First things first, Rudra: The Edge of Darkness doesn’t make for comfortable viewing. While there is an overdose of crime dramas and thrillers on various OTT channels, the dark side is touched upon only by a handful of these. The names that come to mind are Paatal Lok and Abhay. While the former still has a bit of humour in there, the latter stays dark, though in a filmy style.
However, Rudra takes a totally different turn. It is dark not just in terms of theme but also figuratively and literally. You don’t get to see much of a sunlight, the atmosphere created is purposefully claustrophobic, no one smiles, no once cracks a joke, and the mood is grim right through.
As a result, you hunt for some breathing space, as you feel stuffed amidst all the psychological killers who could well be straight out of Criminal Minds. Someone kills because she wants her genius to be proved, another abducts women because he wants to drink their blood, a crazy guy loves to sniff lady handbags, while another amputates women at will till he gets what he wants.
The world is indeed dark out there in this psychological thriller and our hero (Ajay Devgn) waits for them in the dark, more so as his own life is not rosy either, what with a wife (Esha Deol) who has moved on and an admirer (Raashi Khanna) whom he doesn’t want around him.
Director Rajesh Mapuskar takes a shift from making a feel-good film like Ferrari Ki Sawaari to something gritty like Rudra where you need a strong stomach to digest the ongoing proceedings. It takes time to get on with the mood of every episode that lasts close to an hour. Of course, presence of Ajay Devgn helps, though he is more in the mode of Govind Nihalani’s Thakshak than Rohit Shetty’s Singham. So in Rudra, cars don’t fly; instead it’s a click of a pen in the interrogation room that adds to the tension.
As a result, the first season may very well witness a polarised response from the viewers. Those who like even their crime tales to be solved in a fun way, Rudra may turn out to be way too dark. However, those who have been exposed to such kind of web series from the West—especially during the last few years of the pandemic when OTT offered way too many of these across various channels—then this Indian adaptation of BBC’s Luther would make for a good watch.
Take a pick!.
Rudra
Director: Rajesh Mapuskar
Genre: Crime
Platform: Disney + Hotstar
Language: Hindi
Rating: 3/5