EK THI BEGAM - review

EK THI BEGUM (20202/MX player) 

Dir - Sachin Darekar 

Cast- Anuja Sathe, Chinmay Mandalekar, Santosh Juvekar, Ankit Mohan, Abhijeet Chawan, Vijay Nikam, Ajay Gehi, Vithal Kale, Nazzar Khan, Advait Dadarkar, Anil Nagarkar, & Resham. 

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” and in case the woman in question is the widow of a gangster then nobody can stop her from a bloodthirsty revenge journey. 

Apparently based on true events the 14 episodic crime series takes place in the period 1986-1989 and follows the revenge saga of a woman hell bent on killing the murderers of her husband. There was already a movie planned based on this woman’s tragic tale and there is an entire chapter dedicated to her in a book based on the female participants in Bombay’s underworld. 

The director relies heavily on blood and gore, there’s sex and violence in almost every episode though it’s not as graphic as the Sacred Games(2018), which is undoubtedly a reference point for this series. There’s generous usage of choicest expletives in Hindi and Marathi. You also get to see a communal / language divide with the Muslim characters speaking in Hindi and Hindus in Marathi, the length is excruciatingly long and tedious, the 14 episodes can be easily trimmed and streamlined into a better 8 episodic watchable series. 

Watched almost 3 initial episodes thinking the leading lady was Minisha Lamba, that’s how much Sathe resembles her, the only difference being, Sathe can act. Mandalekar performs earnestly as the sincere cop smitten by Sathe. 

If only it was better paced, and shorter in duration it could’ve earned better points, though one must appreciate the director’s bravery in placing a woman as the central character in an underworld drama in an Indian webseries, it’s intriguing how the merciless widow uses her only two assets- a vengeful grit and uncontrollable sex appeal inorder to devise her revenge plan.