Cast: Roshan Mathew, Mohit Raina, Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, Sarah Jane Dias, Ninad Kamat, Mahesh Shetty, Heeba Shah
Director: Chandan Arora
Where to watch: SonyLIV
Rating: ★★★★
In the Israeli series Magpie, the title made sense as the term is used for police informers in the West, and the protagonist was one. In the Hindi adaptation of the acclaimed show, Kankhajura, the protagonist is curiously reduced to a millipede, albeit a dangerous one. The metaphor holds here as well. For Ashu is as small and insignificant as he is dangerous. This tale of love, need for approval, and violent rage is a story well told, but much better performed. If the script keeps you hooked, the performances blow you away. And at the centre of it all is a sublime Roshan Mathew, reminding viewers yet again why he is one of the finest young actors in the country.
Kankhajura review: Roshan Mathew steals the show with the performance of a lifetime.
The plot
Kankhajura is the story of Ashu (Roshan), a young man in Goa, who is released from prison after 14 years. In the meantime, his brother Max (Mohit Raina) has established a minor construction empire, but on illegitimate foundations. Max and his partners treat Ashu like their punching bag even as the latter continues to look for their approval. But there is more to Ashu. The meek, stuttering man is a master manipulator, and the local ACP (Heeba Shah) wants to exploit that. As Max and his cronies push Ashu to the brink, he breaks, and then all hell breaks loose.
How Kankhajura blows you away
On the surface, Kankhajura is a story about acceptance and the need for approval. Ashu's obsession with being good enough for his brother drives all his actions, whether good or bad. The script brings this complex emotion out quite nicely. All the subtleties and intricacies are conveyed in a sublime manner, without hammering the point too hard. That makes the show more relatable and arguably more uncomfortable, too. But that discomfort is natural, because the story talks about difficult emotions, ones that we always keep hidden away.
The show also handles Ashu's intricate plans and machinations quite beautifully. As a clever manipulator, Ashu is always two steps ahead of everyone. But the show does not keep the audience in the dark. In a method evocative of Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, it allows you inside Ashu's mind as he orchestrates people around him, sometimes aided by dumb luck and other times guided by his own bravado. Those sequences are fun, largely because of the thrilling way they have been presented.
The Roshan Mathew show
And the sutradhar of all this is Roshan Mathew. The actor breathes new life into this thriller genre, which is almost at risk of oversaturation on OTT. His performance, already one of the best this year, makes you feel everything for Ashu - from sympathy to disgust to rage. And therein lies the beauty of what Roshan has achieved here. The actor, a famous babyface, has hardly ever handled something this dark and devious. But he coasts through not just the role but the setup, quite flawlessly. Kankhajura is a good show based on the story and the technical aspects alone. Roshan makes it great.
Mohit Raina is a great foil to Roshan. Light years from his Mahadev phase, the actor shows off his range as the selfish and dark Max, a man who can sacrifice anything to get what he wants. That single-minded focus needed to be brought without making him the stereotypical villain, and Mohit Raina manages that. Among the rest of the cast, Mahesh Shetty (as Max's associate Shardul) and Heeba Shah (as the Goa ACP) stand out.
We often hear viewers (and even critics) lament the absence of original stories. Many cringe at remakes, labelling them lazy. But Kankhajura is anything but lazy. It is original, too, marrying the essence of Magpie with the soul of Goa and the heart of desi storytelling. This show proves that if done right, even a remake can be one of the best shows of the year.
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well.
A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism.
Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day.
Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More
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