Low on ambition and energy
Half Pants Full Pants performs out in Tweeland, often known as Malgudi. The ghost of Shankar Nag’s good tv adaptation of the RK Narayan tales set in a fictional city in Karnataka looms massive over the Amazon Prime Video collection.
Anand (Ashwanth Ashokkumar) is a tubby younger boy from a city in Shimoga. His father Subbarao works as a guard with the Indian Railways, which leads Anand to declare that his daddy owns the rail community.
Anand, often known as “Dabba”, is filled with tall tales and massive desires. Over eight interlinked episodes, the present’s makers comply with Anand on adventures which are minor to the grownup eye however very important for our knee-high hero.
The case of a lacking canine converts Anand, his greatest buddy Raghu and his wider circle of associates into mini-Sherlocks. An episode and a half are dedicated to the broadly held perception that cash can purchase a magnetic power when positioned on tracks and flattened by trains dashing by.
Primarily based on Anand Suspi’s autobiographical novel of the identical identify, the collection has been tailored by Mani Prasad, written by Suspi, Prasad and Gaurav Mishra and directed by VK Prakash. Half Pants Full Pants performs out in Rajiv Gandhi’s India, earlier than the arrival of adjustments to the nationwide financial coverage. That is an period when a 50-paisa coin is infinitely extra priceless than Bitcoin and the value of a cassette causes Anand’s brow to crease with fear.
Bursting with mischief and enterprise, Anand all the time finds methods to navigate his self-created obstacles. In essentially the most rounded episode, he develops an obsession with Bruce Lee, which lasts so long as the eye span of a boy in a rush to maneuver on to the following massive factor.
The episodes are dunked in nostalgia for the outdated occasions and steeped within the perception that the previous was a pure and harmless realm. Concerning the darkest power on this sun-kissed nook of India is Anand’s mean-spirited older brother.
Ashwanth Ashokkumar’s endearing presence, a posse of sweet-natured youngsters, and heat performances by the token grown-ups performed by Ashish Vidyarthi and Sonali Kulkarni (as Anand’s dad and mom) maintain the manufactured idyll on monitor. If Anand’s escapades are finally inconsequential, the present too is content material to chase a single-note ambition: simplicity. Few of Anand’s experiences go away a mark – mission completed.
