Anand Ravi's Vyavastha starring Hebah Patel and others in the lead generated interest with gripping teasers and trailers offering a thrilling tide. The webseries is streaming on Zee5 and let us find out what it offered to movie lovers.
Vyavastha's story is all about the legal tangles and what happens when the entire legal system is controlled by one person becoming a syndicate. Yamini (Hebah Patel) is newly married and she dreams of a happy married life and a memorable future. However, things take a shocking turn and she becomes the prime suspect involving the murder of her husband.
Where this leads to, did Yamini really murder her husband and if so what is her motive, how senior lawyer Avinash Chakravarthy (Sampath Raj), young lawyer Vamsi Krishna (Karthik Ratnam), Gayatri (Kamna Jethmalani) are connected to it, from the rest of the developments in the story.
Karthik Ratnam of C/O Kancherapalem fame performed well in the role of a young lawyer. He showed variations in his role and looked youthful and exuberant on the screen. Sampath Raj showed his experience and excelled in the role of a senior lawyer. However, Karthik Ratnam failed to match Sampath Raj in many scenes and this brought down the intensity.
Though Hebah Patel played an important role she did not get much scope to show her acting talent. In fact, she failed and looked like a misfit in her role. Kamna Jethmalani made her comeback with this webseries but she failed to make an impression in her role.
Vyavastha's story readied by Raja Simha and aided by the screenplay of Shrawan has an interesting premise. Anand Ranga directed the webseries comprising 8 episodes. The first episode starts in an interesting manner with the murder but from then on everything fizzles out. It turns out to be monotonous and routine and the director dragged the scenes till the 8th episode only to end the series with the lead to the second season. Except for a couple of scenes, nothing interests or excites movie lovers.
The creators failed to go deep into Yamini's lifestyle and her husband's background and even the courtroom drama fails on all fronts. Instead, they tried to highlight one particular individual Avinash Chakravarty rather than concentrate on the legal system (Nyaya Vyvastha). They tried to show his gang and paid more attention to him, testing the patience of all. The scenes pertaining to Chkravarthy, Yamini, and Vamsi Krishna turned out to be ordinary. Yamini and Vamsi's flashbacks diluted the character of the protagonist.
The eight episodes Nobody Messes With Me, No Smoke Without Fire, A Lawyer by Force, Soft Target, Behind Bars, Tears and Confessions, Road Block, and Not A Clean Verdict turns out to be just a time pass offering nothing new. The creators might have got inspiration from the Hollywood series Suits and Better Call Saul but failed to turn it more engaging. The screenplay of Shravan and the dialogues of Mallu Ravi and the story of Raja Simha failed to create interest as they lacked the twists. The direction of Anang Ranga is just ok.
The editing could have been far better. The slow pace and repetitive scenes ended up irritating the viewers. The background music of Naresh Kumaran elevated the proceedings. Anil Bhandari's cinematography is ok. Dialogues are just ok and production values are good.
Altogether, Vyavastha failed to establish the loopholes in the legal system powerfully. Anand Ranga and the creators came up with a good premise but they came cropper in their execution. As they did not do the proper groundwork, except for the catchy names for the episodes, the webseries story, screenplay, and direction don't inspire confidence. Vyvavastha lacks the soul that is required for any story. Had they worked on the script and included more emotions and logical twists during the courtroom drama and investigation, Vyavastha would have been a powerful one. They have taken viewers for granted and now will pay the price in the viewers' court. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 1 Rating for Vyavastha Web Series.