Hunter (2023) :
Series Review -
Suniel Shetty returns as an action star in Amazon MiniTV's Hunter Tootega Nahi Todega. I must admit, tod diya... mujhe, as a viewer. There has been so much mediocrity in the action zone recently that people are not even thinking about making nice things. Somewhere, the audience is responsible for that, as they are the ones who have hyped such mediocrities. I won't name the projects, but I'll give you a hint: Check the recent list of top-grossing films. Anyways, webseries are a completely different world as far as the audience is concerned; otherwise, the stars, crew, technical team, production, and filmmaking are the same. The problem is, OTT gives people the liberty of making bad projects because there is no pressure of criticism or box office footfalls. Sometimes they make a bad project first and then dump it on OTT. People don't have to buy a ticket or pay for one specific show, so even they are okay if the project they are supposed to see turns out to be a bad or average experience. Hunter really needed a lot of filtering, be it acting, screenplay, production design, action, editing, or direction. They say, tootega nahi but it's a 'broken' series, in my opinion. From Pushpa's Jhukega Nahi to Hunter's Tootega nahi.. the journey has been pretty corny.
Hunger is about a rugged cop, Vikram (Suneil Shetty), who can do anything for money. In her first scene and first meeting with Vikram, Ankita (Teena Singh) has a sex with him, only to hire him to locate Leena Thomas (Smita Jayakar) the next morning. Vikram does it for money, but he is unaware that somewhere in this easy job was the beginning of a cobweb he was going to be trapped in. He meets Divya (Esha Deol), who introduces herself as a journalist, but there is more to her character than meets the eye. Vikram's ex-wife, Swati (Barkha Bisht), is sleeping with someone (a known person), while his colleague, Hooda (Rahul Dev), is looking to dethrone Vikram from the post. When Leena is found dead, Vikram becomes a fugitive from an ACP within a few hours, and Hooda, who has been looking for an opportunity to pull Vikram down, starts hunting him. The narrative opens multiple layers and surprises, and there is a bigger one that awaits you at the end.
Hunter is a victim of bad writing forced by modernity. You'll notice in every series that there has to be some glamour, sex, bed scenes, drugs, vulgarity, an ex-wife/ex-husband, platonic or sexual affairs, some kid in danger, a medical or political scam, and betrayal from the close ones. In the last 5-6 years, almost every regular thriller webseries has followed these footsteps, and Hunter was blind enough to repeat the same mistake. When are we going to see new conflicts and twists? You just change the characters, actors, places, and setting, but the basic narrative remains the same. Seriously, audiences are getting bored with the repetition. Please wake up and start writing something new. Hunter has some scenes that remind you of B-grade movies, and even though it gets better in the second half (from episode 6), the lost value is too high by then. By the way, since when has this miniTV format (mini-series) become so long? An 8-episode series on miniTV? Why not directly release it on Prime Video? Keep miniTV applicable for miniseries, as you named it.
Talking about the cast, it's a pleasure seeing our dynamic action hero back on the field on his favorite ground. Suniel Anna has been an action star since the beginning of the 1990s and then throughout the 2000s. It was just the last decade when we missed him in action, and now he is back again to rule it. He has smacky dialogue to deliver with that fearless attitude, but the performance is surprisingly underwhelming. Esha Deol stuns you with her Latin-kinda sexy look in the introduction scene, but I wish I could have said the same for her performance too. Rahul Dev has gone lean, don't know why, but the attitude is still muscular enough. Barkha Bisht, Karanveer Sharma, Pawan Chopra, Smita Jaykar, Teena Singh, Enakahi Ganguly, Mihir Ahuja, Harssh Singh, Gargi Sawant, Siddharth Kher, and the rest of the supporting cast seemed okay.
Hunter did seem like a low-quality product on many occasions. The cinematography is such that you want to skip a few moments, while those pauses are simply irritating. Don't see how those old songs' remix helped them run the brutal action with half-cut frames and banal visuals. A man with no kidney can stay alive for two days, but in the meantime, he can finish all his hard business and have two-three heavy fights. He can confidently say to his wife that someone's in the bedroom as he knows she is sleeping with someone, which is also true, but he will be shocked when the same woman tells him the same thing he said. Organ trafficking is so easy and manipulative that the police have no trace of it, and even the leaked CCTV footage isn't proof enough to prove someone's innocence. Hacking is a child's game, and yet there are so many difficulties in finding the culprits in our country. The list of flaws in Hunter can be longer than a menu card for a five-star hotel, so let me wrap it up quickly. I don't really know Prince Dhiman and Alok Batra's past records, but I am sure they will need a strong one in the future. Maybe getting Anna on board with the narration was easy, but putting it on screen wasn't. The execution is the biggest drawback here, followed by an eventless script. As a whole, Hunter gives you Suniel Anna back but takes away the quality of your viewing experience.
RATING - 4/10*
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