The British TV series Luther was a mix of plenty of sourceful materials. The series has been adapted four times (American, Russian, Korean, and French) before Rudra: The Edge of Darkness, and a few of them managed to convert some things while keeping the essence intact. With this Disney+ Hotstar Original, it wasn’t possible because those things which are quite normal in foreign countries can’t be termed logical in India. The only possible chance for Rudra was to Indianize things and rely heavily on the cast.
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Set in Mumbai, Rudra: The Edge of Darkness is about a veteran investigation officer, played by Ajay Devgn, who is consumed by the darkness of the crimes and his relationship issues with his wife, Shaila, played by Esha Gupta. In the first murder investigation of the series, he meets an intelligent psychopath killer, Aliyah (Raashii Khanna), who later becomes his assistant in crime. While the first episode is entirely focused on Rudra and Aliyah, and the next episodes have different murder cases and different conflicts.
As previously stated, Rudra: The Edge of Darkness is heavily reliant on the acting unit’s performances. Ajay Devgn scores high on merit in his digital debut. His intense eyes, dialogue delivery, and is so focused on this messy world of Rudra, and all of it is unbelievable yet acceptable. Raashii Khanna, on the other hand, nailed her psycho character. Esha Gupta is decent enough in her limited amount of screen time, but I wish the writer could have offered more variations on her character.
Rudra: The Edge of Darkness could have easily found better locations to shoot. From the episode, you feel that it’s somehow stuck in the same places, except for the murder premises. The cinematography of was a difficult task to pull off as it had to bring darkness into the series as well as on the screen. You can’t make it too dark because a small screen experience might make it more dull, so it had to find one intermediate point. The same applies for editing too, and I must say, both results are pretty nice.
The crime thriller genre is new to director Rajesh Mapuskar. He has done vibrant and light-hearted films like Ventilator and Ferrari Ki Sawaari and even his filmography as an assistant director belongs to the “Hirani Genre”. Rudra is far away from those films; it’s very dark and intense, so for a new student, I must say, it’s a fine attempt. However, there are unforgivable flaws in the second half of the series that he could have avoided, and he deserves to be blamed for that.
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Rest assured, Rudra: The Edge of Darkness is a watchable crime thriller for the fans of the genre and a must-watch for Ajay Devgn and Raashii Khanna’s fans because these two have literally lit up this dark-toned half-dead series. Watch ‘Rudra’ on Disney+ Hotstar here.
Review by @samthebestest_
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