'Tandav' Review: A dumbed down scrapbook on Indian Politics that cannot be taken seriously

Amazon Prime's latest web series, Saif Ali Khan's Tandav, is a scrapbook at best. It is two-dimensional, with too much happening that cannot be taken seriously. Check out the Tandav review below. 

Introduction to the story

Saif plays the role of Samar Pratap Singh, the son of three-time Prime Minister Devki Nandan Singh. Dimple Kapadia plays the role of Anuradha Kishore, a senior party member of the JLD party, and PM Devki's partner for thirty years. While Devki believes that his son eyes his kursi, it turns out that there are more eyes on the prize. Most of the show sways between what occurs in the palatial Devki Niwas, the residence of PM Devki Nandan, and the awfully familiar Vivekanand National University (VNU) where student leader Shiva Shekhar begins to burn in the fire of politics.

Tandav review: What's the plot? 

While 'Tandav' is the name of the party that Shiva creates, the show revolves around the senior members of the JLD party vying for the PM seat after the sudden demise of PM Devki Nandan. Most eyes are on Samar, who is an extremely popular youth leader and is well-respected both inside and outside of the party. The nation expects the son to take over the father's legacy, but things go wrong for a calculative Samar. Samar does not see this coming, but most viewers can.

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What works?

Anuradha and Maithili, her PA, played by Gauhar Khan, do well in this forte. Sure, we don't know too much about them, but we learn to get used to their clever minds as we do to their stunning sarees. Anuradha's character as an ambitious woman comes out well. Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub and Kritika Kamra are good enough as student leaders, but there is nothing too fiery or different about the roles that can make them stand out for long enough. Dino Morea plays a professor at VNU who helps Samar out and does well enough to be disliked as a character. 

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The best performance seems to be of Gurpal's. He used to be Devki's yesman and presently works for Samar. Sunil Grover manages to push through the bad writing to give us a mysterious Gurpal. Especially the bit about him pressing down his guilt by feeding his cat is interesting. 

What doesn't work?

Some of Gurpal's lines are nice, but most are overridden with cliches and can be finished by a 16-year-old as well. Other than Gurpal, the dialogues are rather uninteresting and common. The show does bring up some important issues like farmers' protests, unfair use of police power, detention of Muslims, etc, but does not see any of it through and there lies its problem: there is no commitment or thread that ties everything together neatly. The Tandav cast, which looks great, should have been able to deliver more power. But, in this show, most characters are half-baked.

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Verdict

Subtlety is not a strong suit for Saif Ali Khan's Tandav. Many incidents that happen during this 'game' of politics are something viewers have already seen or can see coming from much early on. There is close to nothing that director Ali Abbas Zafar leaves to our imagination. 

(Rating 2.5/5)