'Trial By Fire' review: Poignant exploration of a tragedy

Trial By Fire

Hindi (Series/Netflix)

Creator: Prashant Nair

Cast: Rajshree Deshpande, Abhay Deol, Ashish Vidyarthi

Rating: 4/5

Making a film or a web series on a national tragedy requires a potful of empathy in its treatment, adherence to the facts of the matter and a creative liberty deduced from these two. In the sea of such films and series based on disasters, only a few tick these boxes and in India we rarely find them. But here is a new Netflix show that breaks this convention.

‘Trial by Fire’, directed by Prashant Nair, Randeep Jha and Avani Deshpande, which dramatises the events and aftermath of 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy claiming 59 lives in Delhi, is a poignant exploration of human, familial, emotional, economic, judicial and ultimately the systemic tragedy that Uphaar was. The series does not stop at being a superficial exploration of the tragedy but goes on to be a moving commentary on the dilemmas, fears, aspirations and flaws of a country at crossroads.

When large-scale tragedies take place, the media focus would be mainly on the grisly sensational details of the tragedy and the ‘numbers’ of the dead. Rarely do we look at the livelihoods destroyed, hearts broken, ambitions lost and the sheer injustice of negligence that lead to the tragedy. While throwing us to feel exactly these things, Trial by Fire, as the title itself hints at, also thoroughly and masterfully highlights how delayed justice is the equivalent of justice denied.

Based on the eponymous book written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, the seven-episode-long series largely follows the aftermath of the Uphaar, mainly through the Krishnamoorthys (played by Rajshri Deshpande and Abhay Deol) who lost both their children in the tragedy. Though the couple are in the forefront, the series is also a story of a poor father who lost his entire family and other grieving families who form the Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT).

While depicting the Association’s fight against Ansal brothers - the owners of the cinema hall, it does not shy away from exploring some finely chiselled grey characters played by Ashish Vidyarthi, Shardul Bharadwaj, Rajesh Tailang and others. The series does not fall to the cliches of unravelling the tragic events through black and white depiction, but dives deep into the profound systemic issues that make human beings do both nasty and extraordinary things. It stands out in treading the very fragile path of victims’ legal fight which borders on justice and retribution.

Rajshri Deshpande’s portrayal of a mother handling parental grief, anger and a grit to fight is the prime standout of the series. Equally good is Ashish Vidyarthi’s role of a man who reluctantly does the dirty job of his bosses with a tinge of remorse and a will to overcome it. Naren Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor’s original score aptly complements the sombre mood of the series.

Though the manoeuvring in screenplay, jumping timelines won’t affect the tone, the lesser focus on the lives of victims before their deaths is a considerable shortcoming.

There is no ‘happy-ending’ resolution to the plot as the legal fight still goes on to bring the Ansals and other erring authorities to book and that’s the irony that wraps the whole series.