Ram Kapoor always finds a reason to make a place for himself in the spotlight. On some days, he hits the news for his jaw-dropping transformation, and during others, his purportedly sexually inappropriate and offensive remarks during events. However, setting his personal life aside, we must admit that Ram Kapoor is a phenomenal actor, and he proves it once again with his latest JioHotstar web series, Mistry.
Ram Kapoor lets his work do the talking as Armaan Mistry, an ex-Mumbai Police officer, who solves special cases led by Mona Singh’s (ACP Sehmat Siddiqui) team. He can ‘smell’ the culprits (quite literally) at the crime scene, often leaving his team amazed at his predictability. However, where he falls short (or not) is his battle with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), a disease that we mostly take lightly or make fun of. Torn between daily crime cases and the death of his wife due to targetted bombing, Mistry’s life revolves around solving crime, backed by his secretary, Shikha Talsania. How he deals with crime, while battling his OCD, spans across the eight episodes.
Touted to be a crime-comedy, Mistry is the official Hindi remake of the American superhit series, Monk. Ram Kapoor takes on the titular character and does a fantastic job at it. OCD is a psychological problem. How do you convey it on screen so effectively that it leaves the audience with that itch? The credit must go partly to the writers and of course, Ram himself.
Every time Ram Kapoor appears on the screen, he is exposed (and disgusted) by the imperfection of the world outside. He is easily distracted by the window blinds while discussing his health, and worries about a possible gas leak at his house as a murder victim lies lifeless in a pool of blood. There’s an uneasiness to the character that Ram Kapoor brings out with perfect finesse. While the outside world is a chaotic mess for Mistry, his home, with neatly folded ties and shirts hanging at perfectly equal distances, speaks volumes about his character. In fact, by the end of the series, it is almost hard to imagine Mistry played by anyone else but him.
Then there is Mona Singh, who takes on the role of a cop. Female actors playing cops on screen isn’t new, but then again, that is the challenge – how do you ensure people remember you? The key is not to let your uniform overpower your character. And who better than Mona to know the tricks of the trade!
Shikha Talsania is one of the first characters to appear on the screen in Mistry. All she does at the beginning is help Mistry calm down when OCD grapples him from all corners. And you are left wondering why would she opt for a role that just nods with her boss in agreement? Scene by scene, her character unfurls on the screen and before you know it, she becomes one of the most prominent characters of the show.
Mistry is also very cleverly made, and we have to give director Rishab Seth the credit where it’s due. It’s considerably easier to make a point in an action-thriller – there’s visible action, something tangible for the audience to see and gauge. But conveying emotional intelligence on screen is a true challenge. For instance, one of the first cases Mistry solves is that of a double murder with links to politics. During a roundtable meeting about the murder, Mistry notices a whiteboard scattered with pins of various colours, marking important business locations. OCD takes over and Ram Kapoor aka Armaan Mistry starts arranging the pins on the whiteboard by their colour and size.
The room stops to take notice of the absurdity. A tug of war over the whiteboard causes all the pins to fall off. Furious, someone yells at him asking him to simply do his job, which is, to solve a murder. But Mistry promises them that the pins will be marked exactly where they were and starts doing the job. With each second, everyone in the room gapes in wonderment for Mistry takes the pins back to their original location within seconds of noticing the board in the first place. A prodigy sure, but the makers or Mistry? We’ll leave the decision upto you.
Mistry has minimal setbacks. At times, the protagonist’s OCD tends to overshadow the crime scenes, which might be of greater interest to the audience. As the saying goes, too much of anything isn’t good. After establishing the psychological aspect, the makers could have avoided letting it dominate the key crime moments, which were likely more engaging. In the later episodes, it feels as though the creators were intent on highlighting the OCD first, and only then shifting focus to the scene itself – a choice that occasionally comes across as tiresome and unnecessary.
But what’s life without overlooking the negatives and focusing on the good? Trust us, Mistry will give you such opportunities in bounty. All in all, if you have been rooting for a show that will make you laugh, think and bite your nails at the same time, Mistry is worth every ounce of your valuable weekend time.