‘Raikar Case’ is a messy clunky whodunit

It is hard to believe that an actor of Atul Kulkarni’s calibre can be part of such a dumb charade. Some wise critics have actually praised the ‘suspense’ in this ‘binge therapy’ of a whodunit. Therapy for what, I wonder? Insomnia?

Sure there is suspense. Of the kind that keeps renewing itself like caterpillars. The murder suspects multiply like roosters during the mating season. In every episode there is a new suspect and the same set of screaming characters played by hammy actors whose brief seems to be: roll your eyes and smack your lips and the rest will follow.

Sorry, it doesn’t. The Raikar Case represents the worst kind of web production, with ridiculous CGs of a murder victim plunging down a cliff at the start of every episode like a warning for bilge to follow. The shot of the murder victim’s fall looks astonishingly artificial and sets the mood for the hysterical hijinks in high places that follow.

Atul Kulkarni, a master of restrain in the best of circumstances , here seems to be at a loss saddled as he is with a plot and dialogues that unravel like bundles of dead hay. As for Neil Bhoopalan’s cop act, he mouths his lines as though they embarrassed the hell out of him. As they should any decent actor.

Atul Kulkarni’s screen family comprises youngsters who haven’t a clue about how to hold a frame let alone manoeuvre through a whole scene. They are not to blame when the plot keeps saddling them with new developments every minute as though the murder was a central crime for any Tom Dick and Harry to climb.

It was good to see the long-missing Ashwini Bhave back as Kulkarni’s wife. Sadly this wimpy webseries doesn’t know what to do with her. Most of the time she is heard wheezing through her lines to denote deep distress.

We know how that feels after sitting through the deeply disgusting shallow shadow play between a frisky family soap and half-baked whodunit. Skip this one unless you are sucker for self-punishment. Aren’t we getting enough distress already?