Jubilee review: This series offers a visual spectacle that takes you back in time

The series can almost be described as a visual love letter to the glorious era of black and white movies and of big studio driven stars

Hyderabad: You need a heck lot of patience to sit through the series Jubilee which revolves around the film industry and all its grittiness in 1947. The series can almost be described as a visual love letter to the glorious era of black and white movies and of big studio driven stars.

In his inimitable style, Vikramaditya Motwane and cinematographer Pratik Shah did a fabulous job recreating the era when India was reeling under the aftershocks of Partition.

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Visually speaking, Jubilee strikes all the right boxes whether it’s framing of the shots, costume design, set design and even the credits. It’s just limited by its slow pacing and middling music by Amit Trivedi. In order to understand each character’s motivations, you need to be patient and sift through all the episodes.

The charismatic and pipe smoking Prasenjit Chatterjee is Srikant Roy, the head honcho of Roy Talkies who is on the lookout for a new face to embody the persona of ‘Madan Kumar’. He finds him in Jamshed Khan (Nandish Singh Sandhu) who is the ideal man for the job. Everything could have gone perfectly had it not been for Roy’s beautiful and long-suffering wife Sumitra (Aditi Rao Hydari) and business end of the studio. She decides to have an affair with the newbie cuckolding Roy.

An infuriated Roy tells his man Friday Binod Das (Aparshakti Khurana) to fetch his cheating wife and Jamshed from Lucknow where they are holed up in a hotel. Binod, who harbours a secret desire to be an actor does everything, but the task he is assigned. His wish for a taste of the limelight trumps his loyalty.

Refugee Jay Khanna’s (Sidhant Gupta) arc shows how the movie business can change someone’s fortunes. Once the owner of a prosperous theatre company in a Karachi, Jay finds himself down on his luck in Bombay. His rise as a director even as his contemporaries’ career fail could very well be the story of any film personality in Bollywood whose careers ebb and flow according to the fickle audience.

Aparshakti and Prasenjit do a fine job in bringing the master and servant dynamic to life. Aparshakti is a pleasant surprise in his role as the street smart Binod having previously done comic capers. It can easily be called his best performance till date.

Barring Aditi Rao who seems to have a deadpan stare in most of her scenes, all the other actors understood their assignment. Wamiqa Gabbi is particularly enjoyable as Niloufer Qureshi, the courtesan with a heart of gold who nurses the same passion as Binod.

But the scene stealers are definitely Prasenjit and Sidhant Gupta who appear to live their characters. The ten-part Prime Video series is definitely one of the best shows to come out this year. Be prepared to be transported in time with this one.