Bhuvan Arora’s Janaawar—The Beast Within is set in a world that feels instantly familiar. A brutal murder that takes place in the darkness of a forest, an abusive senior cop cancelling the leave of everyone to focus on the investigation, a local MLA pressuring the cops to find his brother—many of the plot elements have become tropes of crime thrillers over the years. Its title itself bears a resemblance to some of the themes explored in the first season of Paatal Lok, of humans turning into predators. If that’s not all, Janaawar carries a similar dark tone in the visuals, an obvious reflection of its grim themes. Yet, it doesn’t get its hands deep in the muck, being satisfied with a surface-level exploration of crime and its inception. Edited and directed by Sachindra Vats, who has worked on over a hundred episodes of the popular television crime drama CID, the show adopts a straightforward style of storytelling. The twists are few, the stakes remain low, and it just about gets the job done.
The story unfolds mostly in a rural police station in Chhattisgarh, seen through the eyes of sub-inspector Hemant Kumar (Bhuvan). An earnest and empathetic cop, Hemant finds himself torn between duty and caring for his pregnant wife. As someone from an oppressed caste, he is constantly reminded of his place through the actions and glances of an upper-caste constable, Motilal Sharma (Vinod Suryavanshi). Hemant’s hope of taking a short leave to be with his wife is shattered when a body turns up in the forest. To make matters worse, after arriving at the crime scene, the body’s head goes missing when it is left unattended by the cops.
Starring: Bhuvan Arora, Bhagwan Tiwari, Atul Kale, Vaibhav Yashvir, Eshika Dey, Vinod Suryavanshi, Amit Sharma, Badrul Islam, and Deekshha Sonalkar Tham
Directed by: Sachindra Vats
Streamer: ZEE5
Hemant leads the investigation rather simplistically, following trails and interrogating suspects, without much intellectual flair. His idea of solving the case is beating the living daylights out of anyone who is even a minor suspect. A major reveal in the first episode features a cop being asked to bring a certain Sudhar Singh, which actually happens to be the name of a thick, black leather belt kept safely inside a dark room. The show’s comical and often glorified take on police brutality becomes concerning, as it unflinchingly uses torture as the only credible means of getting to the crux of the mystery.
Even Hemant’s relationship with his own identity is just scraped through dialogues. The show explores the idea of touch being central to caste prejudice. Hemant is reminded of his caste on multiple occasions during the investigation. An upper-caste woman snaps at him for touching her during a physical conflict; the son of a local priest passes derogatory remarks at him while standing inside the police station, and Hemant’s mother-in-law too hasn’t come to terms with his inter-caste marriage. Hemant is slightly indifferent as he reacts to all the jibes, putting on a mildly shocked expression all along. Writers Sonalii Gupta Srivastava and Shreyas Lowlekar don’t really tap into the complexities of caste by spinning it more intricately into the narrative. The gaze is primarily that of pity, especially with how the character of a tea seller from the oppressed caste, Kailash (Badrul Islam), is also portrayed. Caste merely becomes a tool to explain his backstory. It doesn’t get a justified resolution.
That’s when the show begins to feel like it was made with a set of keywords in mind. It is a murder mystery set in the hinterlands which features an oppressed caste protagonist and also has a strange mythological connection forced-fitted into the narrative. A man gets eerily possessed with the spirit of a gram devta (local God) and leads the cops to a dead body out of nowhere. All of it seems more like an answer to trends than serving to deepen the mystery in the plot.
Through all of this, the series begins to feel repetitive soon, even with the episodes being timed just under 30 minutes. Bhuvan takes on the other side here after dabbling against the law as Shahid Kapoor’s buddy in the crime drama, Farzi (2023). He carries a certain restraint in his performance initially, but it quickly spreads into a confusing piece as the writing doesn’t quite give him the push. The actor’s unmatched energy and aura in Farzi feel slightly underutilised here. The show needed to be a bit more open, a bit less hesitant and a tad more dense to be true to the bleak nature of its themes. Right now, it just brushes away the conflict. The plot doesn’t thicken; the ideas don’t marinate. It just remains a sum total of its parts but never quite comes together as a whole.