In Tooth Pari: When Love Bites, Rumi, a rebellious vampire, makes the dire mistake of falling for a human and endangers her clan, which has been in hiding for years. The series is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Rumi, a rebellious vampire, often breaks her clan’s rules by visiting the human world from time to time to collect their fresh blood. Her clan is led by Ora, and a human named Adi Deb, also known as AD, takes care of them.
To keep them away from humans, AD provides them with everything in the underworld, including books, music, and gadgets. Most importantly, he regularly supplies them with blood from a nearby hospital.
Despite having all of this, vampires like Rumi walk into the human world looking for freedom and to satisfy their lust for fresh human blood.
At a party, Rumi loses her tooth while biting a man with a prosthetic neck. To fix it before AD or Ora can find out, she visits Dr. Roy’s clinic.
Though it doesn’t get fixed on the first visit, Rumi starts going to Roy frequently for a reason or two. Meanwhile, a cop picks up the case of the man Rumi bit, and news about Ora’s clan being active again travels to the Cutmundus, a coven led by a witch named Luna Luka that hunts these vampires down.
Performances
Tanya Maniktala as Rumi stays sincere in her role. She appears as a strong lead character who can carry the show on her shoulders. Certainly, one starts feeling like the whole show revolves around Rumi rather than the romance that she shares with Roy, played by Shantanu Maheshwari.
Shantanu Maheshwari plays an introverted dentist who likes to see himself as a loser just because everyone else tells him so. Maheshwari doesn’t put on a memorable performance at all and fails to add a unique touch to this generic character.
The viewers have seen Maheshwari being intimidated by a female character before, and Tooth Pari: When Love Bites offers nothing new.
Positives
Tooth Pari: When Love Bites comes with an intriguing premise and has that colorful aura that will attract the viewers to it. The pacing and main characters’ introductions are on point and carried smoothly while having the main story play out.
During the flashback scenes, the series opts to change the picture frame and filter to match the era that the scene is taking place in. Furthermore, the lighting used for a show that is primarily shot at night suits the kind of characters that are brought to life.
Negatives
From the very first scene, Tooth Pari: When Love Bites hints that it isn’t bringing the best VFX to our screens. Throughout its run, it does manage to balance it well, but the final fight sequence between Rumi and Luna Luka is disappointing to watch.
Despite being a Netflix show, the VFX during that fight does remind one of the average poorly-produced daily soaps that try to include some supernatural drama into it. The VFX aside, the hand-to-hand combat scenes aren’t choreographed well either.
Even the costume and makeup choices are, at times, questionable. They just look weird and put together randomly.
Though it’s understandable that some of the characters are vampires who have lived underground for years, they still don’t look appealing here, especially Adil Hussain, who plays AD; his costume is still acceptable, but not his makeup.
Tooth Pari: When Love Bites provides the vampires with a threatening figure in the form of their leader Ora, and for some reason, no importance is given to this character. His appearance doesn’t receive the much-needed build, and he plays more of a second in command to AD.
Lastly, Tooth Pari: When Love Bites could have worked if it was darker in nature rather than colorful and light-hearted.
Verdict
Tooth Pari: When Love Bites must encourage more such intriguing premises in the Indian web space, but they need to be executed with sheer dedication and not based on a formula that has worked well for fantasy shows in the past.
Overall, Tooth Pari: When Love Bites carries its romance well, but the appealing elements of vampires, their world, and their threats don’t deliver.
Also Read: Tooth Pari: When Love Bites summary and ending explained
