Envoy Score: 2/5
The Chargesheet is a Zee5 original crime drama produced by Ashoke Pandit and Roshan Kanal. Despite the initial hype for this murder mystery series, it fails to live up to the mark.
There is a disclaimer which states that the characters are fictitious. However, it is difficult to stop inferring it to the true story of slain badminton champion Syed Modi. The title, which earlier had the tagline The Shuttlecock Murder was changed to The Chargesheet: Innocent or Guilty, later on.
The initial trailer depicted the story of a badminton champion’s murder and was thought to be based on the said real-life case. But, a newer trailer which was released 2 weeks ago changed the sport to table-tennis and declared the story a work of fiction.
Story
The plot revolves around Shiraj Malik (Shiv Pandit), a national level table-tennis player who falls in love with Antara Dixit (Tridha Choudhary). Both get married against the wishes of Antara’s family. When everything seems to be going well, Shiraj is fatally shot in broad daylight in front of a stadium in Lucknow.
Due to political overtures, the case gets transferred to the CBI with Vidur (Sikander Kher) as the investigating officer. How the murder mystery gets unravelled and exposes the culprits via a lengthy courtroom battle forms the rest of the story.
Performances
Only Satish Kaushik as advocate Laxman Chotrani is the saving grace of this jinxed murder mystery. Kaushik, who appears in the latter part of the story evokes some interest in otherwise lacklustre proceedings with his wit and sarcasm.
All three lead actors, Arunoday Singh, Sikander Kher and Shiv Pandit are disappointing mainly because of the script and very poor characterization. Hrishitaa Bhatt as Chitrangadha Singh is impressive while Tridha Choudhary and Ashwini Kalsekar as advocate Abha Abhyankar manage to pull off decent performances despite several clinks in the narration.
Positives
Except Salim-Sulaiman’s background score and Satish Kaushik, nothing else is really appealing.
Negatives
There are plenty. An absorbing and sensational story-line could not be converted into an interesting fare by director Shashant Shah. He has faltered maybe owing to the need of balancing a true story with fictional liberties.
The Chargesheet suffers due to a lack of direction or a plausible conclusion. It’s unfortunate that Shah, who made the acclaimed web series The Verdict: State Vs Nanavati failed to do justice this time.
Right from the cast to the execution, it is a dull affair. A sad result for a story which had the potential to be made into an enthralling show on screen.
Worth it?
A big letdown. With so much new content streaming every day, there is no reason to choose The Chargesheet as a must watch because it fails to make any impact whatsoever.
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