Western India’s Konkan region, where beaches, coconut trees and mango orchards abound, has been the setting for many shows and films. In Andhar Maya, the Konkan is the stage for ghosts and greed.
In ZEE5’s first Marathi horror series, an extended family arrives at its ancestral home with the aim of observing the death rites of an elder and selling the property. Long-time housekeeper Gonya (Kishore Kadam) is happy to see the entire brood under the same roof. Now that you are here, don’t be in a hurry to leave, Gonya says.
The reunion is far from amicable. Keshav’s father – the one who has died – used to perform female roles in the local Dashavtar festival, making him the butt of ridicule. Keshav is still justifying his father’s behaviour to his nasty cousins Kartik (Shubhankar Tawde) and Manoj (Omprakash Shinde).
The plan to sell the house and property isn’t unanimous. Keshav (Anup Belwalkar) is against the sale, annoying Kartik and Manoj. The wives are divided too.
Nayana (Shubhangi Bhujbal), behaving like the woman from Satyajit Ray’s Monihara, is obsessed with how the jewellery will be divided. The pregnant Madhavi (Rujuta Bagwe) prefers the sprawling abode to her modest dwelling in Mumbai. Meanwhile, Manoj’s daughter Sayali (Pihu Gosavi) is insisting that there is a boy hiding in the shadows.
One of the men has already made a reference to California. Did he mean Hotel California? Do the cousins realise that once they have checked in, they can never leave?
Bhimrao Mude’s seven-episode show is based on a story by Pralhad Kudtarkar who has also written the dialogue. The screenplay is by Kapil Bhopatkar. Andhar Maya is initially overloaded with strange events, jump scares and wonky camera angles. Not only is the ominousness unrelenting, but also the squabbling between the cousins over the fate of the property is enervating.
The show picks up steam in its fifth episode. Like Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were One, the malevolent spirit lurking in the house has been targeting the family members one by one. The mystery clears up in the final two episodes, which are suitably gripping and creepy.
Greed, which Gonya has been warning against, plays its own part in the horrors that stalk the family.
The actors struggle with the overwrought melodrama but snap into shape when the corpses star piling up. Kishor Kadam is brilliant as Gonya, who is consistently ambivalent as well as convincingly authoritative as the keeper of secrets. When the going gets rough, Kishor Kadam gets going, and how.
