Amazon Prime’s new-age thriller titled Bestseller is directed by Mukul Abhyankar and, produced by Siddharth Malhotra’s Alchemy Production. The series features an ensemble cast that includes Mithun Chakraborty, Shruti Haasan, Arjan Bajwa, Gauahar Khan, Satyajeet Dubey and Sonalee Kulkarni in prominent roles. With eight chapters unfolding and, a runtime of around 30 to 35 minutes for each of them, the show is gripping with its pace and, memorable with its storytelling.
– Amazon Prime Video’s Bestseller Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers –
Bestseller: an Honest Story Wrapped in Lies, Deciet, Revenge and Crime
What is it that intrigues us when we pick up a book? What is it that makes a story a bestselling piece in the market? And most importantly, what goes behind the ink and pages of the story we are reading? Amazon Prime’s 2022 series Bestseller based on the 2017 Ravi Subramanian novel titled The Bestseller She Wrote engages us in these questions and, delves into the darker side of the glitzy and glamourous world of the stories we consume.
The show introduces us to Tahir Wazir (played by Arjan Bajwa), a celebrated Indian novelist who has been stuck with a writer’s block for the past ten years. His last book was a major hit, turning into a piece of cinema but, there has been nothing to inspire him to write since. Until he meets Meetu Mathur (played by Shruti Haasan). A huge fan of Tahir and, a writer herself, Meetu seeks guidance, whereas Tahir finds himself a muse in Meetu that inspires him to write again. However, amidst the exchange of stories and ideas, chaos enrages with some simple war of words getting out of hand and, a buried story that finds its way out.
As drama and death embrace the lives of Tahir, Meetu and, the people closest to them, ACP Lokesh Paramanik (played by Mithun Chakraborty) steps into the scene to unravel the mystery that remains slyly hidden from the lives of our characters. But, with everything on the plate, will Tahir be able to produce himself another story that will become a bestseller? Or, will he perish under the pressure?
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Bestseller is a show that comes with its own merits and, drawbacks. With a short runtime, each episode is able to completely wrap us in its enigma. We sit on the edge of our seats wondering who is who and, what happens next. The screenplay smoothly engages us in the story and, even though it is predictable, the fast-paced unfolding of the events works in the favour of the predictability of the plot as you don’t have to hold your breath for too long to know if you guessed it right or wrong.
The actors are brilliant in their respective roles. Shruti Haasan as Meetu is an enigma to behold and, she keeps us tied to her personal story like no other. Arjan Bajwa has the correct tone of being a frustrated writer and, an arc that lets us gets under his skin. A pleasant surprise was watching Satyajeet Dubey, who we have previously seen in Amazon Prime’s Mumbai Diaries 26/11. The actor really proved a point with his portrayal of Parth Acharya in this series. Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty is funny, intimidating and, all the right shades of a likeable detective that you root for till the end.
Bestseller: Final Verdict
Overall, Bestseller pulls us into a web of reality that shows the complexity of humans and, their emotions. It leaves us in the grey in a world that wants to be identified in black and white. But, most importantly, the series keeps us hooked with brilliant performances and, the suspense of what lies behind every face we encounter.
You can watch all eight episodes of Bestseller now on Amazon Prime Video.
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Dear oh dear. Either Manjima Das didn’t actually watch Bestseller, and simply cobbled a piece from the press notes provided by the marketing department from Amazon Prime India, or she is on some kind of hallucinatory medication which is affecting her perception. This has to be singularly the stand out ‘thriller’ in line for the worst ever made prize. The acting, directing, screenplay, dialogue, production have to be the most amateur, disconnected, pointless, unfathomable, obvious and awful effort from Amazon Prime. Somewhere buried deep inside this 8 episode farce which chooses to treat its audience like retarded 5 year olds, and reveals the entire basis of the ‘thriller’ by episode 4, half way through, is a story that was probably worth telling. It fails on every level, and most reviews are entirely reflective of this. Ms Das, however, is suffering some kind of delusion ????
Hey, thank you for your feedback on my mental health and perspective of conceiving a motion picture. It is for readers like yourself that encourages us to have constructive debates about the good and bad in a film or series. I will surely give this series another try to understand where you are coming from 🙂
Hi Manjima,
I am completely astonished by your review as this was one of the worst series ever. Right from the terrible direction, it felt like the entire series was stitched together by short, disconnected scenes. The screenplay was awful and don’t get me started on acting. I’ve never seen a worse performance by anyone as Shruti Hassan. I didn’t know that she was such dreadful actress but she convinced me to never watch her work again. Only person to stand out in the entire series was Gauhar Khan. With such a gripping story, the series could have been so much better, had the producers hired the right people to do the job.