Listen, we live in a country where people don't try anything new. It pisses me off. Think about the amount of potential going waste just because you are doing what you are told is the right thing instead of what you really want to do. In that department, I am in awe of the creators of OK COMPUTER. A series that can easily be called one of the most unique things to come out of India (the last film that comes to mind when I think like this is TUMBBAD).
However, its positivity ends right there. Because while it is a truly new concept to execute in India, it is not at all a 'new' concept. AI, Sci-Fi, robots, the "3 rules of robotics" - it's a direct callback to I, Robot. Of course, the makers must completely be aware of all this, but maybe they were thinking along the lines of - yeah, it's old, but it hasn't been done in India!
Which prompts the question - who is this series made for? Is it made for the soap-opera consumer, or for the millennial genuinely invested in the times that are looking ahead?
It seems to be designed for the aam janta, yet it tries to be clever and stylish enough to be a millennially-aimed product. But all that aside. The attempt to be different, outlandish, quirky, is SO obvious that that's all the show comes across as. Often I was losing track of what was going on in the scene because I was so distracted by the gigantic traffic woman's hologram, or by things happening in the background causing me to miss crucial dialogue in the foreground, and subsequently lose track of the conversation.
And speaking of holograms, just a little bit of light hitting the wall or the tree when a hologram is projected would have lent nicely to the realism of the effect. However there's just a hologram with no effect on the light in the environment, hence it looks extremely fake even after all the hard work.
I didn't like it. I didn't enjoy it. It was trying to be oversmart with really outdated ideas. I enjoyed one scene thoroughly however, the fight between Apte and Varma through the glass door. But it was interrupted and ended with one of the worst monologues ever by a third character. This is not a comment on her acting skills - Kusruti is a splendid performer. The sudden tonal shift, the attempt at humorous sorrow - this was all, again, an attempt to be too smart with the filmmaking, sacrificing story and emotion for style.
PS - I did not watch beyond episode 1.
However, its positivity ends right there. Because while it is a truly new concept to execute in India, it is not at all a 'new' concept. AI, Sci-Fi, robots, the "3 rules of robotics" - it's a direct callback to I, Robot. Of course, the makers must completely be aware of all this, but maybe they were thinking along the lines of - yeah, it's old, but it hasn't been done in India!
Which prompts the question - who is this series made for? Is it made for the soap-opera consumer, or for the millennial genuinely invested in the times that are looking ahead?
It seems to be designed for the aam janta, yet it tries to be clever and stylish enough to be a millennially-aimed product. But all that aside. The attempt to be different, outlandish, quirky, is SO obvious that that's all the show comes across as. Often I was losing track of what was going on in the scene because I was so distracted by the gigantic traffic woman's hologram, or by things happening in the background causing me to miss crucial dialogue in the foreground, and subsequently lose track of the conversation.
And speaking of holograms, just a little bit of light hitting the wall or the tree when a hologram is projected would have lent nicely to the realism of the effect. However there's just a hologram with no effect on the light in the environment, hence it looks extremely fake even after all the hard work.
I didn't like it. I didn't enjoy it. It was trying to be oversmart with really outdated ideas. I enjoyed one scene thoroughly however, the fight between Apte and Varma through the glass door. But it was interrupted and ended with one of the worst monologues ever by a third character. This is not a comment on her acting skills - Kusruti is a splendid performer. The sudden tonal shift, the attempt at humorous sorrow - this was all, again, an attempt to be too smart with the filmmaking, sacrificing story and emotion for style.
PS - I did not watch beyond episode 1.
