Vineet Kumar Singh's 'Rangeen' web-series review: A fun idea that soon fizzles out

Cast: Vineet Kumar Singh, Rajshri Deshpande, Taaruk Raina, Sheeba Chaddha

Director: Kopal Naithani, Pranjal Dua

Language: Hindi

A colourless, charmless journalist is a married man. You cannot only say that because of the way he looks and sounds, but also his choice of words and working style. When social media (and Saiyaara) has taken over the globe, he’s clinging on to newspapers. He serves his readers a week-old news when they want a second-old trending story. His office is as impoverished as his loveless marriage. The wife is played by Rajshri Deshpande and this man is Vineet Kumar Singh. These are two adorning actors who appear perennially bruised due to the narratives they are mostly thrown into. Singh is chewing up the scenery this year with Superboys of Malegaon, Chhaava, Jaat, and now Rangeen. Yes, this is the name of the show. It’s both intriguing and ironic!

At first, the unhurried pace of the story and its humour remind of Irrfan Khan and Kirti Kulhari’s Black Mail. A sense of ennui has crept in that leads to adultery that leads to retribution. When the reveal happens, the background music rises to a crescendo that reminds us of the score of those 60s and 70s’ detective movies. You have the culprit. All you need now is a chilling confrontation. But the makers of this show choose a tragi-comedic approach. Rangeen is a yet another addition to the list of movies and series about love (and lust) outside marriage. There’s a farcical touch to a couple’s life whose marital relationship hits rock bottom. This is their Trial By Fire. It’s also becoming convenient for women to blame men for their raunchy rendezvouses in these situations.

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Rangeen could be described as Desi Boyz and Laga Chunari Mein Daag on steroids where every character goes bonkers albeit in different tones. Taaruk Raina and Vineet Kumar Singh (don’t) get along like house on fire. The wrangling is both entertaining and exhausting, and you can see even the actors run out of breaths after their incessant quips. But the problem here is the pace. And the format itself. Running for over 40 minutes and nine episodes, the series, despite its attempt and audacity to tell an idiosyncratic story, overstays its welcome. You know the makers have a lot of time when it takes full three episodes for Adarsh aka AJ (Singh) to get to bed. And when he does, it all ends in an embarrassingly awkward moment both intentionally and unintentionally. It’s like a magician who woos his audience with his prowess but quickly runs out of ideas and tricks. But because he’s been paid, he has to do the job.

The scene that feels sweet, silly, shocking is the one where AJ, with all his anger and arrogance, tells his wife he had sex with a 24-year old and how she said he was very good. You can see the body language of his wife shaking but she asks how his work is going and the gas cylinder at home isn’t working.

Rangeen should have been a story about these two and how they reignite the extinguished flame of their decaying marriage. But it digresses more often than it should have. It focuses on Raina’s character even when it feels gratuitous. In fact, Deshpande goes missing for a few good moments and her scenes with her family don’t add anything to the story. The conflicts of the central characters turn so repetitive after a point that it feels like you’re watching the show on loop, coming all the way back to episode one. It showed promise and potential, but stopped short of being unhinged and unpredictable. All it needed was to be little more Rangeen!

Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars)

Rangeen is now streaming on Prime Video