‘Bestseller’ Review: Mithun Chakraborty Is The Best Part About This Supremely Average Series
As you guys must be aware, I watch and discuss a lot of upcoming shows and movies. Whenever trailers/teasers/songs come out, I do my best to dissect them and give my opinion on them. So as you can imagine, I was super interested when the trailer for the Amazon Prime series Bestseller came out. How could I not be? With a star cast of actors like Mithun Chakraborty, Shruti Haasan, Arjan Bajwa, Gauahar Khan, Satyajeet Dubey and Sonalee Kulkarni. The series is produced by Siddharth Malhotra’s Alchemy Production LLP and directed by Mukul Abhyankar. Now that the show is out and I have watched 4 out of the 8 episodes, I think it is fair of me to give my opinions on Bestseller.
The Plot
Being the sucker for suspense and thrillers that I am, I was really intrigued by the plot of Bestseller. The show is based on the book The Best Seller She Wrote by Ravi Subramanian. The show revolves around novelist Tahir Wazir who wrote one best selling novel 10 years back and has since, unable to come up with any original ideas for another book. He happens to come across Meetu Mathur, a small-town girl. Seeing 3 scars on Meetu’s wrists, Tahir takes an interest in her and her life, using her to write a sequel to his previous work. However, what Tahir Wazir doesn’t know is that he is constantly being watched and targeted and is at risk of losing it all.
The Execution
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So, I had to really sit and collect my thoughts about Bestseller. The reason is, it isn’t the type of attention grabber that you’d expect a thriller to be. The storytelling tends to get drab every now and then. Also, a lot of the “twists” and “turns” are pretty easy to predict if you are someone like me who tends to read or watch suspense pretty frequently.
The overall cinematography in Bestseller is just as average as the storytelling. It is very “here is a person speaking”, “here is a person reacting” in nature. I feel like the beauty of visual media and storytelling lies in playing with camera angles, lighting, colours etc to create an atmosphere that immerses the viewers into the show. Shows like Dark and Legion have managed to create magic and daunting atmospheres for the viewers which enriched their experience with the show. However, Bestseller was unable to do that for me.
There are also a few continuity errors in Bestseller. Even if we were to overlook them, I feel that a lot of the events or incidents that happen have logical explanations or could have been handled differently which end up with there being plotholes in the show, in my opinion. What I mean by that is so many events just happen at random which logically could have been avoided or dealt with differently. To me, that seems like an oversight and not having covered all the bases.
The Cast And Characters
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With a cast as rich as the one Bestseller has, I was expecting a lot more than what we received. I feel like Shruti Haasan paled in comparison to her co-stars. While her performance wasn’t bad, it wasn’t as great as I had expected.
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Arjan Bajwa as Tahir Wazir did a relatively better job. Considering that Tahir Wazir isn’t the most likeable character, I feel like Bajwa did a good job highlighting all of Wazir’s sharp edges and gentleness. While there is a lot about Wazir’s character I dislike, I will acknowledge that he has these moments of gentleness and graciousness that have him in the grey area for me and Bajwa did a good job displaying that duality.
Also Read: Exclusive: Sonalee Kulkarni On Her Upcoming Show ‘Bestseller,’ Working With Mithun Chakraborty And The Blurring Lines Between Regional And Hindi Cinema
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Satyajeet Dubey is a pretty known face in media, in my opinion. In my opinion, his performance was on par with Haasan’s. I believe that his character is more multifaceted than what he was able to show through his performance. There was more scope and room for him to do more with the character which was missed. However, considering that there is more of the story to be uncovered, I am hoping for more character development in Bestseller.
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Now, skipping to the good part, Gauahar Khan’s performance really surprised me. She plays the role of Mayanka, Tahir Wazir’s wife. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t like I expected her to be bad, but with the majority of the actors in Bestseller giving average performances, Gauahar really shone. I wouldn’t say it was outstanding but I believe that she did Mayanka justice. The subtle change in her expressions and body language according to the scenes and situations really shows how well Gauahar understood the conflicts and interests of her character in Bestseller.
I don’t think I need to review Mithun Chakraborty’s performance in Bestseller but let’s give it a shot. I think it goes without saying Mithun Chakraborty’s return was just as expected, fun and exciting. He plays the role of an eccentric cop Lokesh Pramanik. Considering I have only watched 4 episodes of Bestseller, I did not get as much time with his character as I did with the others. However, I did enjoy his presence on screen and Lokesh’s quirky but very calculative nature. I feel like he was the first character who made me actually see something I had missed and think “ah! the plot has finally thickened.”
The 4th Episode
There is a reason I am writing this a separate section for this so please bear with me here, I promise to give no spoilers. Now see, Bestseller finally captured my attention in episode 4, more so towards the end of it. I wouldn’t say that the “twist in the tale” is an unexpected one because if you’re paying close attention, you will notice the subtle but clear foreshadowing of the reveal. However, considering that everything that is shown to us till that point in Bestseller goes against that one subtle sign, it is pretty easy to miss or dismiss it. So the 4th episode will deflect your expectations, at least a little and that got me wanting to see what happens next, a factor missing in the beginning 3 episodes of Bestseller. That one scene created more curiosity within me than the previous 3 episodes combined.
Final Verdict
Bestseller lacks the attention-grabbing, edge of the seat quality that almost every good thriller and suspense has (and should have, in my opinion). With pretty average performances, storytelling and cinematography, Bestseller leaves a lot to be desired.
However, considering the turn in the story that happens in episode 4, I am hoping that the following episodes will push the plot further in a desirable direction from there. Just based on that, I will suggest that you give Bestseller a try if you are okay with the slow-burning suspense. However, I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to sit this one out. Please do keep in mind that my opinions and reviews are based on the first 4 episodes only. With that, I will give Bestseller a 2.5 out of 5. While a lot about the show is average, I feel like there is potential for growth and better writing, which I am hoping to see 5th episode onwards.
Bestseller is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
