Show: Mithya
Cast: Huma S Qureshi, Avantika Dassani, Parambrata Chatterjee, Indraneil Sengupta, Rajit Kapoor, Naina Sareen, Krishna Bisht, KC Shankar, Bishakha Thapa, Samir Soni
Director: Rohan Sippy
OTT: Zee5
Rating: 3 Moons
Zee5 original show Mithya traverses a thin line between truth, lies and myth. Starring Huma S Qureshi, Parambrata Chatterjee, Indraneil Dasgupta, Rajit Kapoor, Samir Soni and debutante Avantika Dassani the show is a gripping thriller that has a murder at its core coupled with anxiety, manipulations and obsession. Mithya has Huma essaying the role of Juhi, a Hindi literature university professor and Avantika Dassani as her student, Rhea Rajguru. However, their relationship is not the ideal guru-shishya relationship that we often see in Indian films and serials, instead what sparks off as a matter of academic deception soon turns out to be a conflict between the two headstrong and slightly unhinged women that leads to a devastating sequence of events that includes a brutal murder. The series is a psychological dark thriller that keeps you engrossed.
Huma leads the series with her performance. She portrays the right emotions and expressions for a woman dissatisfied with her married life and facing anxiety issues. Her confrontations with Avantika are razor sharp and intriguing. Avantika Dassani on the other hand, plays to the gallery and proves her acting mettle in her very first web series. Avantika, who is the daughter of Bhagyashree and sister of Abhimanyu Dassani has managed to give tough competition to the senior actors. Her brattish avatar really riles you up. Parambrata Chatterjee as the bumbling and slightly plain and simple husband of Juhi also lends credible support. The supporting cast of Rajit Kapoor, Indraneil Sengupta, Samir Soni, KC Shankar and Bishakha Thapa impress in their own character arc.
Director Rohan Sippy manages to create a suspenseful and gripping thriller drama with every episode ending in a cliff-hanger but with ample amount of questions about the narrative. However, there are too many subplots that don't often add up in the end. Althea Kaushal and Anvita Dutt’s screenplay is layered and keeps the audience’s attention intact till the very end with one secret coming crashing down after another but it gets a tad too convoluted with all the subplots running through in the series. In fact, after some time you tend to get exasperated with the way characters behave and make a mountain out of a molehill; what starts off as a case of accusation of plagiarism by the teacher on the student turns out to be a dangerous game with the latter not taking things lying down, all done in the name of twisted logic.
Sirsha Ray’s cinematography deserves a special mention as she brings Darjeeling’s exquisite beauty on camera with its serene scenery and picturesque locales. Mithya shows how complex people’s perceptions can be and how flimsy the difference between truth and lies is.
PeepingMoon.com gives Mithya, 3 Moons
