JioCinema's 'Pill' review: Riteish Deshmukh and Pawan Malhotra's series hooks but needed more pathos

Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Pawan Malhotra, Neha Saraf, Akshat Chauhan, Anshul Chauhan

Director: Raj Kumar Gupta

Language: Hindi

At least Raj Kumar Gupta makes the milieu believable. He did that with his remarkable Aamir (2008) and even No One Killed Jessica (2011) to an extent. His show Pill is about the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry. There’s a curious employee that does some digging and discovers something he obviously shouldn’t have. The dynamic between Riteish Deshmukh and his wife Neha Saraf is reminiscent of the humor of Ghanchakkar, and it’s nice to see Deshmukh away from the adult comedies of Indra Kumar and chaotic conflicts of those Housefull films. Here, he does come across as funny, but the comedy is happening around the situations he’s in. Going by the trailer, he’s a doctor or a whistle-blower who makes a brave attempt to expose the amoral world of medicines, but when we first meet him, he’s struggling to put laces into his shoes. It’s good to witness how ordinariness can also birth heroes, unsung of course.

It’s the antagonist of the story, played by Pawan Malhotra, who gets a slow-motion shot, almost a heroic entry. His devilish smile and conceited demeanour are enough to establish his villainy. He brags how his father started the pharma company in Rs 50,000 in 1965 that now proudly sits at Rs 25,000 crore. He barely raises his voice (except for one hammy scene) and yet this is not the kind of a man you’d want to mess with. Barring Raid, Gupta as a filmmaker has mostly opted for restraint while telling pressing stories. In Aamir, the monster was mostly shot in dark and close-ups. In Jessica, the villain was the media. How to overpower the fourth pillar of democracy? Ditto for Pill. How to fight people who are regarded as Gods? And what happens when gods turn into beasts? Gupta and Jaideep Yadav’s show makes an attempt to answer that.

Where’s Salman Khan?

The series makes some time and way for journalism too, since the narrative is against the backdrop of something too sensational. A journalist (Akshat Chauhan) is forced to cover the entertainment beat and an assignment involves clicking exclusive pictures of Salman Khan. His boss only gets close-ups of the star’s bracelet. This guy in question wants to do something meatier (Ala Konkona Sensharma in Page 3). But this isn’t the world of Madhur Bhandarkar, so the underbelly won’t be dark or exaggerated, but shocking? Yes.

Gupta also makes way for humour since it’s Deshmukh headlining the show. A post by this very journalist goes viral and the conversation that happens between Deshmukh and his junior in the very next scene is a testament to the actor’s understanding of mirth. But Pill doesn’t only hinge on restrain, there’s a certain sense of restlessness too. A rival pharmacy company eating into the stocks of Malhotra’s is treated with hurry and little impact. The aforementioned employee tethers his way into the screenplay as he makes an appearance, disappears, and reappears. This happens for a good first four episodes. The series does keep you hooked, but Gupta relies little more on tired monologues and heroic ordinariness than exploring these helpless people’s vulnerabilities.

His finest film Aamir did that with so much pathos that your heart went out to the eponymous character. But No One Killed Jessica, Raid, and Pill, even by challenging ordinary people with extraordinary circumstances, doesn’t deliver a punch in the gut. But at least the show doesn’t have anyone hamming through the story like Rani Mukerji did back in that 2011 drama. It’s purely because of Riteish Deshmukh’s likability and earnestness that the show works. Hope the actor delves into more challenging roles like these.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Pill is now streaming on JioCinema

Working as an Entertainment journalist for over five years, covering stories, reporting, and interviewing various film personalities of the film industry see more