Aarya is the latest web series launched on Disney + Hotstar online platform and marks the comeback of Sushmita Sen after a gap of 10 years. Aarya has a good storyline with a lot of twists and turns. Sushmita Sen hasn't aged and seems extremely fit to be in the role of mother of 3 children, two being teenagers. I watched the whole series on the day of the launch i.e. 19th June 2020 on Hotstar Digital Platform but didn't get the time to write the review to date.
Also, I found the 9 episodes to be running too slow and it would have made it more thrilling if the speed of the serial has been increased 10-15% as I got disinterested in the series in the first 2 episodes which I watched at the regular playback speed and when I increased the same to 115% then it was working more and kept me on the edge of the seat. 9 episodes in total will take around 7 hours 45 minutes to finish and you can easily binge-watch them on the tour of Rajasthan and the first few episodes are more like marriage ceremonies of the big fat wedding.
The web series stars Chandrachur Singh which also makes a comeback as Jay Sareen, husband of Aarya Sareen played by Sushmita Sen. Namit Das as Jawahar and Ankur Bhatia as Sangram who is the younger brother of Aarya. These 3 persons are handling the business once run by their dad Zorawar played by Jayant Kripalani. Sikandar Kher as Daulat is Zorawar's, right-hand man and later helps Aarya in all her tasks to run the business. Alexx ONell plays Bob with which younger sister of Aarya, Soundarya is getting married played by Priyasha Bhardwaj. Flora Saini also plays a small role of Radhika/Rads as a lover of Zorawar. Sohaila Kapur plays the ex-wife of Zorawar. Sugandha Garg also makes a comeback as Hina but got nothing much to do as the fiancee of Sangram. Maya Sarao plays Jawahar's wife role as Maya. Maya, Aarya, and Hina are best friends in the web series.
The story revolves around the greed of getting rich despite Jay's warnings to Jawahar and Sangram led to the murder of Jay in front of his son. The reign is then handled by Aarya as she overcomes all kinds of challenges and fighting the cause to keep her family close despite several threats from the police and the Shekawat played by Manish Choudhary whose heroine they tried to take and become rich. She herself tries to find the person behind the murder of her husband Jay which keeps you glued to the screen. Sangram runs the operation from jail and ACP Khan played by Vikas Kumar tries to find the culprit. The overall story has many elements which you will like as the fighting spirit of Aarya and the selfish tendencies of Jawahar while all the hell comes loose and there is chaos all around. I really loved the acting of Vishwajeet Pradhan as Sampat - right-hand man of Shekawat. The story tells an emotional part of the afterlife of kids as their father dies and how each one of them tries to handle the situation despite their loving mother and other family members. It's a real struggle inside their hearts, mind, body, and soul and showcased greatly in this web series. Veer (eldest son) is played by Viren Vazirani, Aaru (daughter) is played by Virti Vaghani and youngest son Adi is played by Pratyaksh Panwar. Veer's love interest Pallavi is played by Gargi Sawant.
Some of the issues showcased are just introduced in the story to accommodate everything like ACP Khan to be gay as there is no development of character or something and there is no focus on the same too afterward. Also, the love with the old Bollywood songs is just like as showcased in the Karan Johar's movie Ae Dil Hai Mushkil where it was introduced just to match someone's from the production house thinking it will suit the audience and they will like it and here also in this series there are long sequences of the old Hindi songs. It's not like I didn't love those songs but it doesn't make any sense in today's world of web-series unless you are advertising them for SAREGAMA's Carvaan Music player.
Overall, this web series has a huge star cast with great sets and cinematography and they have kept the ending open so as to make another season. It is not announced yet but in the days to come - it will be as the web series is getting good response from all the fans of Sushmita Sen including me. The web series is produced by Ram and Amita Madhvani along with Endemol Shine India and is based on Penoza a Dutch Drama series by Pieter Bart Korthuis. I also liked the background music done by Vishal Khurana and the story is written by Sandeep Shrivastava and Anu Singh Choudhary. Aarya is directed by Ram Madhvani himself along with Sandeep Modi and Vinod Rawat.
Watch it this weekend on
Disney Hotstar.
RATING 3.5/5
