Parchhayee Episode 10 Review
When I was in school in the early ’90s, the Internet was nonexistent and our only source of entertainment apart from sports was TV & books. It was a time when it was rare to hear an Indian Authors name. The only exception though was Ruskin Bond. He was a household name and kids loved his books. So when I saw the trailer of Parchhayee: Ghost stories by Ruskin Bond, I was immediately taken back to my school days. I was not sure how ZEE5 handled his content and didn’t want to spoil the fond memory that I had about Ruskin. But when I got to know about Parchhayee Episode 10 that featured one of my Favourite actor Kay Kay Menon, I decided to give it a try.
Click here to watch Parchhayee episode 10 on ZEE5
Viewers rejoice, each episode of Parchhayee: Ghost Stories by Ruskin Bond is an independent story. Hence, you can watch any episode in any sequence you choose.
Here is my review of the Parchhayee Episode 10 titled Face in the dark.
Story:
The Story revolves around a new student of a residential public School Kartik and his Physical Training Teacher Oliver. The Teacher is a disciplinarian and goes to the extreme to instill discipline in his students. Kartik who likes to break the rules comes under fire of the coach who is hell-bent to teach him a lesson. But then Kartik discovers a closed gate that was prohibited for anyone to enter. As he dares to enter the gate he encounters a dark hidden past of the Coach and that’s when all hell breaks loose.
What I liked :
Cinematography:
We all have seen the poor cinematography in Indian Horror TV shows. In fact, it felt more like a horror comedy than a horror thriller. This was one of the reasons I didn’t want to watch Parchhayee Episode 10 initially, but I am glad that I was proven wrong. The cinematography is very good and is on par with Foreign TV shows.
Music:
Music again had been the Achilles heel for Indian Horror TV Shows. They were only used for a jump scare and even those didn’t work well. But gladly Parchhayee Episode 10 has good background score and the sound of whistle has been used intelligently to create a sense of eerieness.
Acting:
The reason I decided to watch Parchhayee Episode 10 was because of Kay Kay Menon and he definitely didn’t disappoint. As a disciplined Physical Training Teacher- Oliver, Menon does an excellent job and we the audience develop instant hatred for this character. Also, he beautifully showed the vulnerability of the otherwise strict teacher. This is another role that proves Kay Kay is a legend.
What could have been better:
Child Actors:
The role of Kartik played by the child actor was one of the biggest let down in this episode. The acting was very forced and the body language out of character. There were places where his expression was totally not in sync with what the role demanded. Even other child actors were over the top at times.
Loose Ends:
The story had a lot of loose ends that affected the coherence of the story. For example, we didn’t get to know how no one raised an issue or concern on Jugal’s disappearance. Why was the gate locked? Did the Oliver know of Jugal’s suicide? If yes, why wasn’t he expelled from school? Why didn’t Jugal’s parents ( if there were any) raise the issue?
As you can see there were a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the episode which should have been addressed.
Intensity:
I understand Ruskin Bond wrote it keeping children in mind but the web adaptation could have been more intense. By intensity, I mean the story could have been grimmer with extensive use of darkness, silence and making it scarier. That could have worked wonders for this story.
Conclusion:
ZEE5 has taken a step in the right direction and Parchhayee is much better in comparison with Indian horror TV Shows and I hope to see even better stories that are of truly international quality in the coming days.
Reference links
https://penguin.co.in/author/ruskin-bond/
