Typewriter
No. of episodes: 5
Cast: Purab Kohli, Palomi Ghosh, Aarnaa Sharma, Mikhail Gandhi, Palash Kamble, Jishu Sengupta, Aaryansh Malviya, Sameer Kochhar, Ramakant Daayama, Masood Akhtar
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Release date: July 19, 2019
Typewriter has a pretty scary start, a uniquely penned scene of a ghost. But soon after that it starts becoming outrightly stereotypical and run-of-the-mill story that probably a fifth standard child can also come up with. But the writer filmmaker is definitely thinking beyond the thinking of a common audience.
It is a known fact that for Indian filmmakers, it is extremely challenging to make a horror plot look unique and work and to serve a totally new horror product can be risky for the filmmakers as Indian audience has acquired certain kind of taste in horror and can’t think beyond it.
People getting unnecessarily scared by looking at each other, the creaking sounds of the doors, the old havelis, vintage furniture, mirrors, windows and the chandeliers–can we ever grow beyond all this? Hey Bhagwan, Is there a way to break the stereotype, which could really reinvent these old formulas of ghost writing? I wish I could myself write something new and present it to the filmmakers. But as I said, the audience is to be equally blamed and not just the writer director. The filmmaker here clearly knows the taste of the Indian audience and helps them grow as an audience too.
I would rather watch the clock ticking by than waste my precious time on an Indian horror film is my usual perception. Even if it is a horror film, why should it be attached to a particular house or somebody moving in to a new Haveli? Where the whole village knows that the Haveli has a ghost in it except the new Haveli owners. Is that the only plot left? Where is the creativity? Wait, wait wait…..it’s all coming.
The actors must also be telling the director why they should be overreacting to a slightest sound of a door bell.
Respected Sujoy Ghosh, I would love to work with you on your new script. I really hope that you’ll not be in super hurry to make the web series before removing the predictable scenes and show the creative genius what you are.
Kanwaljit kickstarts Typewriter well, but…
Starting the series with a tall novel actor Kanwaljit Singh (Madhav Mathews) is a smart idea as you keep waiting that more of his shots will be shown in the flashback. But restricting the actor of such calibre to a cameo role for full 3 episodes is not an interesting idea. But ok, the audience accepts it.
Until he appears again in the fourth episode, again for a short while. So, it was worth watching the first three episodes in wait of his sheer screen presence.
While watching it, I was also wondering, whether only two types of ghosts exist in the world, i.e. the scary and the friendly ghosts. Can ghosts not be funny, sarcastic, bullies, over religious, jealous etc. etc?
Ghost club of children a unique idea
The ghost club of children is a unique idea penned and executed by Sujoy.
The school children’s plan to change the time of the school clock is so exciting and it could have easily triggered the interest of the viewers, it could have actually reminded the audiences of films like Blue Umbrella, Makadi, and the others but the background music completely ruined the excitement.
At least those audiences who are usually interested in children’s movies could have been catered to, but the innocent and smart faces of the cast can’t hold the attention of the viewers for a long time. It’s tragic how it has become a trend these days to ruin a well-made scene or an entire movie by adding a highly substandard background score to a super plot.
Bollywood film Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan is another such example, where even in the serious scenes, dumb cartoon films background score was added everywhere, making the theme of the film look like a spoof on LGBTQ reality and challenges.
Predictable scenes need to be reinvented
The way new faces in the film industry are introduced, why not new stories? Why are so many old scenes still being used to cook up the new plots?
For example, death of the character of James was a super predictable scene, one could see it minutes before it actually happened. Samira, the eye witness ran to the church to find the killer Jenny in Church “Arey director Saheb, wo apne pitaji inspector Saheb ke paas kyon nahi gayi? Bataoge kya?
Initially Typewriter looked like a Lego series. Lego series is when you watch 5 old films on the same subject, mix and match, use 90% of the old components and 10% of your creative masala into it and come up with a 6th film. But 4th episode onwards the original story writing skills of the writer-director become evident.
Brave child saves the day
The conversation between Jenny (Palomi Ghosh) and Sam at the former’s doorstep when Sam (Aarna Sharma) confronts her with courage and tells her that she is a ghost is an interesting idea. It is never ever seen before that a child fearlessly confronts the ghost. It is completely refreshing and promising and gives us hope that there is substance in the series.
3 people die in the same vicinity and there’s no sense of urgency on anybody’s face. I just wonder as an audience whether it’s a Crime Patrol series or a ghost hunting story!
Cast: The best and the worst
Typewriter is by far one of the most stereotypical web series I have seen, which is worth a watch! This will not really disappoint you!
The doctor’s character is the most amusing one and comes as a comic relief. Predictability kills the mini scene climaxes but not always. One such scene was saved from being predicted, when Samira goes to the doctor looking for help in finding the Typewriter and the audience can’t predict even for an instant that he himself would have stolen it. Very well executed.
Samira is a super duper finding of the casting director. One could invest the entire heroism on her strong shoulders. It’s Sujoy’s sheer luck that she was not found by any mainstream Bollywood film’s casting director.
Maths teacher Amit Roy as antagonist is a misfit cast. At least a fitting and repetitive musical theme could have been planned for him. Although the actor did a good job, he might not be remembered for his performance in Typewriter.
A weird twist
Purab Kohli (Ravi Anand) running behind the speeding van, getting into it and snatching the typewriter. For sure that there exists a better way to depict this scene, but it seems to have eluded the writer’s imagination. While it was well imagined, it did not translate well on screen.
The scene of Purab Kohli getting the typewriter back from the Maths teacher, could have been brainstormed better than Purab Kohli’s inspector avatar running behind the speeding van.
After the entire climax is over, the husband comes and says to his wife Jenny “tumne mujhe phone kyon nahi kiya…..” arey bhai sahib, director saheb ne aapke liye scene hi nahi likhe to bulate kaise.”
It’s a complicated ghost story which is just not scary. You can very well sleep after watching it. Even if you have absolutely no reason to watch it, go for it and spend your lockdown period constructively.
Kamal Pruthi aka Kabuliwala is a character actor with 21 years of stage experience. With more than 300 stage shows to his credit, he is an aspiring Bollywood actor. A multi linguist, Kamal has so far acted in 9 languages and directed 6 plays as a Theatre director. Apart from acting in short and corporate films, Kamal is writing web series these days. Kamal can be contacted on 91-8861907362.