Chiraiya

Chiraiya has other bigger problems though. The series suffers from the excess in many ways. Relentless in its sense of sermonising, it doesn’t know where to pull the breaks. Every scene is underlined with a statement, and every statement is underlined with heavy-handed treatment just so that we don’t miss out on the theme. The show has no trust in its viewers. While there are a few good men in the series, the show is not afraid of pointing fingers at the root problems of our society, and how it’s still governed by patriarchy. But after a point, with so much finger-wagging, it must physically hurt.

While Chiraiya is powerful in intent, it does feel stretched. What could have been a tighter, more gripping narrative ends up looping in parts, revisiting the same emotional beats. While this may reflect the slow, exhausting reality of such struggles, cinematically, it dilutes the impact and could have benefited from sharper editing. Performance-wise, the cast largely delivers. Divya Dutta stands out as Kamlesh, portraying the journey of a woman conditioned by years of internalised patriarchy who slowly begins to unlearn and evolve. Her arc is subtle but powerful. Prasanna brings a raw vulnerability to Pooja, making you feel every bit of her trauma as you see her spirit gradually dimming under the weight of her circumstances.