Candy web series


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OTT platform: Voot Select
Director: Ashish R Shukla
Cast: Richa Chadha, Ronit Roy
Ratings: 3.5/5 Stars


Directed by Ashish R Shukla, Voot Select’s original web series Candy starring Richa Chadha and Ronit Roy in the lead will surprise you with its gritty narrative intertwined with a murder mystery, drugs and trauma.


Get ready to dive deep as it’s an immensely layered and twisted storyline.


The thriller begins with a gruesome murder of a school student Mehul in a village named Rudrakund, located in the scenic hills of Uttarakhand. Although, in the beginning, it may come across as a classic whodunnit murder mystery, ‘the truth is bigger than it seems’, quite like the makers foreshadowed in the eight-episode series.


Ronit Roy as Jayant Parekh and Richa Chadha as DSP Ratna Sankhwar are introduced as two separate but strong entities, effortlessly capturing your attention.


While Jayant is a school teacher at RVS who deeply cares for his students, especially Mehul, the murder victim, DSP Ratna is a no-nonsense cop who heads the police department in the village.



 


As we dig deeper, Ratna is exposed as a corrupt cop in a love affair with a drug peddler Vayu Ranaut while Jayant is a grieving father trying to solve Mehul’s murder as redemption for losing his daughter.


There’s a running supernatural theme in the show as well, of Masaan, a red-eyed demon or a rural legend that haunts villagers? It’s hard to tell.


Mehul’s close friend Kalki Rawat played by Riddhi Kumar is hellbent on Masaan being the killer but the perpetrator seems to be residing among the residents of Rudrakund.


Shrouded under this supernatural tale is a dark story of drugs, bullying, broken family relations and sexual assault. Each episode unveils a different chapter and every time you think you’ve solved the puzzle, a loose strand emerges.



 


The setting of the series is in the beautiful hilly areas of the North with breathtaking valleys - a place which would never be suspected to be a murderous haven or centre of drug manufacturing. This perfectly symbolizes the darkness residing inside beautiful things - another theme foreshadowed by the makers.


Coming to the story which is written by Debojit Das Purkayastha and Agrim Joshi, since it broadly revolves around the drug ‘Candy’, the visuals have a psychedelic tint to them. This shows how the cinematography brings alive the core of the story, which is impressive.


As the mystery progresses, we realize that everyone in the small city is hiding secrets from each other, except, Professor Jayant.



 


He is the voice of reason, truth and justice in the series and has a comforting presence not just for his students but also the viewers. But he's also helpless when faced with lies and deception. Only the audience is lucky enough to learn the truth and be burdened by the whys and hows.


All in all, Candy isn’t a PSA for drugs but a story of a corrupt system that was exposed after the death of a young life.


In fact, it’s also a story of trauma and complex psyches, one which will stay with you after the show ends.