Garmi: Tigmanshu Dhulia In Familiar Zone
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2023-04-30 08:05:24
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
Tigmanshu Dhulia (Haasil - 2003) is famous for dealing with the complex subject of student politics in universities, with its underlying casteist overtones, in the Hindi heartland. He once again explores the subject in Garmi Season 1 (streaming on Sony Liv) in nine episodes of 35 minutes each, with the promise of advanced politics and increased rivalry in season 2. Dhulia takes on largely unknown faces and gives them good screen time to prove their mettle. They do not disappoint and come up with excellent performances in this realistic student politics drama. Although the story is nothing new, Dhulia's take is engaging with the many twists and turns which show how a middle-class student aspiring to clear the UPSC exams gets embroiled in campus politics and how his life changes thereafter.
The story is about Arvind Shukla (Vyom Yadav), a small-town boy in UP who comes to Trivenipur University with dreams of pursuing his MA in political science and clearing the UPSC exams. A chance friendship with someone who he thinks is a fellow student (but who actually is a criminal) is the starting point of the turns his life will take. Bindu Singh (Puneet Singh) and Govind Arya (Anurag Thakur) are the president and vice-president of the student's union on the campus and bitter rivals. Arvind gets friendly with Bindu but very soon finds that he is using him. Arvind falls in love with Surbhi (Disha Thakur) but Bindu catches them in Avinash's room and shames her to the point that she commits suicide by jumping off the terrace. Arvind seeks revenge and shoots Bindu who does not die but goes into coma.
Arvind is then sucked into the world of student politics which takes him to jail, brings him into direct conflict with the crooked policeman Mrityunjay Singh (played by Jatin Goswami, who wants the Rajputs to rule the nation), gets him support from Bairagi Baba (Vineet Kumar) and the local businessman who finances campus politics. Along the way, Arvind makes more enemies and even as he is poised to contest for the post of president in the student's union elections, these enemies are ganging up against him and will go for him in Season 2.
Vyom Yadav is excellent as Arvind. Puneet Singh and Anurag Thakur are also good as the rival gang leaders. Jatin Goswami shines as the caste-conscious policeman who wants a share in all deals and a say in campus politics. The show, although predictable, is good to watch as Dhulia's direction and the acting lifts it a few notches higher.
