‘9 Hours’ web series review: This overdrawn Telugu crime drama intrigues partly

9 Hours, streaming on Disney+ Hotstar, is filmmaker Krish Jagarlamudi’s adaptation of the Telugu novel Thommidhi Gantalu (9 hours), written by Malladi Venkata Krishnamurthy. Set within the mid- Eighties, it narrates the story of jail inmates who’re commissioned to rob three banks and must return inside 9 hours, in time for his or her subsequent roll name. Krish, who has written and offered the collection, must be recommended for dipping into Telugu literature again and again for his films, and now collection. 

Directed by Niranjan Kaushik and Jacob Verghese, the collection has diversified and complicated characters falling on completely different sides of the ethical compass. There are prisoners who don’t assume twice about hurting the hostages and those that, given an opportunity, would go for a greater life. The hostages of various age teams are with differing moralities. 

The narrative has rather a lot to unravel, with the backstories of characters turning right into a commentary on relationship dynamics, gender sensitivity, greed and energy video games. 

The story that begins as simply one other day on the financial institution swiftly transforms right into a hostage drama. A video cassette retailer turns into the police management room for the mission and within the pre-mobile telephones and the high-tech gadget age, walkie-talkies, landlines and public phone cubicles come into the image. Because the drama unfolds, we get a more in-depth have a look at the lives of the characters, a few of which maintain intrigue.

Taraka Ratna performs a short-tempered cop who’s within the neighborhood of one of many banks and desires to save lots of the hostages. His estranged spouse (Madhu Shalini) is a reporter. The financial institution supervisor (Suresh Kumar) who’s serving his final day at work earlier than retirement, is contrasted by a recruit (Preethi Asrani). Romance brews between her and Nandu (Ankith Koyya) within the financial institution. The others embrace a middle-aged assistant supervisor, a lady who faces sexual harassment from a pervert colleague (Venkata Giridhar), and so forth. 

On the jail, politics play out otherwise and Ajay Ghosh will get to enact an fascinating character that provides him the scope to depict a spread of feelings. A jailor with an ulterior motive, an aged cop who weighs his choices with care, a newlywed younger lady, and a intercourse employee who goals of a greater life, are the others within the drama. right here

Then there are some tacky parts, just like the one involving an egoistic film star and an rising actor who lets vengeance get the higher of him. 

Given the variety of characters and their tales, there’s a lot at play. Nevertheless, the whole lot takes its personal candy time to unravel. It’s one factor to intentionally tempo the narrative and one other to not impart any sense of urgency in a disaster. 

The payoffs within the type of twists and turns occur fairly late and will not be sufficient. Maybe it was alluring to have 9 episodes to befit the title, however the collection might have completed with liberal trimming.

Ajay, Taraka Ratna, Ravi Varma, Madhu Shalini, Preethi Asrani, Ankith and others are sufficient of their roles and so is the music by Shakthi Kanth Karthick and cinematography by Manoj Reddy.

Had the collection been shorter and sharper, it could have made for a riveting watch.