Produced by Vikram Malhotra and directed by Tanuja Chandra, ‘Hush Hush’ is a seven-episode series well settled in the crime drama genre. ‘Hush Hush’ became highly anticipated by the audience due to the presence of powerful female leads. The series marks the digital debut of Juhi Chawla and Ayesha Jhulka, and also stars Soha Ali Khan Pataudi, Kritika Kamra, Shahana Goswami, and Karishma Tanna in primary roles. Although a show helmed by Tanuja Chandra, Kopal Naithani also serves as director for two episodes and one episode has been directed by Ashish Pandey. The riveting story is by Shikhaa Sharma whilst also crediting Ashish Mehta for writing a part of it. National Award-winning writer Juhi Chaturvedi has penned the dialogues under the creation of the director herself.
‘Hush Hush’ centres on the lives of four friends and their seemingly picture-perfect lives. We are introduced to Ishi Sanghamitra, a successful lobbyist, portrayed by Juhi Chawla; Soha Ali Khan Pataudi as Saiba Tyagi, a former investigative journalist; a housewife Dolly Dalal performed by Kritika Kamra; and a self-made fashion designer Zaira Shaikh (Shahana Goswami). After being involved in something horrible one fateful night, and becoming an audience to a crime, their lives are turned upside down while a female police officer is introduced to the plot. The four friends struggle to get away from the threat while mired in secrets, lies, and treachery.
Filled with drama, and emotions, ‘Hush Hush’ also features Ayesha Jhulka as Meera, the caretaker of an orphanage, while Karishma Tanna plays the role of Geeta Tehlan, a police officer. The story tangles and detangles while it unfolds on-screen. We see that Ishi seems to know more than she is letting on but nothing will make her speak the truth. People are slapped, floating dead bodies materialise, hands holding lip gloss shake, and lies upon lies are told. Giving off high Big Little Lies vibes, the story, though, lacks suspense. The unsaid secrets and the ongoing turmoil of the families of each character take away the main suspense from the plot.
The direction is inspired by the best and is good in its own merit as well. The series builds creatively on the screen. The plot is established well in the city of Gurgaon, characters set in their worlds and the crime done, it is when the story moves forward it loses the entire plot and forgets what it was initially set out to achieve. About three episodes in, you are really invested into the mystery and waiting for it to unravel. The likes of Tanuja and Karishma perform talentfully. It is in the second half of the show that the creator absolutely derails from the track. The performances are also extremely underwhelming. Not one actor shines through the fog of ‘Hush Hush’.
‘Hush Hush’ creates many loose ends, hinting at the audience to think in many directions – a tactic many thriller creators use to build suspense. Although, they also, like brilliant creators, make all these ends come together in the climax of the story. ‘Hush Hush’ forgets everything by the end of its story. Unanswered questions are forgotten, and these loose ends become loopholes that worsen the already falling webseries.
The major failure of the webseries is in its direction. The performances still are average if not worse. Juhi does best with what she can in her first OTT-debut. It is very seldom that we get to witness a multi-female-led web series on a serious and dramatic theme; and to watch it fail to keep up with itself was disheartening. ‘Hush Hush’ is a decent attempt but the audience expected more. It is a missed opportunity at many levels.
‘Hush Hush’ is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
