Review: Aashram – Story of our times

Title: Aashram

Cast: Bobby Deol, Aaditi Pohankar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Anupriya Goenka, Tridha Choudhury, Tushar Pandey and Vikram Kochchar

Direction: Prakash Jha

Production: Prakash Jha

Language: Hindi

Rating: 3.5/5

Platform: MX Player

Bobby Deol has got a fresh lease of life in OTT. His straight-to-OTT film, ‘Class of 83’, recently dropped on Netflix, where he received praise for his role as an upright policeman past his prime, who trains a rag tag bunch of young men into encounter specialists at the police academy.

‘Aashram’ begins with Pammi (Aaditi Pohankar) hiding and hitting three people on the head that leads to their death.

The story then goes into flashback mode to 2012, when a young female wrestler, Pammi, who belongs to Dalit community is unfairly treated in a local wrestling competition as the competitor was from a higher caste and was the daughter of a politician.

The fight between the upper class and the Dalits leads Pammi to meet Kashipur wale Baba (Bobby Deol) and she becomes spellbound by him and his work for the weaker segment of the society.

But all is not as it seems and as the story unfolds, one is reminded of every conmen babas featuring in news media in recent memory, including Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Asaram Bapu, Chandraswami and many more.

Produced and directed by Prakash Jha, known for his political and socio-political films such as ‘Damul’, ‘Mrityudand’, ‘Gangaajal, ‘Apaharan’, expectations are high.

Aashram is divided into nine episodes, with each episode of about 40-50 minute duration.

Based on all the corrupt self-styled godmen who perform awful activities in the name of religion, the lines from the trailer – “He is not a godman. He is a conman.” pretty much summarise the central theme of this series.

Apart from these babas, there are mentions of other social issues as well, such as ill-treatment of Dalits and nasty politics, which have been addressed in the series.

The series is worth binge watching and will help to eliminate some irrational believes.

First look:

Disclaimer:

Kashipur Wale Baba:

Trailer Launch:

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