Over the years SRK has been doing certain things which make me believe that he is not well at all. I mean he has shown every sign of losing his fine senses. He has literally succumbed to senility. As a result, all his so-called ‘Romantic Comedies’ turned into horror movies. Dilwale, Happy New Year, Jab Harry Met Sejal will give you ample documentary evidences. Now in his quest to create one horror show, he has been successful in making a comedy movie of some sort. Yes, you got it right. I am talking about the latest offering from Red Chillies and Netflix- Betaal. The series started with lofty promise. In fact, the first episode was quite engaging. Even though the loopholes were evident, it showed signs of becoming one gripping thriller. However, as the show progressed, the creators themselves were possessed by some zombies. They could not lose the chance of savoring the first-hand experience of being infected by the gang of Zombies they were showing all along I suppose. As a result, what followed is a comedy of errors. Patchy screenplay, aimless actions, wafer-thin plot progression, sickening dialogue, Betaal gradually started manifesting every sign of infection. At some points, you would wonder, does SRK ever watch his own movies or the ones he produces? Does he not feel the pain of destroying a show which had so much of promise. I mean after watching the first episode, I was fairly convinced that this is definitely going to be India’s answer to Train To Busan, even though the silly dialogues were making some warnings inside me that I should not have any expectation from a Red Chillies film. There were moments of brilliance. But what followed always was a complete disaster. Initially, I could keep a count of the goof ups but as the show progressed I just lost in translation. Well, you do not expect a Zombie movie to be a Pulp Fiction. But you do not expect something fresh out of the Netflix factory to be so rotten either. Just after a slick action move, you will be presented with something so ludicrous that you start wondering how the hell Netflix even agreed to show it. I should not say anything about the acting here because there was no acting at all. The actors themselves were confused with what they were offered as a script and they were all playing ‘Go as you like’. They were asked to utter ‘gaalis’ as every other web series has plenty of them. But hey, even the darkest cloud always has a silver lining. This series too has one. It has only four episodes and ended pretty soon, sparing you of any further headaches. I think this is the only clever thing the creators offered the viewers.
Finally, I am an ardent fan of SRK and even then I am writing such words. So you can trust me how bad this show is. Please avoid this if you have other works in hand. SRK will be spared from some curses then. At least he is the man who once gave us movies like Swadesh, Chak De India or Kabhie Haan Kabhi Na.
My Rating- 4 out of 10.
Available on Netflix.
