Taskaree Web Series Review: There exists a stark contrast between thrillers in streaming and on celluloid. Those that make it to the big screen – more often than not – are slick, cool, visually stunning and spiffy. Those in the OTT space can best be described as the former’s less fortunate cousins. They’re rough, rugged, grimy. But Neeraj Panday and Raghav M Jairath’s Netflix series, Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web, set against the backdrop of high-end airports, global metropolises and high-profile smugglers, is polished, sanitised, slick to quite an extent and smart in an urban way.
Mounted on a massive budget and some picturesque locales, Taskaree is the story of Superintendent Arjun Meena, a sharp customs officer at Mumbai Airport. His mission: tackling global smuggling rings and cleansing corruption once and for all. The series begins with a chase sequence between a woman named Swati and a couple of nefarious Afro delinquents. Arjun arrives right on time to nab Swati. He hands her over to her boss and takes Rs 50 lakhs in cash from him as a bribe.
The righteous man in him suddenly awakens when he gets a call from the customs department that wants to revoke his suspension. ACP Prakash Kumar gets inducted into the customs team at Mumbai airport. He takes charge and wants Arjun and his suspended teammates Ravinder Gujjar and Mitali Kamat back so that they can curb smuggling, which is led by kingpin Bada Choudhary, the leader of the infamous Choudhary Syndicate.
This syndicate is responsible for bringing the maximum contraband to Mumbai airport. Swati is a ‘popat’, a colloquial term for a courier, and works with Bada. Bada, who resides in Italy, has offices in Bangkok, Addis Ababa and Al Dera. They smuggle luxury watches, cocaine and gold plates. Pilots, airhostesses and customs officials are also in cahoots with Bada. So, emasculating Bada and his ring is no cakewalk. The result? Honest seniors and subordinates constantly try to one-up each other amid red-tapism and bureaucracy.
