Hotstar Aarya Review: Striking Tale of a woman Torn by grief, Love, underworld
Sushmita Sen’s comeback is strong in the Hotstar web series, titled Aarya which is based on the hit Spanish series Penoza. It’s adapted by Sandeep Srivastava and Anu Singh Choudhary.
The central character of the web series is Aarya played by Sushmita Sen, who is struck by grief and caught between a genuine love between her and Tej and her children. Tej loss disheartens her at first but the gritty, agile, and fitness freak Aarya picks up the pieces and begins a journey to fix this grief for good. Her biggest worry is about the safety of her children and like an avenger, she turns ruthless by striking blows to her opponents, willing even to pick up a gun and engage in an act of violence that the thugs understand.
The story: The first episode opens with Aarya performing great stuff like the world gymnastics, and lives in a world with dotting, caring husband, three adorable kids and is also super-rich.
But what worries her as we begin to follow the story is that her husband Tej Sareen (Chandrachur Singh) is a drug peddler, alongwith with her brother Sangram (Ankur Bhatia) and their common friend Jawahar (Namit Das). Their pharma company is the face of their illegal business. Soon, we find Sangram gets into trouble when he steals the heroin consignment of the local drug lord Shekhawat (Manish Chaudhary), a handler of drugs for the Russian drug mafia.
Then, Tej gets killed in cross fire, and Sangram is in jail for drug possession, and the mafia, as well as the police, are after Aarya. They are also chasing 300 crores which goes missing. Now, Aarya has to gather all her might, skill , and her network, to get out of the unholy mess she finds herself in.
In Aarya the family rivalry and politics is a bit part of the narrative. The 9 episode web series begins in a good pace, but as we move along to the middle of the episodes, we find it loosing the pace, and then at times it becomes inconsistent narrative.
What makes the series worth watching is brilliant cast. Chandrachur Singh makes a welcome comeback to acting as the caring family man. He’s killed too soon and we hope we see more of him in films as well as web series. Jayant Kriplani is a pleasure to watch as Aarya sex-crazy dad, who is much in love with his much younger wife Flora Saini, who plays a gold-digger with a heart.
Actor Sikander Kher delivers well as a tough soldier ready to do his master’s bidding. Namit Das is impressive as the cokehead friend and business partner, Sohaila Kapur plays Aarya’s alcoholic mother, Manish Chaudhry is a mob boss in love with cigars and the high life, Vikas Kumar is good as ACP Khan.
Then there is the firang Alexx O’Neill, the Bhagavad Gita loving musician husband of Aarya’s younger sister Soundarya (Priyasha Bhardwaj) who has no clue what kind of family he has married into.
One good thing about the web series is that the characters have got their due, especially the child actors who own place in the narrative and adds muscle to the series. The kids have absorbing roles, the son is falling for a junkie, the daughter is looking for a father in all the wrong places and the youngest one’s trauma keeps haunting him
Sushmita Sen carries the web series on her shoulder well, and it is a good comeback for the star who was into oblivion for a long long time with few films to her credit, beginning from 1996’s Dastak to Nirbaak which really did not establish her into the big league.
Watch the trailer of Aarya – The struggles of a woman through the muck of violence, blackmail, lies and treachery to keep her three kids safe.
Even at this age Sushmita Sen has the looks to kill..The definition of Bold and Elegant..Glad she is back…
While the miniature mysteries keep coming to the forefront through the narrative of the web series, the Aarya Web Series Ending especially the boss level reveal is the one to look forward to.
The series joins the league of drug, cop, kill, politics and vengeance drama that OTT has been loaded in recent times.
Aarya
Directors: Ram Madhvani, Sandeep Modi and Vinod Rawat
Cast: Sushmita Sen, Chandrachur Singh, Sikander Kher and others
It is worth your time. The Hotstar Specials sushmita sen starrer Aarya is streaming on Hotstar Disney Plus now.