Cast : Shilpa Shinde, Shilpa Shinde, Milind Soman, Annu Kapoor, Sahil Salathia, Poulomi Das, Anant Joshi, Shaheer Sheikh, Flora Saini

Directed by : Shachindra Vats

Produced by : Srestha Bhavna, Sachin Mohite

So, continuing the series of reviewing movies and shows on OTT, our today’s pick is Paurashpur, the latest high budget Hindi web series on Alt Balaji. Let’s now see how it is.

Story :

The seven-episode series is based in a fictional town called Paurashpur, in the 16th century. The kingdom is ruled by an old king named Bhanu Pratap(Annu Kapoor). The kingdom is dominated by men and women are only used for physical pleasure. On the other hand, Bhanu Pratap keeps marrying young girls just for pleasure. But the twist in the tale arises when all the queens he marries keep disappearing one after the other. Who is behind all this, forms the rest of the story.

What’s Good

Ekta Kapoor is behind this series and what impresses you right away is the sheer scale of the series. The production values, artists, and money spent o Paurashput is clearly seen on screen. The fictional kingdom, costumes, and dialogues are amazing. Special mention should go to the camerawork which showcases the series in a never before seen manner.

Milind Soman impresses big time in his role of a transgender but his role is not handled well. The rest of the cast looks a bit naive and have not much importance in the show. The BGM and the manner in which romance is showcased needs a special mention and will attract the target audience.

Annu Kapoor, who plays the key role is superb as the lusty king. He does his role quite sincerely and this itself is one of the basic assets. He is especially superb when a negative angle in his character is showcased.

What’s Bad

When you mount such a big show, the biggest duty is of the director to make things engaging. Looks like the makers have only concentrated on the visuals aspect rather than the narration. The show has a shoddy screenplay as many scenes lack grip. Things fall apart one after the other after a good start.

The performances of the key cast are good but when the supporting cast enters the scenes, the scenes and flow of narration are bad and silly. There are many loopholes that are not at all addressed well. Upon this, the logic goes for a toss. The VFX done in many scenes look silly and cheap.

The story and setup had every scope for the makers to evoke solid drama but the director Shachindra Vats failed to use the opportunity. Most of the show is filled with sleaze content which is quite over the top.

Verdict :

On the whole, Paurashpur is a high budget erotic drama that fails to entertain. Even though the story, premise, and performances by the lead cast are good, the horrible narration, logic, and sleaze content make this series a boring, over the top and bland watch this weekend.

Rating: 2.25/5