Cast: Nimisha Sajayan, Roshan Mathew, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Ankith Madhav, Ranjitha Menon, Maala Parvathi, Denzil Smith
Crew:
Written by Richie Mehta, Gopan Chidambaran
Created by Richie Mehta
Cinematography by Johan Heurlin Aidt
Editing by Beverley Mills, Susan Shipton, Justin Li
Directed by Richie Mehta
Genre: Crime Drama
No: of Episodes – 08
Language: Malayalam
Available on Amazon Prime Video
Poacher Web Series Rating: 2.75/5
Poacher is created and directed by Richie Mehta after doing grave research into the subject of poaching ivory tusks in Indian forests. After Indian Government has made it illegal under Wildlife Act, 1991. The series explores the dark reality behind the poaching and bigwigs who work in tandem with these poachers. Interestingly, Alia Bhatt has produced the series for Amazon Prime Video. Nimisha Sajayan after Chittha and Jigarthanda Double X has come up with this series. Let’s discuss about the series at length.
Plot:
Mala(Nimisha Sajayan), a forest officier is driven to catch all the people behind poaching ivory. She has a dark past and is remorseful about the same. On the other hand, Neel(Roshan Mathew) tries to figure out the scam and being curious, he tries to solve the issue with forest officiers. How the story unfolds keeping poaching at the centre of it all, is to be seen.
Analysis:
When Mahesh Babu tweeted about the series, many thought he might be promoting it for his friends or upon request. But the series, in the first three episodes, establishes the cruelty behind the killing of elephants and ivory poaching to such grave detailing that we start squinting our eyes unable to look at the brutality. We feel the team has earned high praises from Mahesh Babu. Well, the animal cruelty does move us but then the story doesn’t have enough depth as we go deep into the series. It feels like the makers have submitted themselves to bringing out the atrocities so much that they did not care about the rest of the characters. Slowly, it goes into a zone where you either watch the series because you want to complete it or you’re just consumed by the technical brilliance other than writing.
Writing for the series could have been much better as the documentary feel keeps haunting it from becoming a drama with characters. Still, the kind of torture that wild elephants go through because of poaching and how ruthless the crime syndicate has become in this aspect is really gut wrenching. A little bit more emphasis on the drama that the main characters go through would have made the series a must watch. Mid-season episodes get into filler space and they don’t seem to have been handled in the same gripping manner as the first two and last one.
Nimisha Sajayan’s performance is heartfelt. She is phenomenal in scenes that showcase her passion and present her as the person who is restless take the cake. She has a very complicated character to pull off and she did it without any issue. Roshan Mathew is very good and all others contributed to the believability that the series makers have gone for. Johan Heurlin Aidt’s visuals should be praised to the sky. His camera captures wildlife and humans both in the forest so pertinently that we are glued to screen for most part due to his visuals. Had the writing been as good as the idea and sincerity behind the series, it would have been phenomenal. For now, it is watchable for the issue it talks about.
Positives:
Nimisha Sajayan’s performance
Roshan Mathew’s character
The deep research done into poaching issue
Splendid Visuals
Negatives:
Writing could’ve been better
Character drama doesn’t really shine
Emphasis on issue makes it more off a documentary
Poacher Web Series Bottom-line: Watchable & May Wildlife thrive!