P.I. Meena

I am loathe to criticise other people's work as a lot of sweat and toil go in but the recent spate of subpar shows shows across platforms have been disheartening.

I thought Charlie Chopra was disappointing (from a Director I regard so highly) but PI Meena just broke my heart - the evident lack of effort in its writing is hard to digest and a criminal waste of resource and opportunity IMO.

In there somewhere lies a story that could have been, but it is crushed under its own sprawling ambition and inability to pull it all in cohesively in a taut narrative which is key for this genre. In a classic case of tell not show, the verbosity is tiring and needless. Meena's character quirks don't land most of the time because the character is just handed some "cool "markers but not vested with authenticity. And as lovely as Tanya Manicktala is, she isn't able to rise above the pedestrian written material.

Once again as is often the case, the writers fail to create authentic workspace dynamics - the way Meena speaks with her Boss is inexcusable, her playing truant and wasting office resources without any consequence or even a slap on her wrist - given that the agency has 2 half baked cases she can't be a star asset really - are just few of the minor points.

In spite of the dark web and virus and terror groups and agencies, the series has a very dated vibe. Meena's constant platitudinal VO is a drudge and gets in the way of the story. The crater-sized and at times improbable laugh-out-loud plot-holes don't help and some of the subplots one could have done without because they do nothing for the story, at all.

Big words are bandied about but protocols and due process (which could have aided the tautness of the narrative) are cavalierly ignored and often there's no context or logic, the series plods on flat as last year's beer with things happening conveniently because they must happen, loose ends flutter in thin air and that climax - don't get me started on the climax. The loose meandering edit really doesn't help.

One's time will be better spent watching Bengali series Indu instead (also on Prime) - made with proper intent and probably 11/3 the budget - it is an engrossing watch.

Quite a wonder cast put together.. This has to my search of the year so far & my favourite next to Jubilee for the sheer love for the genre.

Tanya portraying a character who doesn't have that wide smile that she's known for was brilliant. She knows her job & her body language, walk, mannerisms were quite spot on.

She keeps the ticker on & so does Parambrata.

Absolutely Loved Zarina Wahab ji - what an actress, her accent, small gestures of "Kee", how she handles the mobile to search for contact - OMG!

Loved the cinematography, music & costumes.

But biggest winner has to be the narrative style - the director knows his job & how to get the detective feeling going.

The main lead actress, Taniya Maniktala doesn't have the presence and panache to really carry a whole series on her back, I had the same issue with her in the series Tooth Pari and on top of that the drudge of a screenplay doesn't do any favours. It's slow and doesn't connect well, almost feels like it has been written by someone straight out of school and lacks the know how of the emotions of real life. In a protagonists centred screenplay none of the side- characters were let to shine either.

Most of the actors' actions and acting choices felt deliberate, so, the direction was off as well (Let's not talk about so, so many technical mistakes which shouldn't happen at this level, but are always superseded when the story-telling is honest, but sadly that didn't happen either) and the edit went no where with the pacing. A flurry of images followed by a dragging close up shot... there is no beat or rhythm to it and also infested with some basic and honestly sad, technical mistakes.

It's sad to see a platform, Anazon's Prime Video, which gave us Panchayat, Aranyak, Mirzapur, Patal-lok and many more well made Indian series, falling from it's grace, settling and spending money on weak projects and creators such as these.

Despite having good plot and script it seems they are eagerly wanted to complete the series with worst climax and end. All the episode are good and plot is twisted nicely but mood will be spoil At the end because how the story ends. It doesn't suit to script at all.

Despite having good plot and script it seems they are eagerly wanted to complete the series with worst climax and end. All the episode are good and plot is twisted nicely but mood will be spoil At the end because how the story ends. It doesn't suit to script at all.

Many things haven't explained in the end which are supposed to be explain.

As someone who follows content on Amazon Prime, I was quite impressed by the trailer of PI Meena and really looking forward to what the show would entail. Watched it on the day of release and the first episode definitely tested my patience (the intelligent casting helped here though). The story picks pace as you sit through it watching Ep2 and 3 , and totally gets you wanting to know more as you move beyond Ep4 n 5. The writing is crisp and justifies the actions of a young detective who is dealing with a devastating personal past yet trying to make it through her challenging profession. The Bengali actors justify their parts and the Deadly Virus theme conceptualized way before the Pandemic deserves all the KUDOS !

The story does leave you with some 'Why's' in the end but overall I found the series worthy of my time .