Weaving crime and dirty politics, Garmi comes across as a leaf from reality
film: Garmi
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia
Cast: Vyom Yadav, Puneet Singh, Disha Thakur, Pankaj Saraswat, Mukesh Tiwari, Anurag Thakur, Vineet Kumar, Anushka Thakur, Dheerendra Gautam, Jatin Goswami and Ashish Virendra Chaudhary
Sheetal
From title to casting, director Tigmanshu Dhulia has done thorough research to make Garmi a long format nail-biting experience. And for all of those who have seen how student politics is unwanted, yet vital part of universities, will relate to the series.
While student politics is not a new subject for binge-watchers, the director has brought out the aspect of realism in presenting it in the millennial era. In a way, it’s revisiting his directorial debut, Haasil, with a fresh angle, only it wouldn’t be right to compare our Garmi hero, Vyom Yadav, to the likes of Irrfan Khan and Jimmy Shergill. But a fresh face like Vyom indeed gives an impressive debut performance. As a Lalgunj small- town boy arriving in Trivenipur University (read Allahabad University) to study and further appear in Civil Services Exam, the evolution of his character from the opening scene to the final cut is epic.
The cinematographer also shines in catching the essence of Uttar Pradesh and its unfortunate problems, right from caste divide to crime to homophobia to youth wasted at the hands of organised crime, induced by faceless men behind the see-through university politics. And those faceless men with motives, played by Vineet Kumar (Bairagi Baba), Jatin Goswami (Mrityunjay Singh) and Pankaj Saraswat (Jaiswal), add to the entertainment quotient of the series.
The way Tigmanshu weaves crime and dirty politics is commendable. With the emotion of love in the background, the entertainer seeped in realism, yet commercially viable. In fact, while there are various subplots and characters to engross the viewer, sometimes it also makes you wander off. It is all served slow, which is another reason why it might not be everybody’s cup of tea. Not to forget, the rawness in some scenes, for instance the torture of a culprit by Mrityunjay Singh (police officer), will make you skip it. Also the excessive use of abusive language does not make it a family show.
But it doesn’t steal away the fact that Garmi brought the exact amount of heat that Allahabad (now Prayagraj) is known for, although it is set in the fictional city of Trivenipur.
