Excel Entertainment’s latest take, Dahaad, based on a true story about Cyanide Mohan from Karnataka is a slow burn thriller with no sparks. The only good thing that it does is to backdrop a story on the premise of another. I mentioned this in my last review of The Kerala Story also. You might now understand why Shatrughan Sinha welcomed Mamta Banerjee’s ban on The Kerala Story while Shabana Azmi countered the ban. In a way, it was a decent trick to promote Dahaad which fails on creating the magical spark due to its tedious and long storytelling. There are two sides to an art form. The one that was intended to show to you and the other how you would interpret it.
Reema Kagti takes the real life story of Cyanide Mohan from Karnataka but somehow manages to throw out the interesting parts that should be in a thriller. The series falls flat on creating twists and turns which is expected out of a decent thriller. Maybe, the same reason why I didn’t follow Reema’s direction in Talaash, Gold, and Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. They all had decent storylines but misdirection gave it all away.
The runtime for each episode is just too long and is not worth going through. I could easily go for a stroll, have a meal, or take a tea break without missing out on a story. This is good in a way if you have other important work to do. But, if you’re binge watching, it’s tedious and tiresome. Maybe, this is something to do with the lousy police work that we have in our country. Not only was the main character in the series passive-aggressive, the police too had a passive-aggressive approach towards the case. No one in the police force had a thought to keep the suspect under surveillance. I am well aware that our police are lousy and would only move if something is handed over to them (just like the last scene in the movie The Kerala Story where the police asks for the evidence from the person who files for FIR.)
The background score tries to compensate for the thrill, but the acting doesn’t hold or convince in any way. Though Vijay Verma’s and Gulshan Devaiah’s performances are good, Sonakshi Sinha’s character is nowhere near Shefali Shah’s impressive performance in Delhi Crime. Maybe, I missed something to notice but couldn’t see or hear the roar (Dahaad) from the series protagonist, Sonakshi Sinha.