TAISH Solid thriller with slick camerawork and a talented cast

ONE genre that hasn’t really worked with Bollywood films shot in UK is the thriller.

Most Hindi language thrillers set on British shores, including ones with big named stars, haven’t been very good, so expectations with this Bollywood film with lesser known actors were relatively low.

But Taish, which recently premiered on streaming site ZEE5 as a six-part series, is actually better than it looks and makes good use of UK locations.

The story sees two friends reconnect at a wedding, but suddenly find themselves in the middle of a bloody feud between families.

The central battle has various sub-plots, including forbidden love, gangsters and a chain of events triggered by a confrontation.

The slickly shot thriller is actually a lot better than it looks and most rewarding to those who know little about the plotline beforehand.

Director Bejoy Nambiar makes good use of a relatively low budget, decent UK locations and a talented cast, who bring their respective characters to life. Harshvardhan Rane and Pulkit Samrat are particularly good in their roles.

There is good use of lighting and the camerawork is sharp on a gritty drama that has enough to keep audiences engaged. Some of the story points are a little contrived and a few plot twists are a little obvious and the female characters could have been stronger, but that doesn’t take away from a production that does exceed expectations. It can be seen as a full film or better still, as a six-episode web series and has plenty to offer.

Taish is far from perfect, but it is a solid thriller and a ray of light in what has been a decidedly dark year for Bollywood. It is definitely one of the better Indian thrillers that has been released this year and will surprise you.