In Hindi, Dahaad means ‘Roar’, a roar that diminishes the barrier between humans and animals. That roar unveils one’s ferociousness. And this Hindi web series, ‘Dahaad’, is a show of the animalistic behaviour of human beings, or to be more precise, humans with perverted psychology.
Dahaad is the story of Anand Swarnakar. A college teacher who teaches Hindi Literature, who is very dear to his students and colleagues, at least nobody can make a negative statement about him.
And this ‘another-common-man’ becomes the cruellest animal on the weekends, cunning more than a fox, fierce more than a hyena. He becomes faster than a cheetah and takes camouflage like a snake.
Anand Swarnakar, every weekend, according to his priority of targets, picks up an unmarried girl in her late 20s, with whom he has been pretending to love her for many days. He takes that girl to a hotel, becomes physically intimate with her, and the next day, that girl‘s dead body is found in a public toilet, being poisoned with cyanide. Anand makes these killings because he finds mental and sexual satisfaction in doing this.
Though Anand is the centre of attraction in this series, he is not the only character to shed light on. There are also police officers who are searching for this cold-blooded psychopath.
Anjali Bhaati, the female police officer, is seen to be underestimated because of her caste. Inspector Devi Lal Singh, in charge of the police station, has serious issues with his wife regarding the relationship between himself and Anjali.
SI Kailash Parghi, a highly-ambitioned officer, does not have the mindset of fulfilling his ambition ethically, though, and is very disappointed with his wife for being pregnant. They all get on the field to capture the serial killer of nearly 30 women.
The series is the portrayal of the situation of women in the societies of the subcontinent. There is violence against women, as seen in Anand’s doings. There is also the fact of insulting and underestimating women because they are women in the work fields, which Anjali Bhati faces. She even faces rumours of sleeping with Inspector Devi to get a better position at the police station.
The audiences will also find how a girl is being restricted by her own mother from going outside and seeing the rest of the world. The fact of thinking of unmarried girls as a burden for her family and its consequences has covered a large portion of the story.
But there is always a ray of hope. There are people like Anjali’s late father, who desperately wanted her to be in the police. Devi Lal Singh himself is also there, trusts his teenage daughter, and encourages her all the time.
Dahaad literally feels like the real life of people because the characters of this series hold so many humane issues like jealousy, extramarital attraction, anger, depression, tears, violence etc. There are existential crises, gender discrimination, and alienation. And all of these things have made the characters the portrayal of real life.
Especially one of the characters, Anand Swarnakar, was taken from real life. This character is inspired by a real-life serial killer from Karnataka, Cyanide Mohan, whose killing pattern is identical to Anand’s. So, Dahaad is not just fiction.
To talk about the acting, Vijay Verma as Anand has undoubtedly stolen the show.
Sonakshi Sinha as Anjali gave one of the best performances of her life. Gulshan Devaiah, as Devi, was totally a beast. And after Tumbadd, once again, Sohum Shah strikes with his acting as Parghi.
The direction of Reema Kagti and Ruchika Oberoy is mindblowing. Significantly the cinematography exploring places of Rajasthan is top-notch. The series is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
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