The Raikar Case Is A Messy Clunky  Whodunit

The Raikar Case(Voot, 7 Episodes)

Starring  Atul Kulkarni, Ashwini  Bhave, Neil Bhoopalan

Directed  by  Aditya Sarpotdar

 Rating: * ½

It is hard to believe  that an actor  of  Atul Kulkarni’s   calibre can  be  part of such  a dumb charade. Some  wise critics have actually praised  the  ‘suspense’ in this ‘binge therapy’ of a whodunit . Therapy  for what, I wonder? Insomnia?

 Sure  there is suspense. Of the kind that keeps renewing itself like caterpillars.The  murder  suspects multiply like  roosters  during the mating season.In every episode there is a  new suspect   and  the same set  of screaming characters played  by  hammy actors whose brief seems  to be: roll your eyes and  smack your lips and the rest will follow.

Sorry, it doesn’t. The Raikar Case represents  the  worst  kind of  web production, with  ridiculous CGs  of a murder victim  plunging down a cliff at the start  of  every episode like a warning  for bilge to  follow. The shot of the  murder victim’s fall  looks astonishingly   artificial and sets  the mood for  the  hysterical hijinks  in  high places that  follow.

Atul  Kulkarni,  a  master of restrain in the  best of circumstances , here seems to be  at a loss saddled as he is with a  plot and dialogues that unravel like  bundles  of  dead  hay.As for Neil Bhoopalan’s  cop act , he  mouths his lines as  though they embarrassed  the hell out of him.As they should  any  decent actor.

Atul Kulkarni’s  screen family  comprises  youngsters who  haven’t a clue  about how to  hold a frame let alone manoeuvre  through  a whole scene. They are not to blame when  the plot  keeps saddling them with new developments  every minute as  though the murder was a  central crime for any  Tom Dick and Harry to climb.

It  was  good to see the long-missing Ashwini Bhave  back as Kulkarni’s wife. Sadly  this wimpy webseries doesn’t know what  to do with her. Most of the time  she  is heard wheezing through her lines to denote deep distress.

We  know  how that feels after  sitting  through the deeply disgusting shallow shadow play between  a frisky family soap and  halfbaked  whodunit.Skip this one  unless you are sucker for self-punishment. Aren’t we getting   enough distress already?