Hutatma – A thrilling web series that traces back the birth of Maharashtra state

Hutatma Web Series Review:

• Web Series Name: Hutatma
• Genre: Drama
• Digital Platform: Zee5
• Language: Marathi
• Director: Jayprad Desai
• Star cast: Anjali Patil, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi, Abhay Mahajan, Sachin Khedekar, Ashwini Kalsekar, Anand Ingle and Lokesh Gupte
• Number of episodes: 7
• Released: 1st May 2019

Plot/Theme

It was on 1st May 1960 when the Indian state, Maharashtra was formed out of the erstwhile multilingual Bombay State. All thanks to the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement that reached to its zenith resulting in the creation of an exclusive Marathi speaking State in the country. The central theme of the new web series of ZEE5 called Hutatma is the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement.

The web series starts with the brutal events during the agitation, when 15 protesters were killed in a police firing near Flora Fountain (now renamed as Hutatma Chowk). This brings a young, apolitical and naive woman called Vidyut Sawant (Anjali Patil) who is the victim of these killing, losing her father in this agitation. This kickstart a journey of vengeance for the young lady.

Hutatama essentially is a fictional story that narrates the happenings of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement through individual perspectives. The web series is loosely based on a novel with the same title by Meena Deshpande. 

Apart from Anjali Patil, Mohan Agashe is in the series playing the role of a lawyer who stands for the victims of police atrocities. On the other side, we have Sachin Khedekar playing the character of an editor of a pro-government newspaper who is seen juggling his sympathies for the protesters and the mandate of his newspaper. All these characters in the web series are fictitious but are derived from tendencies or people of that particular regime.

What’s Good

It is interesting to see the director’s vision of old Bombay as it appeared in the fifties and the sixties. It is often a daunting task to create any period drama film or web series, but Jayprad Desai, the director of the web series was successful in creating the same. This has helped revive the lesser known history for most of our generation. Interestingly with no censorship over the web series, the storytellers get enough opportunities to enjoy the liberty in storytelling apart from catering innovative content to the audience.

What’s Bad

 It’s still too early to comment on it as the earlier episodes of the web series barely have any to enlist.

Performances

Talking about the performances, the young woman Vidyut played by Anjali Patil perfectly comes across as the jovial and naive lady who remain apolitical while growing up in the city of Bombay. The others too have done a decent job in their roles including Mohan Agashe playing the lawyer and Sachin Khedekar the pro-government newspaper editor.

Hutatma – The Last Word

The earlier episodes of the web series have much to talk about the rift between the capitalists and socialists and the plight of the people of Bombay who are stuck in between the two. In other words, it is so far so good and the web series promises to be an intense watch.