Dive into the chaotic world of Ab Hoga Hisaab, a revenge drama that attempts to weave a complex narrative of crime and retribution but often loses its way amidst a multitude of bizarre subplots, notes Deepa Gahlot.
Key Points
- Ab Hoga Hisaab is a 10-part revenge drama set in Punjab, focusing on Bobby Manocha’s search for his missing brother and those responsible.
- The series introduces a complex web of illegal immigration, organ trading, and local gangster activities, but struggles with narrative focus.
- Shaheer Sheikh’s character Bobby is depicted as a reluctant avenger who faints at the sight of blood, adding an unusual twist to the revenge plot.
It is obvious from the title that Ab Hoga Hisaab is a revenge drama. That is confirmed immediately, as the narrator, Bobby Manocha (Shaheer Sheikh) talks of his missing brother and the violent hunt for the people responsible.
Directed by Divyanshu Malhotra and written by a small army of writers, the 10-part series is set in a small town in Punjab, amidst that macho culture that breeds violence. Web show producers are very fond of picking such plots and spreading their net of criminal psychos all over the northern states.
Bobby’s Return and the Unravelling Plot
Bobby had gone to ‘Kanneda’ (Canada) illegally as a kabootar (local term for those who look for short cuts to migrate), and has been deported, a fact that he hides from his mother (Shabnam Vadhera) and younger brother Bunty (Avinash Mishra). They hope he will be able to pay off the large loan taken from an uncle, and also arrange for Bunty’s shift to Canada. (Anyone who can raise Rs 30 lakh to pay an agent to smuggle them abroad can’t start a business in India?)
Bunty is a gym trainer and happy gigolo, who has a friends-with-benefits deal going with Lovely (Asheema Vardhan), daughter of local politician and gangster Goldy Sekhon (Sanjay Kapoor).
While escaping a cop, who caught them making out in a car, they ram into another car, which disgorges a cut finger. That piques the interest of Inspector Dosanjh (Harman Singha), who is blissfully unaware of an organ-trading and illegal immigration racket going on under his nose.
Unanswered Questions and Bizarre Subplots
There are ‘Missing’ persons’ posters on the cop station walls, but till a journalist points it out, the cop doesn’t figure out that it is the kabootars who vanish. This case is put aside, and the region’s only smart journalist (Vandana Joshi) bows out only to pop up much later.
While Goldy’s empire grows without a check — he laughs maniacally to prove how bad he is — and he is accompanied at all times by his company’s skimpily clad CEO Kaamna (Mouni Roy), the sullen-looking Bobby has to figure out a way to make money.
Street fighting doesn’t work for him as he faints at the sight of blood!
He gets a job at a café whose owner Rekha (Jaswinder Gardner) subjects him to such lewd comments that they would qualify as sexual harassment if a man had done the same. He gets to borrow her van to do the work of delivering mysterious packages to deserted spots, and doesn’t realise there’s something fishy going on.
Setting the Stage for Season Two
This is not the most bizarre subplot in the series. The father of Gazal (Nimrit Kaur Ahluwalia) wants to pay a large sum of money to palm her off to the first man who will marry her and take her abroad because her boyfriend posted obscene videos of her and left her in the lurch. Her morose expression matches Bobby’s, but since he has been deported, Bunty has to save the family home by marrying her.
Never mind that he is in love, the side gig notwithstanding, with a girl who supposedly went to Canada and disappeared.
Then Bunty goes on an errand for Goldy to Delhi, returns traumatised and does a runner. The series meanders all over the place, putting together bizarre scenes, and adding secondary characters, to build a background for the actual revenge bloodbath to come in Season Two.
There is a peak into what is to follow, certainly less moping and more shooting from the look of it. In the first season, the little amusement there is, comes from the slanging matches between Lovely and Kaamna. And the most sensible line is uttered by Inspector Dosanjh: ‘Itni kya padi hai Kanneda jaane ki?‘
Ab Hoga Hisaab streams on Amazon MX Player.
