The Secret of the Shiledars on Disney+ Hotstar revolves around a secret society that has for generations been zealously guarding Shivaji’s riches, particularly his golden throne. Krishnakant (Dilip Prabhavalkar) has been looking for the next shiledar, or soldier, and finds him in history buff Ravi (Rajeev Khandelwal).
Ravi learns about his true destiny at around the same time that Ramachandran (Kanan Arunachalam) sets his goons on Krishnakant to track down Shivaji’s heirlooms. Ravi is joined in his quest by his brother Aditya (Gaurav Amlani), Krishnakant’s assistant Priyali (Sai Tamhankar) and Shivaji expert Chandrarao (Ashish Vidyarthi).
There is safety in numbers, for Ramachandran is no ordinary man. He is Maharashtra’s governor, no less, which gives a comic book touch to a series seemingly aimed at older kids.
Aditya Sarpotdar’s Hindi show, based on Prakash Suryakant Koyade’s Marathi historical fiction novel Pratipaschandra, is modelled on Hollywood franchises like Indiana Jones and National Treasure. The six-episode series, written by Bijesh Jayarajan, puts an alternative spin on accepted history. It’s fun to speculate that historical sites conceal secret pathways, tunnels and arcane symbols whose meaning is revealed through deduction.
Why then does a potentially entertaining show that hops from one destination to the next and has no shortage of incidents feel so dull? The Secret of the Shiledars is content to be a timepasser, too sketchily written and poorly produced to mount a heart-pounding adventure.
Adults who resemble overgrown teenagers dart around the countryside chasing down clues, pursued by Ramachandra’s growling henchmen and police officer Biswajit (Kumar Kanchan Ghosh). The series is fast-paced enough to race past its loopholes and plot holes, many of them supplied by one of the dimmest police investigators in recent memory.
The main actors are less amateurish than the material. Rajeev Khandelwal, Sai Tamhankar and Gaurav Amlani are suitably dignified even when handling obvious props or facing toy guns.
