Pritam Parker and Pedro Gonsalves, the two titular protagonists of the latest JioHotstar series Pritam and Pedro, are as different as chalk and cheese, and yet remain connected by a common trauma — a similar-shaped wound that has scarred both their lives. As they choose to confront it, their bond and their pursuit become more resolved. In any other show, this could have been a moment of great emotional impact. Except in Pritam and Pedro, it falls flat, passing by without leaving any imprint. All of this is particularly surprising because the series is co-written by Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi, two writers who have carefully built their legacy over the past 23 years as masters of emotion. In their OTT debut, however, the duo finds itself struggling to stay afloat.
Directed by: Avinash Arun
Cast: Arshad Warsi, Vir Hirani, Vikrant Massey, Satyadip Mishra, Mona Singh
Written by: Rajkumar Hirani, Abhijat Joshi, Suyash Trivedi, Amit Dubey
Streaming on: JioHotstar
Maybe it is the format itself, where market needs compel you to keep fishing for hook points or dramatic turns. With 6 episodes (each timed roughly at 35 minutes), the writers (Hirani and Joshi in association with Amit Dubey and Suyash Trivedi) struggle to give any breathing space to their protagonists. Pritam and Pedro throws us into the universe — establishing Pedro (Arshad Warsi) as a high-strung cop already immersed in an unusual case where Pritam (Vir Hirani) comes to his rescue. Every scene seems jumpy and abrupt, and we never feel familiarised enough with the characters. The characters always seem distant, even though we are part of the chase. Things are just conveyed, not narrated. We are frequently told about Pedro being a trigger-happy cop who would be happier solving actual crimes instead of supervising cyber cell, but the script refuses to make space for it. At one point, he talks about the desire to be surrounded by “the fragrance of crime” — except we never get a whiff of it. If Pedro is an underdog, systematically downtrodden by the higher authorities, it doesn’t register.
Pritam, meanwhile, is too happy being a quiet tech genius who is not allowed to be an accessible figure to root for. His issue with alcoholism arbitrarily spurts up in a scene or two, never playing a role in how things turn out. There is a heart-wrenching idea behind the mayhem — the wounds that these two distinct men share, that fuels them in their pursuit — but the series never finds a way to weave this element in smoothly. The way the writers keep chasing Pedro’s guilt as an inherent part of the storyline only reminds you how far the writers are from their goal of leaving an emotional imprint.
It’s not just about the emotional resonance, Pritam and Pedro is devoid of any energy. The staging is dry and after a point, the makers choose the most predictable route to run its course. There is an occasional glimpse of the charm Hirani is known for. Pritam is established as an earnest young man exercising his honesty to a fault, irrespective of his cynical surroundings. The opening episode incorporates a nice satirical scene about how crimes are often solved in our system. There are two throwaway jokes early on about politicians and democracy. There is also a heartwarming subplot around an old man and his missing tape recorder, which finds a delightful closure in the final episode. But these remain small, joyful slivers, patched on a wobbly constructed universe.
With such material, it’s incredibly hard for a seasoned actor like Arshad Warsi, as sincere as he is, to create anything magical. Vir Hirani’s debut maneuvers don’t help as he struggles with the weight of a hazy character outline, faring between passable and forgettable. There are some interesting cameos from stellar actors like Mona Singh, Boman Irani, and Ramesh Sharma (Ramesh, in particular, is fabulous as a wounded cop), which provide momentary respite in a drudging narrative.
Pritam and Pedro is half-hearted in other ways too. Vikrant Massey comes in too late in the show, and despite a staggering entrance, never becomes menacing enough an antagonist. The makers try to compensate for his lack of menace with a recurring, sinister-sounding music piece which gets annoying after a point. There is also a cutesy PK-reminiscent accordion theme, only serving as a reminder of what the story could have been. The cinematography is surprisingly bland too, considering it’s Avinash Arun (Killa (2015), Three of Us (2023)) holding the reins.
But more importantly, it’s the blending of genres and moods that hurts the show the most. he series constantly juggles many tones, giving us moments of heavy emotions in the midst of a light-hearted sequence. Just when we feel its trying to settling for a dramedy zone, the show comes up with a new antagonist. The deeper the show gets into the trenches, the more complacent it becomes, happy to trod along in the guise of a conventional investigation-thriller, completely betraying its premise and promises of a quirky caper.
At the end of the day, Pritam and Pedro is not light enough, and it’s not dark enough. It’s not tense enough, and it’s not dramatic enough. It’s just not enough.
