MumBhai – Average Show with Poor VFX

MumBhai, as the name suggests is the story based in Mumbai and on the underworld of the 90s. Alt Balaji has put in as much effort in its making, just as they have put in naming the series. With Angad Bedi and Sikandar Kher in major roles, MumBhai is yet another mediocre webshow on OTT.

Plot

MumBhai has a very basic plot which tells the story of a cop Bhaskar Shetty, how he rises from poverty, goes on to become one of the most feared encounter specialists, how power gets to him and his downfall.

When a child, Bhaskar Shetty (Angad) escapes from his village  in Karnataka, after he attacks a teacher for trying to molest his mother. He moves to Mumbai where Rama Shetty (Sikander Kher) takes him under his wings.

Rama is a small time goon who is trying to make it big in the underworld. He arranges a job for Bhaskar in a restaurant, where Bhaskar meets a police officer who helps him to study and get a job in the Police department.

Bhaskar joins the department under one of the high profile encounter specialist Karekar (Sameer Dharmadhikari), and with his work and help of a journalist Shirodkar, quickly rises up the rank, which irks his contemporaries.

Bhaskar also starts making deals with some of the gangs which raises questions about him in the department. Also his relation with Rama, who now is one of the dreaded gangsters in mumbai, also becomes very questionable.

Amidst all this, Bhaskar meets and falls in love with Vaishnavi, who is also a finance professional and helps him invest his black money and make it legal. 

Finally, Bhaskar reaches a stage where he has rubbed everyone the wrong way, be it underworld people, his own department, Rama or the journalist Shirodkar. 

The rest of the series shows what happens when everyone plots against Bhaskar, how Bhaskar gets out of this mess, what happens to his equation with Rama, his colleagues and his wife.

The Hits

MumBhai is a fast paced series, with a tight 20 minute per episode length, which seems to be it’s only strength. The proceedings are fast and a lot keeps on happening.

The makers have tried to link quite a few subplots and to create a feel of 90s which is decent.

The Misses

To start with, MumBhai has a plot which offers nothing which we haven’t seen yet. A stale plot with very average casting and performances, the show never lives up to anything.

The biggest letdown is the VFX which is used in the show. Makers have tried to create Mumbai of old, but the VFX quality is so bad, that it all looks pretty bad.

Most of the actors dont fit the characters they play, nor do most of the characters seem to have much relevance to the narrative.

Performances

MumBhai has few good performances. Angad Bedi as Bhaskar is pretty decent, but his accent keeps on changing throughout the season. Sikandar Kher as aspiring don Rama Shetty is good but again struggles with accent.

Sandeepa Dhar as Vaishnavi (Bhaskar’s wife) looks beautiful but does not get much scope to perform barring just a few scenes.

Samir Dharmadhikari as Karekar and Vishwas Kini as Shirodkar are good and fit the role. Rest all cast gives a very average performance at best.

FFC Take

In Snapshot, MumBhai is a very average series which has a death police underworld story let down by average storytelling and some bad performances.

To add to it the VFX and production values are very poor which make this a worthy contender to be missed. Avoidable.