Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Tandav’ On Amazon Prime Video, A Sopay Drama About Indian Political And Family Intrigue

Political dramas, no matter what country they come from, all have something in common: They deal with greed, backstabbing and power grabs. It does show that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but do they give any insights into the political systems they portray? A new Indian drama, Tandav, delves into the intrigue behind a fictional party that has been in charge of India’s government for many years.

TANDAV: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A man with a large ring drives in his car, listening to radio reports about the national elections set for the next day.

The Gist: The party led by Devki Nandan (Tigmanshu Dhulia) and his son/deputy Samar Pratap Singh (Saif Ali Khan) is set to win national elections for the fourth consecutive time, making Nandan the prime minister once again. But in Malakpur, a farming community outside Delhi, a protest over the government forcing farmers to sell their land is about to explode. Nandan’s right-hand-man Gurpal Chauhan (Sunil Grover) is dispatched to order the police officers in charge of containing the protests to shoot three particular protesters, which they do as they chase the men into some tall grass.

Back in Delhi, Nandan is way of his son’s popularity, saying he has the eyes of a dictator. Samar wants more power, as well as a chance to inherit the PM chair from his father — but Nandan is adamant that he’s staying in his chair. Samar is pushing for a young, female air force pilot, Aditi Mishra (Shonali Nagrani) to be defense minister, but Nandan wants to give the plum position to Raghu Kishore (Paresh Pahuja).

Even though Raghu is young and impulsive and known to snort coke, Nandan feels that Raghu is easily controllable, and “he doesn’t know the concept of revenge.” He’s also the son of Anuradha Kishore (Dimple Kapadia), a close friend of Nandan’s, who convinced him to stay in Delhi 30 years ago, when he was about to start a new life.

In the meantime, after breaking up the protest in Malakpur, the police interrupt a protest theater production at the local university to arrest Imran Zadi (Latin Ghai), who they think was one of the leaders of the protest. That brings young activist Shiva Shekhar (Zeeshan Ayub) to the fore, as he is recruited to lead the group who confronts the corrupt cops holding Imran.

While all this is going on, Samar starts to execute his plan to take over the PM chair from his father.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? In a lot of ways, Tandav plays out like an Indian House Of Cards.

Our Take: Since we’re not super-familiar with Indian politics, we’re not sure if Tandav is at all accurate about the rivalries and backstabbing that goes on. But the series, created by Ali Abbas Zafar and written by Gaurav Solanki, communicates the concept that, no matter where in the world you are or what system of government is in place, politics is a dirty business, full of people who are willing to do anything to get in the seat of power.

The show gives off a very soapy vibe, not all that different from the American version of House Of Cards. In Samar, you have someone so hungry for power that he’ll kill anyone to get it, with all sorts of people around him that are gunning for his seat at the same time. If viewers take what’s going on in this series as anything but pulpy entertainment, they may be disappointed.

Don’t get us wrong, as pulpy entertainment, it’s well-acted and moves along quickly. At the very least, when you’re watching something soapy like this, you don’t want to be bored. But the characters are so broadly drawn that any insight into politics or activism in India is lost. There’s also a fair amount of confusion on who is connected to who in the first episode and what their motivations are. So what you get from a show like Tandav fully depends on what you expect.

Sex and Skin: Samar and his wife Ayesha (Sarah Jane Dias) have some political discussion and romance in a pool, but that’s about it.

Parting Shot: Samar’s plan is in motion, which means that his biggest impediment to the power chair is out of the way.

Sleeper Star: Kritika Kamra as Sana Mir, who is looking like she’ll be Shiva’s right hand in his striving to be an activist leader. She does a fine job in the first episode; whether she’ll be more involved as we go along is anyone’s guess.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nandan to Samar: “Politics has but one rule: The one who sits on the throne is king.” We guess that Nandan is using that fairly obvious statement to tell Samar to not wield power he doesn’t have, but something feels lost in translation.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Tandav isn’t terrible by any means, but it feels more lightweight than it should be, with characters that we’ve seen in many broad American political dramas over the past two decades.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Tandav On Prime Video