logic. With a runtime of over 400 minutes, they just couldn't hold on to the thrills and excitement of the product. With ZEE5's latest offering, Mithya, this mistake seems to have found a new solution called 'Mini-Series'. A Mini Series, which is neither too long as a Web series nor too short as a feature film, is a new form of storytelling that finds a perfect middle ground. Directed by Rohan Sippy, Mithya is a six-part original mini-series. It provides a lot of elements all together, with each episode being about 35 minutes long. It does not have a strong motive behind the main story, it doesn't have any concrete reason for the main context of it, whether it is social or personal connect, it lacks soul, but that's not it. Mithya emerges as a clear winner as a thriller, despite being a lukewarm murder mystery, which we have all been seeing for years. It's the conviction of the writer who keeps you guessing about the twists, and they keep coming one after another to leave you with new questions. But the questions that are answered have logic, and that's where Mithya wins you over. Maybe it is also because of the mini-series formula, but at the end of the day, it is always about the right storytelling, and Mithya has got it. The idea of making a risky narrative which hangs over the conflict between Satya and Mithya (Truth and Myth), works very nicely here, luckily, you can say. Otherwise you know ZEE5 and its mediocre products.
Mithya has Huma Qureshi essaying the role of Juhi, a Hindi literature university professor, and Avantika Dassani as her student, Rhea Rajguru. What sparks off as a matter of academic deception soon spirals into a conflicted relationship between the two, leading to a devastating sequence of events. As Juhi and Rhea engage in head-to-head psychological combat, both unwilling to back down, Mithya takes a dark turn and threatens to engulf the two and everyone around them. Things get even more complicated when Juhi's husband Neil (Parambrata Chatterjee) is murdered and both Juhi and Rhea are the main suspects. Will the police and others find the truth, or will it be just another lie? Find out all the answers in Mithya. The screenplay of Mithya stands at the corner of the edge as it never lets your focus go away from the murder. Although you know there has been a murder right from the beginning, it keeps you busy with other things such as obsession, romance, lust, sexual desires, blackmail, family issues and what not. Halfway through, it bores you but picks up later. With an exact runtime of around 300 minutes (excluding credits), Mithya looks quite gripping compared to other web series made recently. Some of the dialogues by Purva Naresh have depth, while some are damn too common. Set in a beautiful atmosphere all around, this series is shot attractively. The way the cinematographer has captured those foggy frames, greenery surroundings, and college campus scenes, definitely adds freshness to your viewing experience.
When it comes to the performances, Mithya is particularly fond of the engaging duel between the experienced Huma Qureshi and debutante Avantika Dassani. Huma has played such characters before, but she has never been through such detail and she has never been involved in such a psychologically charged thriller before. In Mithya, she explores the inner facts of her character as it confers her with enough time out there, and then all she had to do was to challenge the actor in her. She does it and completes the challenge. On the other hand, there is a small-looking dynamo called "Avantika Dassani," which explodes in the debut itself. Avantika and the audience will both remember this series for a long time as a super fine debut. Yes, she looks hot, but her performance is what you should look forward to. I'm not sure if it was her natural accent or she made one for this project (that, I'll get to know with her next filma for sure), but it sounded so lusty, gritty and clean. I didn't expect her to be so flawless in the debut. Actually, i didn't expect nothing. But she surpassed my expectations, rather surprised me. Avantika, you surely are much better than those powered-nose girls in Bollywood who just appear for a cat-walk in the film and disappear without even making a single effort to do some acting.
The male compartment is loaded with talents like Parambrata Chatterjee, Indraneil Gupta, Rajit Kapur, Samir Soni, Krishna Bisht, K. C. Shankar and Rushad Rana. These guys don't need any introduction or further appreciation because they always do their parts well. Mithya, too, is no exception. The supporting ladies, Naina Sareen, Swagata Das, and Bishakha Thapa, have done well, too. There is something missing about the supporting characters, though. They aren't as concrete as the lead cast, but I think they should have been because they play vital parts in taking this storyline forward. For instance, that security guard for Rhea, played by Krishna Bisht, is so obedient and helpful, but we don't know why. Rhea's connection with him and the kind of sexual advances she makes towards him are pretty incomprehensible. The same goes for Huma. What's her sexual need got to do with that so-called colleague who is happily, is out of logic.
Rohan Sippy has remained inconsistent throughout his career. His filmography has some good films, but not all, and such ups and downs are unavoidable for any director. His recent works, however, such as "Nautanki Saala" (2013) and "Criminal Justice" (2020), have brought him back into the game, and with "Mithya," he ensures that he remains in the game. Not only because he was using a new format, such as a mini-series, but also because he did not lose control of the product. The first three episodes have unnecessary vulgarity, but our OTT audience has become quite habitual with that, I guess, so it's okay. The way he makes a strong comeback in the fifth and sixth episodes is all that matters. It's no surprise nowadays that a thriller or a murder mystery should have a strong finish, but making people believe that you are giving them a surprise is a trick that Sippy has mastered here. Mithya's climax isn't an ordinary conclusion. Well, of course, you find the killer, but there is more to it even after that. How smartly Rohan has gambled with the idea of a conflicting balance between truth and myth is something you've got to experience here. "Enough of typical murder mysteries, let's try something else, something new with the same old formulas." Rohan appears to have followed these thoughts, I believe. If you think the same, if you think it's time to get over mainstream thrillers, then make sure you catch Mithya on ZEE5. Overall, it's a nice, engaging thriller on the conflict between Satya and Mithya that also has a lot of brain games involved in it.
RATING - 6/10*
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