Rating: ***
Writer-director P R Arun and Malayalam star-actor Nivin Pauly have gotten together for a series that is more commendable for what it attempts—an expose of the alleged misdemeanours in the pharmaceutical industry—than what it actually achieves. The execution often fumbles in trying to remain true to its intent, and the narration occasionally derails for the lack of a cohesive screenplay.
What holds the plot together is the principal actor. Nivin Pauly is always excellent in playing the underdog. Here he is K P Vinod , a medical representative saddled with a luxury he can’t afford: a conscience. The series records Vinod’s bumpy journey—and I don’t mean that only in the context of the plot—with a touching earnestness, often let down by budgetary and other constraints.
This is a series where the production values are so tacky that when the plot moves to ‘Dubai’ or ‘Amritsar’, junior artistes posing as Sheikhs and Sardars are the road signs.
All through the uneven narration Pauly remains in character: quiet and shaken , gradually gathering the courage to take on the pharmaceutical giant Aravind(Alekh Kapoor).
Some of the peripheral characters needed sharper contours. Only two characters besides the protagonist, get any kind of coherent voice. One is the female doctor Dr Janaki(Shruti Ramachandran) , a character whose nobility offers some mobility to the staccato screenplay, and Dr Rajiv Rao(Rajit Kapoor) who drowns in his own selfrighteousness.
The characters lack contours, though they are not uni-dimensional. But there is the death of depth in the pursuit of an elusive paciness. In spite of its dedicated attempts to be alert, the narration succumbs to an unintended sluggishness, and worse, an attempt to hurry through some vital details.
The story of the whistleblower reminded me of David Mackenzie’s Relay . But the screenplay in Pharma is way too simplistic and ultimately too naïve to negotiate the dips and curves required in a story where corruption runs deep.
What stands out is Nivin Pauly , because he doesn’t try to stand out.
