'Mumbai Diaries 26/11' Review: Feels frickin’ fake ya

Mumbai Diaries 2611On Amazon Prime VideoDir Nikkhil Advani Nikhil GonsalvesCast Mohit Rana Konkona SensharmaRating 12Two of the most misrepresented public professions we know are probably news media and the police As part of the first I stand guilty of having done the same towards the latter Which isnrsquot to suggest both donrsquot have more than their fair share of absolute douche bags The issue is with their representation as a bulk where you come across seeming like an ignorant outsidertrollAs does this show with a TV news reporter Shreya Dhanwanthary risking her life to cover 2611 terror attacks in Mumbai She gets on a car to crash herself in it so she can enter the hospital as a patient instead Whatrsquos the scoop shersquos looking for inside Death of cityrsquos top cops whom she calls inspector later Promise no nightcrawler would do that There is no scoopThe said cops badly shot by terrorists in the tragedy are indeed dead Docs canrsquot save all lives The terrorist himself a rare one to have been nabbed has a chance of survival This is when the underling policeman at the hospital in public pulls a gun against the surgeonrsquos head saying there is no way the militant will be sent to an operation theatre He has to die You donrsquot have to be a Sherlock to knowmdashno cop will do that eitherWithout saving that life as crucial evidencemdasha reason Ajmal Kasab became the first groundlevel face of global terrormdashhow do you uncover a massive international conspiracy behind the coordinated attacks by 10 armed men in Mumbai that 26112008 was And this show despite the detailing doesnrsquot seem so much about that Why namemilk it thusIrsquom guessing the attempt mustrsquove been to script a strong medical dramaprocedural set in the emergency room or casualty ward of a government hospital And look at what everyone goes through when shit hits the dusty creaky fan That it always doesSuch as a maverick surgeon Mohit Raina who constantly performs surgeries breaking protocol with a lsquochya mayla tujhya aylarsquo type foulmouthed cop posted in the lobby to badger him And the hospital head Prakash Belwadi perennially rolling in disbelief This same cop has bullets pumped into his body but would rather not be treated by a Dalit doc Another bullet he simply never dies This fellow is named Mayankmdashhow can I forgetThe series eight episodes averaging 45 minutes each is set over a few hours overnight with the city under siege massacred patients getting wheeled in and deaths hovering over There is enough room for everyone to dreamily segue into their personal back stories still And even front stories with random politicsdynamics developing between three young trainee docs Satyajeet Dubey Natasha Bharadwaj Mrunmayee Deshpande whorsquove literally joined the same damned evening for workI havenrsquot seen Sanjivani on TV Have you seen a patiently unraveling Indian medical dramathriller centred on the life of doctors This couldrsquove been that There is nothing to fault the frontline actors on this show mentioned aboveIn my books Konkana Sensharma who plays a healthcare exec here remains a delight regardless of where she appears She draws you in still As does Mohit Raina a top TV actor whose fan base I became familiar with only when he was nominated for an audiencepoll award for a 2019 ZEE5 show Kaafir He beat the hell out of Manoj Bajpayee from The Family ManItrsquos the walkon parts sidecast as they saymdashguard cop nurse traineersquos dadmdashthat are such a mismatch seems like they were instructed to go OTT because theyrsquore on such a platformMumbai Diaries 2611 also has major portions set in the Taj named Palace Hotel Chabad House ldquo25 km away from Islamabadrdquo etc The main location called Bombay General Hospital is obviously standin for Cama HospitalWhich is attacked on this show by three terroristsmdashup against a decent convoy of cops inside with proper weapons and bulletproof jackets and a posse of press outside Which is a distortion of reality that might especially irk those from Mumbai who knew how that night played outmdashthanks to television news that the makers loathe so much by the waymdashor many like me who had family in that tragedy 2611 changed everything though How do you change 2611 itself Unsurprisingly the best works reflecting it are still in the space thatrsquos chiefly documentary Hotel Mumbai Rubaru Roshni Scott Clark amp Levyrsquos book Borders on dumbfery if you go far as Mumbai Diaries sometimes descends to lifegyan or Gadar level conversations over ldquoisko maroon ya nahinrdquomdashkill the terrorist or notWhat hurts more as a viewer is a show that is so technically soundmdashproduction design photography action with scalebudgets to back itmdashthat it looks devastatingly real And yet scriptstory wise so intellectually bereft that it feels frickinrsquo inauthenticfake

'Mumbai Diaries 26/11' Review: Feels frickin’ fake ya

Mumbai Diaries 26/11
On: Amazon Prime Video
Dir: Nikkhil Advani, Nikhil Gonsalves
Cast: Mohit Rana, Konkona Sensharma
Rating: *1/2

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Home / Entertainment / Web Series / Article / 'Mumbai Diaries 26/11' Review: Feels frickin’ fake ya

'Mumbai Diaries 26/11' Review: Feels frickin’ fake ya

Mumbai Diaries 26/11On: Amazon Prime VideoDir: Nikkhil Advani, Nikhil GonsalvesCast: Mohit Rana, Konkona SensharmaRating: *1/2

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Mumbai Diaries 26/11
On: Amazon Prime Video
Dir: Nikkhil Advani, Nikhil Gonsalves
Cast: Mohit Rana, Konkona Sensharma
Rating: *1/2