‘Away’ is among the best OTT products in recent times

Apart  from a rather unfortunate utterly stilted India portion, every scene, character  and feeling in Away rings true. The story of woman who mans (yes yes, we see the delicious ironic contradiction there)  a  spaceship to Mars , is a work of wondrous art with thunderous writing skills manning and maneuvering the 10 episodes through a heartwarming odyssey to the heart  of  the matter.

The one thing that I straightaway loved about Away was the time it devoted to the  family of the astronauts. This is unlike other notable space dramas including Gravity where the  director  just wants to show off his  knowledge of outer space. Away uses space  to  communicate the agony  of being millions of  miles away from your loved one. It also reminds us that water resources are drying up rapidly .And don’t waste tears  over that. You may soon have to drink only your tears.

Someone very wise—the Russian astronaut  Misha, if your must know-- rightly says  towards the end, “Motherland is a myth,borders are imaginary.The  only thing that matters is your loved ones.”

This  stunning series doesn’t waste time on homilies and  bumpersticker wisdom. Nor is it a wall-to-wall Spacewalking binge.  It tells the story that  it has to, with oodles of feeling. In no time at all, I was  in the spaceship with  Emma Green(Hillary Swank) and her  selfconsciously diverse crew. I wonder why did  the crew had to be so pointedly  culture-prolific: a Russian veteran astronaut Misha(Mark Ivanir), a callow young Black  recruit(Ato Essandoh), a Chinese  astronaut Lun Wang(Vivian Wu,  outstanding) with a deep secret.

And  of course   the  Indian, our Indian, second-in-command pilot Ram Arya(Ray Panthaki) whose backstory  didn’t work for me  , not with that fake Hindi  accent.And  who has a name like Ram Arya in any way? Having said that , I must applaud Ray Panthaki for  bagging a such a meaty  role in  series that celebrates  Hillary Swank’s  talent.

On ground level  we  are constantly clued into the lives of  Emma Green’s husband Matt Logan(Josh Charles) and her troubled  teenaged daughter Alexis(Talitha Bateman). Josh Charles is unassumingly  cogent as  the supportive husband who could’ve been up there in space in his wife’s place if  it were not for a  congenital illness.

Josh plays the role with pitiless detachment  and  unspoken empathy. The husband-wife scenes are  the  best moments in  the  unhurried elegant  engaging narrative . By the time  the  spaceship  approached  its destination I  only wanted Emma home. Safe and  close to a family that makes sacrifices for a better civilization.

But do we deserve a better place to live in? Away makes  us question our casual  attitude to  family, country, environment and  civilization.  Even if these issues  do not concern  you Away  pulls  you  into a damn interesting story  of  a woman/wife/mother who chooses  to  fly into space because….well, it’s there.This is Hillary Swank’s show all the way.And she never lets us  forget it.