New Delhi: A boarding school in a quiet hill station, the news of a death in the opening scene, a quiet child who is constantly bullied- all of these make-up as the perfect setting for a spooky thriller that already creates a mysterious air, enough to engage the audience and keep them hooked. 'Adhura' is one such series that despite running low on the horror element, makes its mark as one of the spooky series with a storyline that keeps the audience's interest intact till the very end.
'Adhura' Plot
The story begins with Vedant (Shrenik Arora), a quiet boy who is bullied by his classmates. One night, they lock him up in a locker, leaving him petrified when Vedant is rescued by a "mysterious" source. Things change after that incident as Vedant takes charge of incidents that take place in the school and teaches a lesson to his bullies. The 'Nilgiri Hills' school is prepping up for the reunion of their 2007 batch students, who are way more excited to meet their old friends. Ishwak Singh (Adhiraj) who was the star student of the 2007 batch and now a professor at a Boston college, intends to meet his best friend Ninad Raman (Poojan Chhabra) at the reunion and put things into place that went out of hands, fifteen years ago.
Vedant, who is under the supervision of school's student counsellor Ms. Supriya Ghosh (Rasika Dugal), is advised to stay away from all the reunion activities by the Dean as he does not want to create a scene. Mysterious things start happening as soon as the reunion batch gathers for its group photograph. Adhiraj begins the search for his best friend to find out his whereabouts and asks his friends about what happened on the last day of school. There is self guilt and loathing in Adhiraj who wishes to make things right between himself and Ninad, once again, and in this quest of his, he goes on to unravel secrets that have been lurking in the school campus for fifteen years.
Adhiraj seeks help from Supriya to gather information about Ninad and when he tries to connect the dots between Ninad and Vedant, he warns her of the impending danger. Supriya tries to help Vedant to the best of her abilities but she has her own secrets from the past that keep haunting her.
Performances
All the characters in the series, right from the lead to the supporting cast, blend well with the storyline and have an equal role to play in the plot's progression. Ishwak Singh delivers a compelling performance as an anxiety-hit person who is constantly fighting his demons of the past. His nuanced performance in many situations lends a sense of credibility to his well-sketched character arch.
Rasika Dugal perfectly essays the role of a student counsellor who intends to help Vedant but can't help her own self when she is haunted by secrets of her past. Her calculated portrayal of emotions make her steal every frame that she is in.
Shrenik Arora makes his mark with his stellar performance as a quiet bullied child. His transformation during his interaction with Rasika and then when he is not being Vedant is worth appreciation.
The supporting cast including Zoa Morani, Sahil Salathia, Poojan Chhabra and Rijul Ray is significant, who lend the much-needed engagement to the storyline.
Technicalities
Director-duo Gauravv K Chawla and Ananya Bannerjee have skilfully crafted a story that deals not only with horror in the form of supernatural beings but the horrors of being bullied and dealing with the horrors of one's haunting past. The cinematography by Srijan Chaurasia and background score by John Stewart Eduri, lends 'Adhura' its spooky setting.
For me, 'Adhura' gets 3/5 stars.
'Adhura' is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.