Tiny, small decisionsRecently, I saw a series that reminded me of how much bad exists in the world. It made me eerily aware that we are co-living in the same world as the evil, using the same resources, public spaces and sometimes sharing the same friends and acquaintances.
Raakh - a crime series that is loosely inspired from a true incident from the Delhi of 1970s is a very uncomfortable, but, and i rarely say this, a very important watch. It will make your day feel very heavy, stay with you for hours even after its over, and painfully tug the hidden grief, rage and fear in you, all at once.
It is, no doubt, a very well directed, acted and edited series, but this is not a series review post.
This post is about the nuances of the human emotion that stayed with me long after I completed the series.
Raakh followed a very unconventional storytelling arc, especially for a crime series. Unlike most, it reveals a lot in the first episode itself: introduction of the victims, the perpetrators, how they meet, where the crime takes place and so on.
The rest of the 7 episodes is about the investigative arc and about the layered emotions that unpack themselves in the aftermath of an incident like this - Emotions of the family, of the investigation team, and of the city at large. You know these are heavy emotions which may weigh you down, yet you find yourself watching the rest of the episodes with equal grit compared to that of a cliff hanger series. You go through the discomfort of it all, often pausing and questioning on why are you doing so, but there is an unknown force in the storytelling that keeps you going further. And then in the end, the director rewards you for staying. In the last 2 minutes, just before the ending credits roll.
The ending of Raakh is the most thoughtful ending a gutting crime series could have had. After the series gives you all closures - the backstory, the how, the chase, the capture and the conviction, it takes a step ahead to give you a bit more. Its almost like it knows that you have had a heavy day watching this, and that today, you will need a bit more than just conviction for the criminals. So it just abruptly jump cuts you to an alternate universe, where it re-creates the evening of the crime with an alternate ending, and a beautiful one. The kind that can make you weep and put you in denial that the actual crime ever took place.
How this alternate ending made me feel explained why this series felt so eery all the time. It shows the exact same people at the exact same place, and then depicts how perfectly normal it would have been for them to just go the other way and not meet the perpetrators at all. One split second worthy thought and a seemingly small no-stakes decision at the time could have changed the course of their and their family's lives forever. And then it scaringly dawned on me - we take so many such decisions, Everyday.
While watching this ending sequence, I also found myself loudly sighing and wishing that the victims had made this alternate choice instead. And then I couldn't help but wonder how many times the families of the victims of any such incident would play these various alternate realities in their minds, hoping that they had done just one thing differently that day to evade what happened. Just one, tiny, thing.
Anyway, the spiralling aside, this sequence at the end felt like a warm hug from the makers of the series, trying to tell you that it is okay, that we are all okay. That yes evil is co-living with us in this same world, but they are always atleast a small, tiny decision away.
Tiny, small decisionsRecently, I saw a series that reminded me of how much bad exists in the world. It made me eerily aware that we are co-living in the same world as the evil, using the same resources, public spaces and sometimes sharing the same friends and acquaintances.
Raakh - a crime series that is loosely inspired from a true incident from the Delhi of 1970s is a very uncomfortable, but, and i rarely say this, a very important watch. It will make your day feel very heavy, stay with you for hours even after its over, and painfully tug the hidden grief, rage and fear in you, all at once.
It is, no doubt, a very well directed, acted and edited series, but this is not a series review post.
This post is about the nuances of the human emotion that stayed with me long after I completed the series.
Raakh followed a very unconventional storytelling arc, especially for a crime series. Unlike most, it reveals a lot in the first episode itself: introduction of the victims, the perpetrators, how they meet, where the crime takes place and so on.
The rest of the 7 episodes is about the investigative arc and about the layered emotions that unpack themselves in the aftermath of an incident like this - Emotions of the family, of the investigation team, and of the city at large. You know these are heavy emotions which may weigh you down, yet you find yourself watching the rest of the episodes with equal grit compared to that of a cliff hanger series. You go through the discomfort of it all, often pausing and questioning on why are you doing so, but there is an unknown force in the storytelling that keeps you going further. And then in the end, the director rewards you for staying. In the last 2 minutes, just before the ending credits roll.
The ending of Raakh is the most thoughtful ending a gutting crime series could have had. After the series gives you all closures - the backstory, the how, the chase, the capture and the conviction, it takes a step ahead to give you a bit more. Its almost like it knows that you have had a heavy day watching this, and that today, you will need a bit more than just conviction for the criminals. So it just abruptly jump cuts you to an alternate universe, where it re-creates the evening of the crime with an alternate ending, and a beautiful one. The kind that can make you weep and put you in denial that the actual crime ever took place.
How this alternate ending made me feel explained why this series felt so eery all the time. It shows the exact same people at the exact same place, and then depicts how perfectly normal it would have been for them to just go the other way and not meet the perpetrators at all. One split second worthy thought and a seemingly small no-stakes decision at the time could have changed the course of their and their family's lives forever. And then it scaringly dawned on me - we take so many such decisions, Everyday.
While watching this ending sequence, I also found myself loudly sighing and wishing that the victims had made this alternate choice instead. And then I couldn't help but wonder how many times the families of the victims of any such incident would play these various alternate realities in their minds, hoping that they had done just one thing differently that day to evade what happened. Just one, tiny, thing.
Anyway, the spiralling aside, this sequence at the end felt like a warm hug from the makers of the series, trying to tell you that it is okay, that we are all okay. That yes evil is co-living with us in this same world, but they are always atleast a small, tiny decision away.