Zee5 Lalbazaar Review; Thriller of a different kind with a sequel in the offing
Zee5 Lalbazaar grasped the attention of everyone, and set the perfect cop thriller tone for the show when Screen cop Ajay Devgn presented the teaser of the series. Does it live up to the expectations, and is it worth your TV time ?
Well in short yes it does capture your eyeballs, and keeps you hooked to the sequences from the word go. It is, in purity a cop thriller. Lalbazaar as a police story draws a good balance as an action and emotion entertainer…similar to those what we have been served in OTT, but it does score high in the thriller quotient.
It looks an experimental genre, something that you don’t tend to get to see in many of the cop thrillers, it highlights What it does beautifully is not dwell only on the procedural side of the police, but highlights on their human side, which quite thought provoking and something people love to hear or see. Lalbazaar manages to capture the best of good versus evil warfare and churn a riveting series out of it, which certainly calls for viewers to grab their remote and watch it on TV.
The show engages you right from the beginning, and keeps you gripped throughout. The show opens with an explosion, an unpleasant dream, and a murder that becomes the core of the narrative. And, then it paces out smoothly, by raising the expectations and outcome one scene after another with a right speed despite we get to see different characters, who kind of sinks into each of the scene quite well.
The web series is based in Lalbazaar in Kolkata, and it is about a team of 5 cops working in the homicide department. The hierarchy within the team is established quickly, but the gentle pace of revealing the characters in themselves is what makes the series as absorbing and worthy watch. The cops are all over, with their life revolving around the world of red light areas, criminal king pins, rival police officers, and the central plot: a serial killer who becomes a big pain for the cops.
Lalbazaar characters is challenged with not only the obstacles to overcome but are also trying to wriggle out of demons of their own. This narrative is well supported by a good casting led by Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Koushik Sen, Sauraseni Maitra, Rob Dey, Vijay Singh, Anirban Chakrabarty, and Hrishita Bhatt along with a fine supporting cast. The chemistry between the actors is quite brilliant.
Sabyasachi is quite convincing in the role and Dibyendu Bhattacharyya as Ghazi is menacing and has an terrific screen presence. Ronjini Chakrabarty as the feisty red light area worker.
In finale note, Lalbazaar is a hard-hitting story of life and pain, crime and punishment, and weaves fine layers that focus on justice and cop human side.
Watch Lalbazaar Trailer
All in all, Lalbazaar is a well crafted web series and keeps you gripped through its 10 episode run. It is Binge-worthy.
You can watch the show on ZEE5 right now.