Movie buffs are spending time watching web series as the theaters are closed and our Telugu cinema is not recognizing OTTs as an alternative.
They’re watching Hindi, English Spanish web series, and appreciating them. That is fine, what about our Telugu web series? They are also making many web series but they are not worth talking about.
A story can be narrated in one and a half hours, three hours or five-six hours. In the web series, it is presented in 10 hours by making them ten episodes.
But it is very tough to maintain the curiosity among the audience for hours together. The audience will watch their mobile if ten minutes scene is boring in a 2 hours film. So, it is a tight rope walk to retain the audience’s interest until the end. That’s where our Telugu web series are faltering.
At this juncture, a young director came up with a web series titled ‘Loser’. This Zee5 Original series is receiving huge appreciation from the audience.
If a story originates from the people, it grabs the attention. The story selected by Abhilash Reddy, the characters that drive the story are quite natural. So, Loser will be like our story.
He has set up the story in three different time frames with three lead characters. The director indirectly establishes the point that the poor sports persons will face the same troubles always.
Wilson’s Story: Wilson(Shashank) is a fast bowler who works very hard to get a place in the Indian cricket team in 1985. His aggressive nature coupled with a few other things stop him to reach his goal. He gets addicted to alcohol and spoils his career.
Ruby Shabana’s Story: A Muslim girl Ruby Shabana(Annie) dreams of excelling in badminton sport 1993. She takes coaching without her father’s knowledge who is against girls taking up sports. She changes the mindset of his father but she could not overcome the obstacles faced by women in sports.
Suri Yadav’s Story: Suri Yadav(Priyadarshi) is a state player in the air rifle shooting in 2007. He gets a chance to play at the national level. He needs Rs.5 lakh money to pursue his sport at the national level. Will Suri overcome all the obstacles and becomes a winner or remain as a loser?
The stories of sportspersons are not new for us. Many films depicted the journies of players. ‘Loser’ also has the regular situations encountered by the sportspersons which are shown in many films. But the characters, situations appear to be quite natural in ‘Loser’ and the way three sportspersons lives are presented in different timeframes grabs the attention.
Abhilash has proved his talent by perfectly interlinking three time frames and three stories. We have already seen anthology films, so there is no confusion.
The first advantage of ‘Loser’ is that the situations encountered by the players will not be artificial. The reactions of the characters to those situations are very near to reality.
The web series takes off slowly but it gains momentum with every episode. The audience will get connect to the characters and they wish to see the players win. All the emotional scenes are effective so the minor drawbacks got covered up in the process.
Ruby’s story has got a good arc. The different situations encountered by her, the troubles faced by her as a middle-class wife who otherwise could have become a big player are natural.
The way she looks at the other success and feels happy, the way she gets the courage to fight the situations everything is perfect. Annie as a girl, Kalpika a lady have done justice to their role. Showing her talent without the knowledge of her father reminds us of the situation in ‘Secret Superstar’. But, on the whole, Ruby’s story is the complete story in ‘Loser’.
The up & downs in the story of Suri Yadav are designed well. A crazy young brother who doesn’t recognize the hard work of his elder brother makes his future a big question mark. But destiny favors him when he gets the support that comes from his past.
When the girlfriend becomes an obstacle to his goal, the way he finds a solution as a common man is good. Suri’s troubles, the difficulties he faces for the rifle will remember Nani in ‘Jersey’.
The trouble faced by his girlfriend will remind us of Rashmika’s character in ‘Dear Comrade’. Priaydarshi made a sincere attempt in portraying the character. His girlfriend Pavani also got strong scenes.
Wilson’s story appears to be incomplete. The obstacle he faced doesn’t appear to be a external one but it is his own fault. Even though Shashank accepts the same in the end, his tracks lack life after he gets addicted to alcohol. But the way Wilson’s track is connected to Suri’s story and the way he guides Suri is good.
Using foul language in the Hindi web series for reality has become quite common. The director has followed the same trend in Suri’s younger brother’s track. It won’t make any difference if that foul language is avoided. It is better to keep it clean considering the family audience.
They have not compromised on quality. Even though the series shot in a few locations and with less number of characters, the ten-episode series maintained the audience’s interest. Technically the web series is sound.
The background score made the web series more interesting. The dialogues like “Odipovadam ante darulleka povadam kadhu, unna daari vethukkoleka povadam” are very good.
On the whole, ‘Loser’ has shown the way for others in the selections of stories. Though the promotion is meagre, it is getting good word of mouth. It will inspire many others to come up with good stories.
Bottom line: Winner!
