Mistry
may
work
for
some,
but
also
raises
the
question
about
mental
illness
being
treated
as
a
means
of
amusement
for
audiences,
notes
Deepa
Gahlot.
Monk,
the
series
on
which
Mistry
is
based,
came
out
in
2002,
almost
a
quarter
of
a
century
ago.
It
was
cute
to
have
a
male
protagonist
have
an
adoring,
female
sidekick.
Adrian
Monk
was
always
accompanied
by
Sharona,
whose
role
was
to
carry
a
hand
sanitiser
and
wet
tissues
for
her
boss,
suffering
from
Obsessive
Compulsive
Disorder
(OCD).
So
in
the
Indian
remake,
Mistry,
that’s
what
the
nurse/assistant
Sharanya
does.
(Today,
if
Karamchand
said,
‘Shut
up,
Kitty,’
he
would
be
cancelled.)
To
prove
that
current
wokeness
has
not
passed
it
by,
Mistry
has
a
Muslim
female
ACP,
Sehmat
Siddiqui
(Mona
Singh),
who
runs
a
city
police
force
so
incompetent,
they
need
a
consultant
to
help
solve
difficult
cases.
In
the
show
directed
by
Rishab
Seth,
written
by
Aarsh
Vora
and
Ritviq
Joshi,
adapting
Andy
Breckman’s
original
script,
other
upgrades
have
been
duly
carried
out
—
cell
phones,
computers,
CCTV
cameras
and
so
on.
Mistry
is
about
the
genius
detective
Armaan
Mistry
(Ram
Kapoor),
who
suffers
from
severe
OCD,
after
witnessing
his
wife
(Shraddha
Nigam)’s
murder.
He
has
been
suspended
from
the
police,
and
hopes
to
be
reinstated,
if
his
therapist
clears
him.
While
Tony
Shalhoub
played
the
Sherlock
Holmes-inspired
character
with
subtle
signs
of
discomfort
with
touching
people
or
seeing
visible
dirt
anywhere,
Ram
Kapoor
plays
him
with
excessive
twitching
and
grimacing
like
a
kid
with
ADHD.
His
constant
shadow
is
Sharanya
(Shikha
Talsania),
a
single
mother
with
a
young
son
(Vidhan
Sharma),
who
gets
to
be
at
the
centre
of
an
episode
at
a
resort,
where
he
spots
a
murder
being
committed.
The
first
two
episodes,
like
the
original
Monk,
are
about
the
failed
assassination
of
a
politician,
where
Mistry
is
called
to
help,
against
the
wishes
of
Sehmat,
and
his
findings
connect
two
seemingly
unrelated
cases.
Mistry
picks
eight
of
the
13
in
Monk‘s
first
season
(it
ran
to
eight
seasons
with
125
episodes)
and
Indianises
them
quite
thoroughly.
Mistry
deals
with
a
fake
psychic,
a
prank
gone
wrong,
malpractices
in
a
psychiatric
hospital
and
so
on.
At
the
same
time,
he
obsesses
about
the
death
of
his
wife
and
tries
to
solve
the
case,
the
only
one
that
slips
his
grasp
and
laser-sharp
observation.
Since
there
have
been
so
many
crime
shows
with
eccentric
detectives
—
and
multiple
Sherlock
versions
—
there
is
not
much
that
is
fresh
about
Mistry,
so
Ram
Kapoor’s
comedy
act
is
meant
as
the
chief
attraction.
It
may
work
for
some,
but
also
raises
the
question
about
mental
illness
being
treated
as
a
means
of
amusement
for
audiences
(quite
like
the
recent
film
Sitaare
Zameen
Par).
Some
of
the
actors
who
appear
in
single
episodes,
like
Shishir
Sharma
as
a
ghazal
singer,
Atul
Kumar
as
a
psychiatrist,
Srishti
Dixit
as
a
crime
fiction-addicted
resort
employee,
Gagan
Dev
Riar
as
a
cop
accused
or
murder,
add
spark
to
the
show.
Mistry
is
mildly
entertaining,
though
not
unmissable.
Mistry
streams
on
JioHotstar.
Mistry
Review
Rediff
Rating:
