Barring Anjali’s acting, there is nothing great about ‘Jhansi’

Anjali plays the titular character Jhansi who suffers from amnesia.

Hyderabad: ‘Jhansi’, which is the OTT debut of director Thiru, is fast-paced in the initial episodes, but suffers from really poor writing. The action and violence begin right from the first scene, so you know how much gore and blood to expect.

Anjali plays the titular character Jhansi who suffers from amnesia. In the present day, she lives with her partner and his daughter, and seems to have a perfect life as a boutique owner. Although her partner Sanketh keeps asking her to marry him, she can’t say yes. She suffers from flashbacks of her past, but can’t figure out whether they are dreams or memories. Things come to a head when she saves a girl from being molested at a wedding. The incident rakes up buried memories and she struggles to make sense of the flashes.

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It’s clear from the first scene that Jhansi is no damsel in distress and knows how to defend herself. Anjali does a lot of the action sequences herself and takes quite a few hits and punches. She perennially has a haunted look and portrays her character’s unease with her emotions very well.

Barring a few supporting characters like her partner Sanketh and his psychiatrist uncle, the other characters, especially the mafia syndicate, are caricaturish with really bad wigs. Their lines are quite hammy. You actually feel bad for Raj Arun that he returns to Telugu cinema with this web series. Despite the large budget the series seems to have, the production comes across B-grade.

The story revolves around Jhansi, but there are a lot of sub-plots in the web series. There is Dhruv who is fighting a legal battle for his activist girlfriend and a prisoner who wants to avenge his father’s death. None of them are developed properly and leaves you without any connection. Apart from the themes of child abuse and trafficking, the series also skirts around Jhansi’s sexuality, which is never explored.

For a tale about female empowerment, Jhansi suffers from the trappings of a male perspective on the subject. Mumaith Khan is actually quite good in the brief role she has, while others like Chandini Chowdary as Barbie are just wasted. The rest of the cast – Aberaam Varma, Talluri Rameswari, Aadarsh Balakrishna and Devi Prasad – do a decent job.

You might want to skip this one. There is far better content in Telugu out there.

Series: Jhansi

OTT platform: Disney HotStar

Director: Thiru

Cast: Anjali, Aadarsh Balakrishna, Raj Arun, Talluri Rameswari