Web series over movies

In recent times, I seem to have made a conscious shift to watching web series rather than movies. I had liked web series when they became popular with the coming of OTT about a decade ago. But realising the greater time investment they need, especially if they are multiple seasons, I found myself gradually weaning off. However, in the last few months, given that I’m now self-employed and thus have better control of my time, I have found myself being drawn back.

Some of the reasons for the pull of web series are easily understandable. You can watch them from the convenience of your home or your palm, compared with a new film that necessitates going to the nearest multiplex. A film in the theatre also comes with the constraint of appointment viewing. A web series is more ‘your place, your pace’.

But web series also score for cinematic and artistic reasons. The pacing is better, as the director gets more time to tell their story and you to get into it. Some months ago, I watched Ulajh, a Hindi film about diplomatic intrigue starring Janhvi Kapoor. While just over two hours’ long, I felt out of breath when through with it, especially because of its involved screenplay. Sometime later, I watched The Railway Men, on the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984: a limited series of four episodes, each about an hour long. While I took some time getting into it, I was completely into that period and place once in, and in fact, remained there for a day or so after I finished viewing.

Web series work also because they don’t have the compulsions of films. They largely eschew songs, unless the series demands it (such as The Ba***ds of Bollywood, a frothy take on the dynamics of the Hindi film industry, and Heera Mandi, on the courtesans of the titular neighbourhood in pre-Partition Lahore). Alternatively, they have them only in the background, as in Railway Men. So, there’s not much interfering with the narrative and flow, and you’re not tempted to reach for the 2X setting.

Another filmy trapping that web series don’t fall prey to — which I’m especially loving — is that they don’t usually headline stars but actors, and therefore, end up being more about performance than glamour. Scoop, which incidentally is set in the world of journalism, is based on the real-life wrongful incarceration of senior journalist Jigna Vora for nearly 10 months in Mumbai’s Byculla Jail. In the series, she is played (with an altered name) by Karishma Tanna, who has been more of a “TV actor” with only a handful films to her credit. But here, Karishma gets the role of a lifetime: she goes from, in the initial episodes, scaling one career high after another, to, in the later episodes, witnessing her spirit slowly fade away with each unjust day spent in jail.

OTT series, it is being acknowledged, are allowing a lot of such actors to emerge from the shadows of stars (who often have more looks than talent) and having the spotlight finally shine on their craft. Mona Singh, who often gets supporting roles in films, recently headlined the second season of Kohrra, a crime procedural set in rustic Punjab. With her two-decade experience, Mona essayed all three facets of her role — agitated cop, despairing wife, grieving mother — with felicity and viscerality.

Even character actors (who are often better actors than the stars, just that they aren’t as “good-looking”) get noticed more in these series, among other reasons, because of the greater screen time they get here. Rajesh Tailang and Anurag Arora play senior cops in the three seasons of Delhi Crime, a series around heinous crimes against vulnerable populations in the NCR, and I often found myself riveted more by their performances than by some of the big names in the series. Unsurprisingly, and happily for viewers, folk like these are now being seen in more series that are coming out with greater regularity. I, of course, plan to happily watch those as well. Web series seem to finally have me in their web.

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