MUMBAI: The review of MX Player's Ek Thi Begum is here. Directed by Sachin Darekar, the web series stars Anuja Sathe in the lead.

Sapna Ka Inteqam, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, and Chandini Bar...get the point? Yes, it's revenge. Then why so long? Ek Thi Begum gives the same feeling. Sachin Darekar’s mobster revenge drama takes 14 episodes to take its 'badla'. 

The first episode opens with Sapna (Anuja Sathe) seducing and then eliminating one of her enemies played by Santosh Juvekar. Cut to flashback, Sapna aka Ashraf (original name) the dutiful wife of local gangster Zaheer (Ankit Mohan). Zaheer is becoming a nuisance for Nana (Rajendra Shisatkar), the Mumbai point man of big boss Maqsood (Ajay Negi), settled in Dubai. In a series of incidents, Nana’s brother gets killed, and Zaheer becomes the culprit, resulting in Nana seeking revenge from Zaheer. A conspiracy is cooked by Nana and corrupt inspector Tawde (Abhijit Chauhan), and Zaheer is murdered. Ashraf takes the legal route but fails. Ultimately, Ashraf decides to settle the scores and heals her wounds by taking on a different avatar, that of bar dancer Sapna, to get rid of Nana and finally nab Maqsood.

It must be recalled that Vishal Bhardwaj announced a gangster drama titled Sapna Didi, that was supposed to star Deepika Padukone as Sapna (Ashraf) and Irrfan (may be the husband or the Dubai boss who is modeled on India’s most wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim). Irrfan got diagnosed with cancer, and the movie got shelved.

The story/plot of Sapna Didi is dynamite...wife of a local gangster taking the world of mobsters dominated by men. It is said that Sapna Didi was based on S Hussain Zaidi’s book Mafia Queens of Mumbai, which includes the story of Ashraf amongst its collection of female criminals of Mumbai. A cracker of a mainstream drama set in the mid-80s where gangster Mehmood gets killed by Dawood Ibrahim, and his wife Ashraf decides to settle scores with the most wanted by learning martial arts skills...a revenge saga with the woman angle for the twist.

Sachin Darekar’s series is also set in the mid-1980s. Its lead character is named Ashraf. She calls herself Sapna. Maqsood is modeled on Dawood Ibrahim. And there is another character modeled on gangster Arun Gawli, which is played by Vijay Nikam.

All the ingredients of a 'masala' revenge pot boiler are there. The dirty world of guns, booze, women, corrupt policemen, corrupt politicians, a righteous policeman, and a true journalist. Their bank of swear words is showcased often.

But Sachin Darekar seems to be on a training exercise and doesn’t exactly know how to approach this gangster drama. It starts as a movie and then decides to be a web series and goes on and on. The influence of Once Upon A Time in Mumbai and Chandini Bar is evident. No harm, but the excitement is missing, though the milieu is set and the actors give their best.    

Anuja Sathe is terrific. Ankit Mohan is fine. Rajendra Shisatkar is fantastic. Abhijit Chauhan leaves his mark. Chinmay Mandlekar is wonderful. Santosh Juvekar has his moments. Vijay Nikam is good. Ajay Negi is strictly passable.

Ruled by predictability and prolonged indulgence, Ek Thi Begum is not a completely failed attempt. It has its moments, but its length and lack of urgency kill the potential and reduce it to a plain, average revenge affair, provided you have a good level of patience. Remember we are in quarantine. Staying at home and save lives.

Ek Thi Begum gets 2 stars out of 5. 

SOURCE - GLAMSHAM