When friends turn enemies, mayhem is next | MAFIA ZEE5

When we hear the words ‘friend’, ‘road trip’, and ‘farmhouse party’, all we can see is a bunch of tightly knit friends chilling together, having fun, frolicking in pools, and playing games. Well, MAFIA is about a group of friends who spend some great moments in college together and vow to keep it going even after they part ways. Alas! That is not what in store for them.

The story is narrated in a non-linear time-frame, as we jump back and forth between their college life and 6 years later in the future, where they undertake the same trip they took 6 years back. Only this time around, things have changed. This time around, Neha (Anindita Bose) manages to get everyone together for Tanya’s bachelorette. Ritwik and Tanya (played by Saurabh Saraswat and Madhurima Roy) who were college lovers, have parted ways and have their respective spouse/fiancée with them on the trip, which makes for awkward moments. Rishi (played by Tanmay Dhanania) constantly bringing up their history doesn’t help the case. Ananya (played by Ishaa M Saha) is the shy one of the group who is clearly troubled by her demons of the past, and is visibly disturbed during the reunion. Sam (played by Aditya Bakshi) latches on to the rich Rishi and is a spineless yes-man. A mismatch of friends if there ever was one.

But these disparities make up for an interesting dynamic between the characters. Their reunion brings a lot of skeletons out of the closet, and all unravels through a game of Mafia. Clearly they all buried a lot of secrets on their last trip to the farmhouse, and the wounds were reopened. One of them being the mysterious sightings of Bidhua (Ankita Chakraborthy), a house maid that Rishi exploited on their last trip. Add to the mix a stranger (Namit Das as Nitin) who claims to have been lost and finds their house in the night, but clearly has different motives; and Mafia becomes an interesting tale of intrigue, deceit and relationships. Such shows are called closed mysteries, wherein the protagonist are caught in one isolated location as one by one a mysterious entity/person starts creating mayhem and in many cases, starts killing them all one by one. The farmhouse, hours away from civilization, serves as the perfect location for Mafia. The actors do a good job of displaying their frustrations with each other and with the situation, be it from unresolved past issues or the predicament they find themselves in. There is an air of unpredictability throughout the show which keeps the pace consistent and the mood fresh. The slow reveal of their current situation through the use of flashback is also managed deftly.

Show creators Rohan Ghose and Aritra Sen manage to make an atmospheric gripping show. Directed by Birsa Dasgupta and Produced by Eskay Movies, Mafia is a game of deceit. Mafia is a game of deceit. People close their eyes, someone gets killed in the game, and the others have a chance to find the Mafia and make it stop but that’s the game. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Watching the show will surely be a win for you. We give this suspense thriller a solid 3.5 stars out of 5! Mafia stars on ZEE5, 10th July 2020. Click here to download the ZEE5 app and start watching! This is a partnered post.