Review: Sushmita Sen Delivers but 'Aarya 2' Falters in Direction and Details

Aarya, created by Ram Madhvani, is back with its second season, and it has all the elements that could and do at times make for an engaging drama. What they’re going for is the sinister, looming thrill, poised against family struggles. Imagine an early Riverdale, in its initial seasons mixed with some good old gangster drama which Hindi cinema is acquainted with, the Shootout franchise, Gangster, Sarkar and the likes.

The show is in muted colours and creates an atmosphere where all lives revolve around distrust, money and all bets are off. It seems like these characters live in an ugly underbelly of constant stress where you have to look over your shoulder at all times (and somehow, even under this much pressure, Sushmita Sen remains perfectly beautiful and poised. Cinema, ladies and gentleman, a land of fantasy).

The elements here remain more or less the same as the first season. A new single mother, three children who are lost to different degrees, some burdened with maturity and responsibility and others drowning themselves in typical teenage tantrums and reactions going down the path of drugs, alcohol and violent outbursts.

Aarya’s daughter is perhaps, with her blue hair and smoky eyes, the most cliche and obvious image of “problem child” and was one of my least favourite and least watchable elements of the show, primarily because of how obvious that track and everything about it was.

Death, family tragedy, sibling rivalries that go too far, and friendships that change, Aarya 2 has it all. After the death of her husband and her stint in New Zealand and Australia, Aarya, hesitant and unsure, returns to India with her three kids, to testify against her father and brother in a ground breaking case. When her testimony doesn’t go as planned, and her brother’s truth starts to come out, everyone’s lives are turned upside down.

Children are born, wives are scorned and ultimately, from the tragedy, emerges Aarya like a phoenix once again. A show about family drama and female strength, Aarya 2 focuses more on motherhood and family than the last. In this season, the screen belongs mostly to women, be it Aarya, her friend, her sister-in-law or even the corrupt cop.

Sushmita Sen’s charm and screen presence, her poise and power, the perfection with which she exists in each frame, is almost a reminder that beneath all this grit, drama, death and treachery of a show like Aarya, we are at the end of the day watching a once upon a time Miss Universe who has, undoubtedly, the grace and grandeur we all have to come love and which doesn’t, regardless of the genre of cinema she’s a part of, be it Main Hoon Na and its comedy or Aarya’s more serious note, ever falter.

Other actors in the show also deliver good performances, most of them are mostly hitting the right pitch. Speaking of pitch, the music too, is quite enjoyable. The music score works well and is beautiful in its own independent right, not just as a compliment to the show. The screenplay doesn’t waste time. The drama escalates quickly and the story gets straight to the point.

Where the show lacks, and it shows obviously, is the direction and set design. The direction is awkward, clumsy and far too obvious, purposely stylised to the point that one is aware of the camera all the time.

The set design, too, whether it is the family-owned bar or the safe houses, the antique stores where drugs are found or the police station, seem very positioned and hardly natural even if they are real life locations, this again perhaps being cause for concern due to the awkward direction.

While the screenplay delivers, the story itself isn’t milked entirely for the conflict that it can allow. Before things can hit the roof, they are easily addressed and resolved. Whether it is a murder attempt on Aarya or her daughter’s deteriorating mental health and self-harm tendencies, everything is touched upon and then withdrawn, not allowing for extreme conflict and drama.

The reminded me of a few shows, like 13 Reasons Why for example, who will go the extra mile and not only show the brutality they hint at, but will let you squirm in the face of sexual assault, blood, gore and death without allowing any breathing space. While that is more my style, this seems lukewarm in comparison.

The technicalities in the script are clearly unexplored. The scenes dealing with the court case demonstrate only a vague knowledge of legal proceedings or even discussions on drug use. Harder drugs especially the kinds that the UNODC raids buildings and entire countries for, are talked about in glacial ways – “Drugs kahan hai?” becomes a blanket go to and any further discussion on the creating, buying and selling of those materials is not given any space, even though it is one of the most important plot points.

Had the show focused a little on these technical details, it perhaps would’ve been able to deliver better on its promise of gritty realism.

Aarya’s mothering nature extends well beyond her own family and is sometimes placed in the oddest of moments and situations, but makes for a fun watch. The unpredictability of characters, who they will side with and turn on, also makes for an exciting factor of the show. For a family crime drama, the series has all that most of us want and I wish we got to see more of Sushmita Sen more often.