Overindulgence kills interesting medical drama

Human

Hindi (Disney+Hotstar)

Director: Vipul Shah, Mozez Singh

Cast: Shefali Shah, Kriti Kulhari, Seema Biswas, Vishal Jethwa

Rating:3.5/5

Human is a web series with its heart, limbs and kidneys in the right places. It is its backbone that is rather weak — blame it on the extra fat that it is stuffed with. The series suffers from the same problem that the hugely successful and overrated ‘Asur’ (on Voot) did from — a burning ambition to pack in all the ideas and plot points you have gathered in a long career into 10 episodes. The self-indulgence results in overkill.

Set in a post-pandemic world (Covid has been conquered, you see), 'Human', conceptualised and directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah and Mozez Singh, trains its eye on medical dirt — the proverbial murky underbelly of the medical world where clinical trials are conducted on the poor and the needy (without their consent) by global pharma companies in happy cahoots with giant hospitals. There are no rules and no boundaries in this 'business' — murder is par for the course and ruthless cover-ups are an everyday affair.

One wishes 'Human' had stuck to this premise and probed deeper with a single-minded focus — we would then perhaps have got a truly gripping series that tackles a subject rarely taken up in the Indian entertainment space. But 'Human' has a finger in many other pies — from unbridled ambition to the perils of transactional relationships to majoritarianism, eroticism and weird drug experiments — it has something to say about all this and more, not to mention its sudden dives into medico-horror.

But it is the series' stellar performances that lift it way above its weaknesses. The inimitable Shefali Shah, who never disappoints, is spectacular as the vicious, bordering on the manic, neurosurgeon Gauri Nath.

Special mention to Vishal Jethwa who plays Mangu, a boy from the slums whose greed pushes his family over the edge.

All said and done, 'Human' is still eminently watchable though by the ninth episode, you are rather exhausted by the ride and are on the verge of feeling not quite human yourself.