Dhootha Review: Touted as a supernatural thriller, writer-director Vikram K. Kumar’s Dhootha (The Messenger) in Telugu is an eight-episode television series now playing on Amazon Prime. But is it really a supernatural thriller? The work encompasses a series of deaths and unhappy incidents. Strangely, these are foretold through newspaper pieces, which somehow find their way to and grab the attention of journalist Sagar Varma (essayed by Naga Chaitanya Akkineni).
He leads an idyllic but highly corrupt existence, taking bribes from politicians and other “important” people of the society and ensuring that they get what they want. In the case of political leaders, Sagar helps them win elections by penning “positive” newspaper pieces – often a bunch of lies. The so-called investigative journalist has a change of heart right at the end, but this comes as a shocker. Really, would a self-indulging man ruin himself by suddenly walking the high moral ground?
He has another side to him apart from pushing and promoting corrupt politicians; he turns Casanova, having an affair with his assistant in the office, Amrutha (Prachi Desai), with disastrous consequences. She aborts his child and sends the fetus to Sagar’s wife, Priya (Priya Bhavani Shankar). All Hell breaks loose.
Into all this quagmire of deaths and defeats walks Kranthi Shenoy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (portrayed with fair finesse by Parvathy Thiruvothu, wasted though in a clumsily written role). Her investigations and deductions will embarrass Sherlock Holmes, and there is one scene that seems inspired by Drishyam. Remember, the famous one when the cop and her men dig a land looking for human remains but find a calf instead? In Dhootha, it is a large dog.
Certainly, the series need not have been eight-episode heavy; many scenes drag meaninglessly. The performances are not sparkling enough for a work in this genre. Naga Chaitanya’s performance felt like it could he would have been more suited to play a model or movie star than an investigative journalist.
On the other hand, Parvathy rises above a carelessly written role. I am going with half a point more for Parvathy. Prachi is not bad as a woman frustrated by the turn of events and plays the part of a “wronged” woman fairly well. But the moot point is, was she really wronged? Did Prachi’s Amrutha not walk into the affair with her eyes open? The series does not bother to answer this in any convincing way.
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