Hunkkaar review: Aneet Padda returns in a powerful role after Saiyaara - The Indian Express

Hunkkaar review: The rampage of dhongi babas, spellbound bhakts and shell-shocked victims continues apace.

The fresh spate began in 2020 with Bobby Deol spreading his beatific smile and vile ways through the multi-season ‘Ashram’ . In 2023, we saw Manoj Bajpayee fighting a lone battle against a powerful self-styled godman, based on the real-life Asaram, in ‘Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai’. That was followed by Jaideep Ahlawat jumping into the role of the rapacious ‘Maharaj’ in a film of the same name in 2024.

Now comes ‘Hunkkaar’, in which the excellent Raghubir Yadav plays Baapji, the all-seeing seer who preys upon young girls. While the casting seems, at first glance, to be inspired – I mean, the always likeable Yadav turning into a monster, can you imagine – not being able to overcome the utter familiarity of the subject never allows Hunkkaar to become its own beast.

Which is a pity because it has a couple of rounded female characters who lead the charge. Aneet Padda, in yet another head-turning part after last year’s ‘Saiyaara’, plays the victim who is still a minor; the efficient, buttoned-down investigating officer is played by Fatima Sana Sheikh, with as little artifice as she can manage even when she’s given outlandish things to do: disturbing your superior on a moving train to get him to listen may look like a smart move in a show; in real-life, you would be staring, at the very minimum, at a suspension.

But despite these unconvincing flourishes, the two remain largely convincing, and own the best moments of the six-episode show which keeps padding space by corralling more characters, giving them superfluous backstories, and drumming up unnecessary drama – a conscience-stricken TV anchor-cum-reporter (Arjun Mathur), a courageous lawyer (Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, as reliable as ever) dealing with an ailing father, a smarmy legal eagle (Ram Kapoor) who thinks he’s unbeatable, a grateful man lifted from the gutter only to become Baapji’s slave, among others.

Yadav himself eases into his part, in which his seemingly grand pravachan – hamaara koi dharam nahin, koi jaati nahin – is allowed to sound suitably hollow. He lets us peek into his real self – a lustful wolf hiding under sheep’s clothing – who has grabbed on to whatever, and whoever, he could lay his hands on. But his presence is weakened by his ill-written companions, with Zoya Hussain as the main disciple, Neelam Gupta as the complicit in-charge of the hapless girls who study in the vidyalaya run by the ashram. The worst is a son-and-heir-type whose attempts at menace are plain laughable.

In all this, Padda stays steady in her resolve to take on the powerful Baapji, with Rajesh Sharma and Charu Shankar playing her besieged-from-all-sides parents. She gets an impactful climatic speech in the courtroom presided over by a doughty judge (Seema Biswas): why is the victim always in the dock, in the way she is made to repeat the ghastly details of the assault over and over again? It is a cry against injustice – the hunkkaar of the title – and while it comes at the expected juncture, the rest of the series doesn’t quite measure up to that fearless girl for stepping up and speaking out, and the woman who is her strongest ally. It is not her shame to carry; that belongs to the rapist.

Hunkkaar cast: Aneet Padda, Fatima Sana Sheikh, Raghubir Yadav, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, Rajesh Sharma, Charu Shankar, Ram Kapoor, Zoya Hussain, Seema Biswas, Neelam Gupta Hunkkaar directors: Nitya Mehra, Karan D Kapadia Hunkkaar rating: 2.5 stars