Writer-Director Prashant Nair’s ‘Tryst With Destiny’ is an anthology collection of four beautiful short stories which highlights issues of our society like racism and caste discrimination which are still prevalent in our country, even after so many years of Independence. The title of the web series, Tryst With Destiny, is inspired from former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous speech on the dawn of independence.
The first episode ‘Fair and Fine’ begins with a story about a billionaire Galava Mudiraj (Ashish Vidyarthi) who despite having everything in life can’t run away from the discrimination he has to face because of his dark skin. He realises that with money he can buy anything in this world but can’t change his skin colour. There were scenes where we see him being called as ‘Kalua’ and ‘Kaala Jamun’ which shows how deeply racism is rooted in our society. Ashish Vidyarthi is absolutely brilliant. He can be touted as a major reason to watch this series. Suhasini Maniratnam, Sahana Vasudevan and Anika Radhakrishnan, in supporting roles, gave convincing performances as well.
The second story ‘The River’ revolves around a lower caste couple with two children who live on the outskirts of the village and are forced to follow the rules set by the people from the upper caste. The episode not only highlights their struggles for survival but also shows why we as part of a society this discriminatory should be ashamed of ourselves. With very little to no dialogues said by the lead characters, played by Kani Kusruti and Vineet Kumar Singh, it still makes you feel all the emotions which is it’s real beauty. No amount of appreciation could do justice to the kind of performance these two have delivered. This episode is the best out of all the four and will surely make you break down towards the end.
Next, ‘One BHK’ tells everything that goes on with a person who doesn’t have enough money – their helplessness, struggles and the things they have to do against their will. It is a story about an honest traffic cop Kuber who in order to win his girlfriend’s heart wants to buy one BHK flat and in the process gets entangled in corruption. Jaideep Ahlawat and Palomi Ghosh gave absolutely brilliant performances in the role of Kuber and Laxmi respectively and kept the viewers engaged throughout.
The fourth & final episode of the series titled ‘A Beast Within’, is the least explored one. Set in a village in Maharashtra, it is a story about Bhau (Amit Sial) who captured a man eating tigress to avenge the death of his lost child who was wounded by the tigress while a team of government officials, led by Neelam (Gitanjali Thapa), reach the village to take the captured tigress. In this final episode Nair has touched a very different topic, that is, man-animal conflict for which he definitely deserves some appreciation.
The casting is done so perfectly – all the actors fit very well in their characters. Avinash Arun has done aesthetically pleasing work in the cinematography department and the background score by Narendra Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor is satisfactory. The series also bagged Best Screenplay Award at Tribeca Film Festival, 2020.
From exploring caste based discrimination to talking about racism and how greed can spoil one’s happy life to even touching upon man-animal conflict, this series is a good watch for people who are hungry for quality content. Nair’s ‘Tryst With Destiny’ tries to convey big societal issues using short stories & in the process leaves quite an impression.
‘Tryst With Destiny’ is now streaming on SonyLiv.
