Adhura Review: The horror-thriller TV series created and directed by Ananya Banerjee and Gauravv K. Chawla, produced by Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani and Nikkhil Advani, and stars Rasika Dugal, Ishwak Singh, Shrenik Arora, Rahul Dev, K.C. Shankar and others. The series consists of 7 episodes, each with a runtime of around 45 minutes.
– Adhura Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Adhura Plot
Things start to take a turn in the quaint Nilgiri Valley School when a bullied boy starts to display concerning behaviour. When the batch of 2007 has a reunion at the school right in the middle of this, Vedant and Adhiraj’s past and present collide to produce disastrous consequences.
Adhura Review
Adhura‘s first episode makes you feel like you’d probably go crazy at Nilgiri Valley School; the squeaky hinges do no one any favours and would be the worst thing if you were trying to concentrate on studying… or just existing, I guess! This is to say, the horror-thriller is extremely cliched, and all the elements that are there to scare you are just stale repetitions from past horror movies. The squeaky hinges are annoying, and the fake jumpscares absolutely stupid. The rest of the scares, too, don’t stick – including the odd contortions and crackling sounds of an angry ghost’s walk.
This isn’t, however, to say that there aren’t moments of tension. Some psychological moments, moments wherein you wonder whether this is all in people’s heads or whether there is something more going on, sometimes stick. There is, however, much more happening in the background that we are slowly made aware of. Vedant and Adhiraj’s story, although not clear at first, work off of each other, making you further wonder what happened all those years ago.
Adhiraj’s quest to find closure after 15 years of losing contact with his best friend, Ninad, forms a core part of the storyline and is probably the better aspect of the show. The morose backstory feels heart-wrenching, and it will emotionally invest you in some aspect to deliver the right punches. Bullying, which has become a popular topic of conversation at this point in every other show, is the obvious culprit in Ananya Banerjee and Gauravv K. Chawla’s thriller and ties the past and present together.
Thankfully, the series doesn’t give away the entire plot in the first episode, and thus there still are some things that you will question even as you reach the last few episodes. Plus, Adhura does deliver some horrifying moments that will leave you stumped. But, here also, you will be taken out of the experience after the initial shock wears off, thanks to the horrible CGI and the ghost boy, which is a cliche that is just plain boring at this point.
Shrenik Arora’s Vedant is quite cute in his role but also looks like a little menace when he needs to. Also, did anyone get flashbacks of “The Bent-Neck Lady”? I got some horrible flashes of The Haunting of Hill House.
I quite enjoyed the personal demons of the characters and the reasoning behind their decisions. It’s interesting to note that not everything has to be spirit-related, and some demons just are just in our past or in our personal lives that haunt us in deeper ways. The human stories are quite interesting and add a touch of relatability to the characters and round them out.
Rasika Dugal and Ishwak Singh are, as usual, great in Adhura. Singh, after impressing us in Rocket Boys for two seasons, is back playing the man with a complicated past and a connection to a dark school. Dugal is also great, as usual. It’s great watching them together, although the extras don’t always pack the same punch as the leads and sometimes come off a bit stiff.
Adhura Review: Final Thoughts
Adhura is honestly a mixed bag. Its discussions surrounding bullying and mental health awareness are impressive and quite relatable. You feel for Ninad and Adhiraj, as well as Supriya. However, it’s a shame that they went the supernatural route so heavily. I think that the series would have benefitted from being only a thriller and not trying to add every cliched horror trope out there. It misses out on being a good watch that takes its issues seriously and instead just remains a half-baked horror show that doesn’t do either right.
Adhura is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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