‘Aashram’ Review : A Damn Good Story Of A Goddamn God-man
When the trailer of ‘Aashram’ was released, it was met with negative reactions. Hindus were not pleased with the use of Hindu imagery and themes in the portrayal of a criminal. On the surface, it did look like another useless Hinduphobic web-series.
So, is ‘Aashram’ propaganda?
In my opinion, no. The story does not focus maligning any religion, but exposes the formation and operations of a dangerous cult. Prakash Jha‘s disclaimer is not insincere.
After watching the entire series, I concluded that only a resentful, Hindu-phobic and DUMB person would interpret this show as “Oh look, Hindus are bad.”
So if you are a hater who spends too much time on Twitter, do us all a favor and skip this one, lest you should project your own bias on it. Also check out some other web-series.
So what is ‘Aashram’ about?
The show is about a self-styled God-man named ‘Baba Nirala’ (played by Bobby Deol) and his cult, presented to the audience using a number of well-written characters and multiple story-lines.
The following review contains the plot overview, and is spoiler-free.
We meet a girl, Pammi (Aaditi Pohankar), who is frantically trying to escape a hostel. She bravely faces her captors, and her fate is left unknown.
Then we cut to her past, and the nine-episode long story unfolds.
Pammi is a wrestler, who happens to be dalit, and in her village, there is immense power difference between dalits and oonchi jaati. The police is weak and rendered immobilized under political pressure from every direction.
Baba Nirala knows very well how to exploit this situation.
He enters Pammi’s life, projecting himself to be a fair and just king, and she becomes devoted to him. Yes, the Baba has such grandeur and power that he looks less like a guru and more like a king!
Have a look at this still, and tell me if it has the same vibe as the on-screen portrayal of Akbar in Jodhaa-Akbar.
So how powerful is this kingly Baba anyway? Very, very powerful. Almost comically powerful.
He has the oonchi-jaati by the balls (literally grabs balls in one scene, yikes!) He controls the dalits by acting like their saviour, he controls the police by having influence on the upper-management.
Both the ruling-party and the opposition want a piece of him, and 44 lakh brainwashed devotees are at his command. The audience wonders, where does all this power come from?
When Baba takes off his robe and retires to his luxury bedroom, a recurring nightmare wakes him up, leaving him petrified. The visual contrast is stunning, the royally clad, imposing Baba Nirala versus the naked, palpitating, afraid ordinary man. (Not taking any names, but turns out Baba is, in fact, not a Saint but an insaan.)
What is the Baba’s ashram anyway?
‘Aashram’ here refers to the Baba’s lavish establishment which consists of his luxury mansion, a school, a college, a hospital, living quarters for the volunteers and everything else. It is a world of its own. Its an indoctrination center. It is hard to escape from.
Babaji preaches moral BS, and the cult sings his praises. (Sounds familiar?)
Although preaching his devotees to renounce lust and greed, he indulges in pleasure himself, committing heinous crimes to satisfy his lust. (Deja vu? Who?)
The Aashram is in fact, the epicenter of various crimes, as explored through the story-line of wrestler Pammi and her brother Satti (Tushar Pandey). Enchanted by Baba’s front-end charity work and messiah image, they are lured into becoming volunteers of the aashram. They stay, study, work, serve all the while engrossed in devotion, blind to the reality.
Meanwhile, a corpse is excavated and Baba fears it might be one of this victims. He makes attempts to snuff the flame before the fire spreads, ruthlessly removing obstacles.
Meanwhile, the new post-martum doctor, Natasha(Anupriya Goenka) refuses to budge under pressure. A tired cop, Ujagar Singh (Darshan Kumar), falls for her and realises he does not have to be a helpless puppet anymore.
Along with a local journalist Akhvinder Rathee (Rajeev Siddhartha), they start collecting evidence, aiming to find the killers. Together, they might prove to be the thorns who can cause a blister under the powerful, crushing feet of Baba Nirala. Or will they get crushed afterall?
This storyline is a little boring, and the awkward flirting between the doctor and the cop has Abhijeet/Dr. Tarika vibes. See for yourself :
What is the series trying to portray?
The show repeatedly establishes that Baba loves to be in control. And as soon as control slips from his hands, his goons take care of it.
The most important figure is his right-hand, Bhopa Swami (Chandan Roy Sanyal) who is a cool, unapologetic killer. His female aide (yay! representation) tortures and threatens women volunteers and calls herself Sadhvi Mata (Parinita Seth). His pet dog is a former policeman named Michael Rathee (Jahangir Khan) and with the blessings of Babaji, he is more powerful than the police force. The warden (pimp) is an intersex person named Behenji, closely resembling the mannerisms of Sadashiv Amrapurkar‘s character Maharani. Have a look :
Interestingly, Baba is also shown to be a skilled puppeteer. We see what you did there.
The story is about power. The lust, the fight, the victims, the wish to expand the power as much as possible.
In one scene, Baba even muses about trying to expand his influence on the youth, like a hip, flashy rock-star. (Where have we seen that before?) He ropes in pop-singer Tinka Singh (Adhyayan Suman) who doesn’t want to be associated with a boring Baba, but- when have things NOT gone Baba’s way? Smirk.
But even so, with all the gyaan and guns, Baba isn’t at peace.
The truth remains, that no human can ever have absolute power. And therefore, any threat to this power makes the mind go crazy with fear and panic. And the show reminds us, a God-man is still, a human.
So is the show worth my time?
Yes, if you wish to see a crime-thriller show with a brilliant screenplay, go for it.
However, I felt there were unnecessary bang-bang scenes, maybe because I am not a horny teenager anymore. I was enjoying the story and then I had to endure staring at a man’s naked back for 3 minutes straight, like why even?
The show also leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and I felt a little annoyed I have to wait for season 1 part 2 now.
In summary :
A fine story, great entertainment value, delivers what it promises.
Trigger warnings : Violence, Sexual assault