School of Lies Review: Hindi Hotstar Special originals are raising the bar when it comes to web series content. Created and directed by Avinash Arun Dhaware, the latest mystery thriller on Disney+ Hotstar based on true events stars Nimrat Kaur, Aamir Bashir, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, Sonali Kulkarni, Jitendra Joshi, Vir Pachisia, Varin Roopani, Aryan Singh Ahlawat,Shakti Anand, Mohan Kapoor, Parthiv Shetty, Adrija Sinha and Aalekh Kapoor among others.
Sporting an ensemble cast that takes you by surprise, the series consisting of 8 episodes has been produced by BBC Studios India. Each of these episodes has a runtime ranging between 33-39 minutes each.
School Of Lies Review Does Not Contain Spoilers
School of Lies Review: Discussion
When a 12-year-old boy Shakti goes missing from the much sought-after boarding school RISE, a ripple effect pushes down the dominos of lies one by one, revealing deadly skeletons buried in the closet. Who really is responsible for his disappearance, when everyone in the picture has their own secrets to hide? The truth is revealed quite later, and is far from what you may have thought of initially, but just as painful and heartrending as it could’ve been.
Although based on true events, the location itself – RISE boarding school in Dalton Town surrounded by hills on all sides – is completely fictional. It makes for a quintessential setting for such a premise, and pushes the story and its visual scape to border on the eerie scale, in turn pushing fear and unthinkably grim thoughts in our mind. With that, the show achieves it goals in scaring us down to the bone.
However, the location is only a visual, metaphorical extension of the dark thoughts that consume the people therein. What works the best for this series is that the members of the expansive and impressive cast panel never surface to the top as fully culpable of a crime, nor do they seem a 100% innocent. While the case of the missing boy appears to be the greatest predicament at hand, soon the falling domino pieces reveal the underlying dark design that’s even worse.
Boarding schools can easily turn into haunted locations. However, in this case, it’s not so much phantoms or ghosts haunting the place as it’s the people residing within. Moreover, generational legacies of the school try their best to cover up certain crimes in the dark.
More importantly, the series deserves applause in how despite having such stellar veteran talents onboard, it never fully pushes the sole onus of carrying the show on their backs. The young actors present in the school rather lead the storyline with their tragic narratives and come to the forefront. Varin Roopani as Vikram is great, and his scenes with Nimrat Kaur make for one of the best takeaways, much like his fractured friendship with Aryan Singh Ahlawat who portrays TK.
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Picking up on forbidding issues like child abuse, both inside and outside the school, the series makes it a point to establish that the real world isn’t always as beautiful as it’s made out to be. Ironically, with hills on the side, one could be focussing on the sublime beauty of nature, but the same place pushes us to look within instead, revealing a dark void that should be feared.
With the face of a boarding school at the centre of it all, we’re let into the perspective of loneliness that follows soon after. Through Shakti’s character (Vir Pachisia), this conversation is philosophically delved into, but it also carries along with it the idea that such feelings are often given rise to due to familial traumas, and how they’re transferred from one generation to the other. Geetika Vidya Ohlyans portrayal helpless mother desperately holding on to the belief that she’ll eventually find her son is heartbreaking, especially in Episode 3.
Each character is dealing with their own side of the story in their own way. Although the show doesn’t necessarily expound each one of them, it constantly reminds us that all of them are in fact people dealing with their own sad stories that no one knows about. It further pushes for the depiction of loneliness because these people end up suffering alone in silence, which only adds to the pile of problems ready to get them in the future.
The ultimate revelation may not be as big as you’d expected it to be, but it isn’t disappointing either. Rather it again reminds you that Shakti’s disappearance was but a catalyst (as harsh as that is) to shed light on other darker truths and fabrications that had till now been invisible to the eyes of others.
Final Thoughts
The first few episodes of the show expand on the story’s mystery and even convolute our understanding of the timeline due to its non-linear portrayal, but it all works out in the favour of the series. The frustration of wanting to know what’s happening behind closed doors is exactly what kept me going, and automatically made me wonder if it was a case of kidnapping, or something more sinister that pushed Shakti out, or if it was merely a wilful escape on the boy’s part.
Lastly, what remained with me the most in the end was this dialogue that stated how the conditions of living in a boarding house affected the children therein, and how it all appeared to them – “at best it’s compulsion. At worst, it’s prison”. Yet what’s even more compelling is the fact, that this sentiment and thought process isn’t just limited to the boarding school construct, but could also be how some people visualise life or their minds, and is exactly how one could describe loneliness too.
At times, the show restrains itself from profoundly digging deeper into the conversations it sought to start. Sometimes, the eerie setting’s creation takes the lead and overpowers everything, but it still offers a lot to think about.
All 8 episodes of School of Lies are now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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