The Raikar Case Review: Ashvini Bhave Blows Your Mind In What Is One Of The Best Whodunit Murder Mystery In The Indian Cinema Space

Web Series - The Raikar Case

Director - Aditya Sarpotdar

Writers - Bijesh Jayarajan and Anaitha Nair 

Actors - Ashvini Bhave, Atul Kulkarni, Neil Bhoopalam, Kunal Karan Kapoor, Parul Gulati, Reena Wadhwa

Rated: 4.5 out of 5

So, the day before yesterday, I happened to watch the VOOT Select original web series titled 'The Raikar Case'. It is a whodunit murder mystery that is so well crafted that I am at a complete loss of words to describe its brilliance.

In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to state that the web series is so intriguing and edge-of-the-seat that it should have been made for the big screen or the television. Yes, we are sick to the stomach with the kind of shows they telecast on TV and it is high time things change and change for the better. Coming to the series, well, there is a murder in the towering Raikar family of Goa. The well-reputed family starts to fall apart as the case unfurls and dirty secrets begin to unravel. Every family member has a secret absolutely unbeknownst to the other and yet they stay together, eat together and cull out huge functions together albeit with a pretentious smile stuck on to their faces! When Tarun Raikar commits suicide which eventually is found out to be a murder, the whole family comes under the radar of the Goa police, as the investigations proceed, we are made aware of the surreptitious pages of each and every member of the family that has been so long kept in the dark. Tucked away from the prying eyes of the media and their own kith and kin.

And therefore, when their individual filth pops its head out, it sticks out like a sore thumb and how.

Mind you, the web series has nothing to do with the Raikar Murder case (which also happened in Goa) that came to the fore in 2013.

The characterisations take the cake, Atul Kulkarni plays the patriarch Yashwant Raikar, Sakshi Naik Raikar, the matriarch of the family was executed wondrously by Ashvini Bhave (one of the best-written roles in the series), Parul Gulati plays Itasha Naik, the daughter of Yashwant and Sakshi Raikar, Neil Bhoopalam plays S.P. John Pereira, Kunal Karan Kapoor plays Mohit Naik Raikar, the son of Yashwant and Sakshi, Reena Wadhwa plays the role of Tarun’s mother. The writers Bijesh Jayarajan and Anaitha Nair have nailed every character, with intricate detailing of the way they work, their background and their thought processes. It is so well-written that it came through in the performances and the dialogues too did full justice to it all.

The series has been directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, his direction is well-nuanced and restrained and it never goes over the top. He makes every character so plausible and the arc of every character is so well rounded in the short span of one episode that it is indeed commendable. Everything has been taken care of, be it the question mark in the mind of the viewers at the end of every episode or the impending probability of everyone turning out to be the murderer, (again, the writing has to be mentioned over here), the nail-biting edit and a background score that is perhaps one of the best I have experienced in an OTT series.

It is high time we as audiences realise, everything depends on the script and as much as the performers have to bring out their part in front of the lens, almost eighty per cent of the work has to be done on papers and if that is in place, the film is already on the pathway to success. In this case, the script, screenplay and the treatment part is so robust that everything had to fall in place.

Talking about the performances, Atul Kulkarni’s Yashwant is an otherwise dignified man who loves his daughter and trusts her more than his own son. He has his own faults which on coming out, leaves him ashamed and crestfallen, his false pride grovelling in the lowly dust and all in front of his family. After a long time, we see Atul doing what he does best. He plays the part with such adeptness that it becomes almost impossible to fathom someone else in his place. His character demands a hardened, no-nonsense exterior and a soft and fragile, prone to mistakes and temptations interior which seems to fit his persona. He has to always put up a show which portrays him righteous, powerful and commanding but within he is well-aware of the fallacies and the demons he willfully succumbs to. The - I am there from the outside and yet I am not there from the inside, makes his character so vulnerable, so vulnerable.