A typewriter is obsolete instrument. Much like the common mini collection on tv. It has now been taken over by the good web series with production values. Which could put an average Subhash Ghai movie to shame. And but the sheer vintage value of the ‘typewriter’ is preserved in writer-director Sujoy Ghosh’s enticing genre-conforming but unorthodox supernatural web series.
What is it about?
You may well ask. It’s about a discarded typewriter which does sinister things on its own, like pounding out messages like ‘Bhoot isn’t Jhooth’.
‘Jhooth’ or not, Ghosh’s re-‘Bhoot’ collection stretching slinkily into 5 episodes has a lot of amuse with spirits. The writing is sprightly but dark, grim yet giggly, clever and briskly paced. This isn’t to signify that Ghosh is right here looking to do a “Stree”. You know, make ghost funny. To its credit though Typewriter succeeds in being humorous while scaring the hell out of us.
A family moves into an abandoned but strikingly picturesque bungalow in Goa. We soon understand that the mother Jenny (Palomi Ghosh) has a deep and devastating connect with the home. Here is in which the collection gathers its strength and hits a stable punch in our solar plexus.
Who all are there in the cast?
Jenny’s husband, performed by Samir. He is concerned with a tartish temptress who has one of the series’ funniest scenes with him in a car. There is also a prolonged flashback about a matriarch’s witchcraft powers. Which are shot in an attractive orange glow that suggests a state of exploitative saturation. This flashback sneaks in a bit homage to Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Mera baap chor hai’ tattoo from Deewaar. And, this is as close to Big B as a web series can get on the moment.
All this has a tendency to scatter the plot. It makes zig and zag via situations that would otherwise were averted in a tightly-edited feature movie. Also, much as I cherished the little girl Sam (performed by Aarna Sharma). Her sleuthing activities with her younger friends. It simply did not appear to hit the right notes, veering from the over-cute to the outright listless.
What works is the ever-dependable Purab Kohli as a being concerned single parent. Even an inquisitive cop seeking to piece together a scenario of baffling sinisterness.
Some of scenes inside the haunted bungalow are exquisitely shot. Capturing as they do the rhythms of everyday activities pressurised by a spell of inexplicable happenings. Typewriter must have focused more on the ghostly dynamics of the ‘Haunted Haveli’. Instead of run around gathering evidence of its own adventurous spirit concerning the ghostly genre.
That having said, there’s an ingrained warmth in the storytelling. And though the child actors do not have a nicely-appointed space in the voluminous plot. They succeed in imbuing a remarkable deal of honesty to the telling of a spooky tale that has the ability to be a pedestrian shiver giver. However manages to become something more.
