Sharey Showlo: When a strong story fails to convey its meaning properly

How does it feel when a highly anticipated story with potential ends up being disengaging to the audience? The best way to answer that question is to refer to 'Sharey Showlo' directed by Yasir Al Haq. 

It is a story about the dismal reality of a highly class-divided society like ours, where people from the lower class are deprived of any compensation for their loss due to the conflict between the elites and their interests. 

Despite a good start in the first scene, as the story progresses, it fails to emotionally connect its viewers to the core message of the story. 

The series starts with the depiction of the collapse of a shoe factory named 'Empire' with the discussion on a news TV channel where 'Kepler Group of Industries' is being held into account for the problems in the developing process of the shoe factory. In that talk show, the defender of 'Kepler Group of Industries' in the court, Ashfaq Reza, is introduced into the story where he was defending 'Kepler Group of Industries', denying their responsibilities in the developing process of the factory. 

As the story unfolded, we come to know how Ashfaq Reza was hired by Rakib, the CEO of 'Kepler Group of Industries', to defend their interest in the court. But later, it was revealed that Rakib was actually working for the 'Empire', and he brought Ashfaq Reza to the 'Violet Inn' by managing Natasha as Reza's roommate on the night before the hearing. He secretly plants a camera in the hotel room to make a video of the intimate scenes of Ashfaq and later blackmailing but gets defeated to Ashfaq's wit. 

The story also brings characters like Rini, who is a journalist and police officer Altaf, both wanting to take revenge against Ashfaq Reza for having a personal grudge against him. The key theme that is revealed in the whole story is that through this conflict based on the personal interest of the people in the upper class of society, the families of the people living in the slum area who used to work in the shoe factory become the sufferers. 

Unfortunately, the way the situation of the people living in the slum area is brought into the script became predictable from the very first episode. 

The way the slum area was depicted in the script was very much inclined to the style of the documentary format. But instead of focusing on any personal character, showing the interview of every victim for just thirty seconds at the end of each episode made the whole script less connective emotionally with the audience about their sufferings. 

The cinematography of Tuhin Tamizul in 'Sharey Showlo' was consistent with the story. As most of the scenes of the story consisted of the internal happenings of the 'Violet Inn', there could have been more handheld and point-of-view shots showing the perspectives of different characters, which could bring variations in the storytelling process. 

The costumes and the production design of Edila Farid Turin and Ali Afzal were believable, making the locations of the scenes and different characters convincing to the audience. As far as the colour grading of the series is concerned, Chinmoy Roy did a terrific job of successfully conveying the mood of every scene through colour correction. 

The same goes with Tinu Rashid's background music (BGM), where the music is perfectly suited to create the mood of the scenes both inside and outside of 'Violet Inn'. 

The editing of 'Sharey Showlo' by Anis Masud was natural and perfectly synchronized with the content of every story scene. 

Despite the success in all these technical levels of the story, over-reliance on the non-linear format of the storytelling process made the story incomprehensible to the normal audience. 

The casting of 'Sharey Showlo' was overall well decided according to the different characters of the story. Afran Nisho, Intekhab Dinar, Zakia Bari Momo, Imtiaz Borshon, Shahed Ali, Q Nowshaba Ahmed, Irfan Rony were all convincing in portraying their respective roles. 

Well, the story could be narrated within 50-60 minutes easily. But the loose portrayal of the story's other aspects, except 'Violet Inn', made the story feel dragged. 

Now we wait for the next season to see whether the makers develop a more engaging story and make up for the mistakes in the first season.  

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