Naagin is back on the TV screens.
Ekta Kapoor's supernatural thriller that aired this weekend has set the tone for the upcoming episodes. This time the popular producer has tried to fuse the supernatural with the pandemic.
The show begins with a scientist calling all sages and saints to warn them of a 'mahamari' (pandemic) that is about to hit India and the world. They refuse to believe him. However, later, whatever he says turns out to be true. They return to him and he takes them to sheshth naagin (Maheck Chahal) who eventually agrees to help them.
A parallel track sees Pratha (
Tejasswi Prakash) desperately looking for a job and landing in trouble after her dubbing session wherein she does voiceover for a naagin.
Rishabh Gujral (
Simba Nagpal
) is shown to be an army officer. He and his brother Ritesh are set to wed the daughters of their mother's friend. Rishabh is the one who receives half of the note sent by the scientist through his assistant which warns the army men of the threat to their country from the 'dushman'. It leaves him baffled.
Later, Pratha saves Rishabh and Ritesh (his brother) after they meet with a car accident on their way back home from the temple. All three of them are given a lift by sheshth Naagin. She has been guided by the scientist to the location of the 'asurs' who need to be destroyed. It turns out to be the Gujral house where the wedding of the two brothers is set to take place.
Sheshth Naagin becomes the head of the security while Pratha also ends up at the same place. She had got a call from the Gujral house to help them overlook the wedding arrangements.
The show may be pacy but it is quite typical. It has the usual 'gufas', 'mandirs' and 'ghaatis' where major incidents take place. It is no longer new for the viewers. Then there's a 'shaadi wala ghar' for naagins to attack their 'dushmans' which include family members and guests.
This time the naagins are shown to be patriotic and the sheshth Naagin comes out into the world only after 'saperas' play 'Vande Matram'. It's simply absurd and distracting. The supernatural is fused with the pandemic, and it's hard to take it like that.
There are unbelievable elements as well. Pratha trying to save Rishabh and Ritesh from falling off the cliff is one such. She gives them her hand and tries to pull them up. That's when you are sucked out of the make-believe.
The outside setting, too, looks unbelievable. The mornings look more like evenings, especially when Pratha, Rishabh and Ritesh are at the temple. Even the first scenes when the scientist reaches outside the old mandir look artificial.
Talking about the roles, Pratha is shown to be meek, submissive and vulnerable, and Tejasswi does justice to the part, though it remains to be seen how she fares as a Naagin. Maheck Chahal is bold and feisty. Her voice and movements make her look like a believable Naagin on-screen. Simba Nagpal does a decent job.
Naagin 6
may have a popular face leading it, but it's the storyline that fails to impress. It is hard to vouch if the plot would be able to hold interest of the viewers in the coming episodes. Going by the first two, it seems least likely.