Exam Review:
From parents bribing a bicycle or the latest PlayStation set to a high-paying job, there are literally very few things that exams and marks don't determine in a person's life. In this part of the world, especially. With all its inefficiencies, the system still holds a gateway ticket to escape social and economic inequalities. Filmmaker A Sarkunam's new Prime Video series Exam is laudable for the very attempt to tell this rarely-told everyplace story. But the series is stretched too thin as the plot thickens, resulting in an underwhelming finish.
Ten to fifteen minutes into the series, Jhansi (Dushara Vijayan) takes the place of SP Maramalli (Aditi Balan) when she is getting ready to take charge in the fictional town of Udhagam Malai ahead of the Group 1 exam. Exam tells the story of Jhansi, the reason behind her impersonation, and how she forms a team to fight the systemic corruption in the competitive exams that deny the underprivileged a fair chance.
The initial episodes were impressive for how Jhansi is getting acclimated with the world of Maramalli, which is plotted with dangers of her getting exposed. Curiosity swells with every episode up to a point. The episodes could be divided into two: Before exams and during/after exams. The portions and sequences before exams were both entertaining and informative about the background work that goes into the preparation of the exam. Dushara, as Jhansi, is competent in sustaining the enigma surrounding the character and her intentions. There is a sense of monotony with which the scenes shift between the police station and the police guest house. But the drama surrounding how Jhansi handles those who are suspicious, including Maramalli's parents, helped in compensating for the monotony. Additionally, the angle in which the investigation is conducted on suspicion of foul play ahead of an all-important exam was refreshing to watch and seemed fresh in comparison to the kind of probe the police procedurals have trained the audience for many years. Also, the serialised cold open in every episode adds to the drama and forms the emotional core of the series.
Cast: Dushara Vijayan, Aditi Balan, Abbas
Director: A Sarkunam
Streaming platform: Prime Video
Before the screenplay took a nosedive, the series bares itself of Jhansi's flashback. Despite a fairly convincing backstory, the sense of running against time and the resultant hurried performances make the character transformation implausible. This is exactly where the writing starts to meander. The setup of exams and Jhansi getting close to the miscreants through Maramalli's phone seems like running in circles forever. As the plot thickens, there are a lot of convenient writing choices, like the overdoing of Jhansi passing as Maramalli. She does this among too many people in too many situations. The choice of the place for Maramalli's abduction is too amateurish, given the amount of secrecy and meticulousness with which Jhansi and her team are conducting this operation. Another questionable choice comes in the form of the weakly written antagonist(s). Given their machinations, they let too many things slip under the radar. Instead of an intelligible play involving the protagonist and antagonists making each other rat out themselves, the series uses the done-to-death crutch of mobile phone tracking and planting CCTV cameras. If not for these devices, the series resorts to an even older technique of hand-to-hand combat.
Speaking of the antagonist, Exam joins the tiring list of works that suffer from writing a morally sound villain. It is also disingenuous and a cop out to ascribe individual intentions to a huge scam surrounding the civil services exam, where not even a leaf stirs without the oversight of bureaucrats and politicians. The series does show an enigmatic and powerful person who pulls the string and makes his presence felt only through calls and audio. It couldn't get any more convenient, saving this personality for a second season, while denying the first a real and honest challenge. Except for Dushara and intermittent flair from Aditi, there is rarely anything for actors to play on. Abbas, as Jayachandran, whose primacy in the initial episodes should have put him at the forefront of proceedings as Dushara begins to close in on the miscreants. However, he goes conspicuously absent.
Exam, in a nutshell, scores high for its singular focus on the irregularities in competitive exams, but is two episodes too long for the scanty details it provides towards the end. The good work the series has accomplished in the initial episodes is undone by shifting to cinematic pleasures instead of sticking to its strength of maintaining factual integrity. With a very sensitive issue as its core and a set of competent actors to shoulder the story, the shift in treatment halfway seemed as dissonant as writing an English and Maths test on the same answer sheet.