Bandish Bandits review: The series is this decade’s ‘Morning Raga’

Bandish Bandits (Amazon Prime Video)
Rating: 4/5
Cast: Shreya Chaudhary, Naseeruddin Shah, Ritwik Bhowmik
Creators: Amritpal Singh Bindra, Anand Tiwari

Mahesh Dattani’s 2004 English film 'Morning Raga' brought classical and rock together, whereas the new Amazon Prime Video show 'Bandish Bandits' brings two schools of music under one roof. Debates have been going on for quite a few decades as to which one’s better — classical or contemporary music. Also, this discussion isn’t limited to music alone. It includes movies, literature, painting, dancing and other art forms. Even though all the camps can gallantly expand their roots in their respective spaces, some people vehemently refuse to appreciate all kinds of art. And this is what the show is about.

Panditji (as Naseeruddin Shah is called) throws out a budding singer from his class for unconsciously switching to falsetto. It is this behaviour of his that is established in the series in the beginning. The creators want you to know what sort of a man he is. Only a few minutes later do we actually realise that his grandson (named Radhe, played by Ritwik Bhowmik) is seated in the back row of the same class. Radhe doesn’t get any special treatment initially despite being Panditji’s grandson — he has to slowly climb the ranks and earn his spot in the sunlight.

As the show introduces various characters in the first episode itself, you get a glimpse of their lifestyles. Tamanna (Shreya Chaudhary), Mohini (Sheeba Chadha), Rajendra (Rajesh Tailang), Devendra (Amit Mistry), Arghya (Kunaal Roy Kapur), and Kabir (Rahul Kumar) occupy different places in the show and their individual character arcs are indeed interesting. All of them do not get the same amount of screen space and it’s mostly Radhe, Tamanna and Panditji who are seen for large chunks of the musical drama.

There hasn’t been a web show in this genre in India so far and it might be a great time for OTT players to dig into their pockets to find more such wonderful stories. As much as I’d like to pile on praises on this show, I must say that it’s the music (composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy) that takes the cherry — wah, wah!