Jamtara- A Netflix original series
Cast- Amit Sial, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Sparsh Shrivastava, Monika Panwar, Aksha Pardasany
Director- Soumendra Padhi
Genre- Crime Drama
My rating- 2.5/5
Netflix’s latest release Jamtara: Sabka Number ayega, which is getting popular from a last few days, has done a genuine attempt to live up to the expectations of its viewers but has failed badly in reaching the hearts of its viewers.
The trailer gives an impression that the show deals with how cyber-crimes take place but all I found after an evening of binge watching was a feud between two rural parties trying to make money through phishing calls. All I kept doing was to wait for some serious thing to be shown which never happened.
Jamtara, revolves around an inspiring youngster, Sunny from the eponymous district in Jharkhand who is making huge money by indulging in phishing and eventually ends up in difficult situations. The first three episodes are really slow and tend to test the viewer’s patience. However, fortunately the fourth episode picks up with the interrogation sequences making an impact.
Led by Sunny Mondal (Sparsh Shrivastava), a 17 year old boy, a group of fraudsters, in Jharkhand are cyber criminals and run scams through phone calls. They are brilliant minds behind the feared urban nightmares of SMS scams and phone calls that lead to money disappearing from bank accounts. These boys take advantage of innocent Indians. From TV anchors to magistrates to police officers, who are lured by the natural feminine voices on the other end of the phone call, are fooled and robbed blatantly through phone calls. There is a hint of spilled milk and crying in vain as the story sets in. However, we all know how it works.
For all of us, it has happened at least to a friend or a friend of a friend or a neighbour. Isn’t it? But the question is- what happens when the money disappears? How do the victims deal with it? How do the police respond? And how exactly the technology of cyber-crime functions? We wanted to know this, and I wanted to see this in the series. But to my surprise, all of this is missing from the series. Absolutely missing.
I won’t say that the premise isn’t interesting. It surely is. The local language, the acting and yes of course the characters are well-rounded. The lacking part is the well-thought-out script. In spite of the missing known faces (except for Amit Sial), the cast has still managed to deliver an authentic feel. The series lets the viewers embark on a trip to Jamtara- its dry lands, fishy people and tall grasses through its 10 episodes of 25-40 minutes each. All the actors have given spectacular performances and the one which cannot be missed, and which truly gripped me is the performance of Monika Panwar as Gudiya. However, sadly it is truly hard to like the series overall.
However, the story kept on delving into the clashes between the corrupt politicians and the state police. The ending is abrupt giving us a cliched cue of a second season. I would have appreciated a more logical conclusion instead of leaving the viewers in a lurch.
The show writer lost the interest of the viewers as soon as it started showing the same old usual story of small-town landowner with political power and an honest cop trying to solve a crime. Perhaps, a little more research on the actual subject of phishing would have made Jamtara stand out.
All in all, I would say, Jamtara had the potential to be the ‘next big hit’ and could have stayed with the viewers for a long time but it just ended up being nothing more than just a one-time watch which too can be missed easily.
That is my take on the series.
Have you watched it? What do you have to say?
Would you like to watch it now?
Do share your views in the comment section below.