Mumbai Diaries: Gripping Drama
Yogendra is freelance writer
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By Yogendra
First publised on 2021-09-12 03:52:19
About the Author
Yogendra is freelance writer
View all posts by this Author
Although Mumbai Diaries 26/11 is about the terrorist attack on the city that never sleeps, it is not only about that. It is a multi-layered web series that shows in-built prejudices, personal relationships, brutality, heroism and the problems faced by doctors in government hospitals. With the Bombay General Hospital (BGH) as the main place where the story unfolds, director Nikhil Advani takes the viewer on a gripping, roller-coaster ride on how the events unfolded that fateful day, how people got entangled in the flow and how it affected their lives. It makes for engaging viewing and since the series moves ahead t a fast pace, the viewer is always interested in finding out what happens next despite so many shows and films on the same subject having already hit the screens. That in itself is a big achievement for the series.
Three interns from different backgrounds appear for their interview with the charismatic surgeon Kaushik Oberoi (Mohit Raina) at the BGH. But before they could meet him, they are sucked into the events that start happening as streams of injured start coming in from the shooting that starts happening at various places in the city. Thus begins a story that keeps going back and forth from various attack points to the happenings at the BGH. While the terrorists keep killing people, the doctors and the staff at the BGH try to save as many as they can. There is a media person who needs exclusive footage and enters the hospital as a patient. There are back stories of all principal characters and individual prejudices come to the fore. But heroism, not jingoism, is the main plank on which the series moves ahead. It judiciously avoids the many pitfalls that are the bane of such dramas.
The cast, comprising Konkona Sen Sharma, Mohit Raina, Prakash Belawadi, Mrunmayee Deshpande, Satyajeet Dubey, Shreya Dhanwantary and Natasha Bharadwaj, are the backbone of this series. Even the newcomers in small roles contribute to making it real and believable. The action is well filmed and although viewers have seen it in many earlier shows and films, it keeps them hooked due to some surprise elements thrown in. Mumbai Diaries 26/11 is a series that holds viewer attention in all eight episodes.
