Asur (web series)
Asur is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller web series based on True Detective, produced by Tanveer Bookwala of Ding Entertainment for the video on demand platform Voot.[2] The series stars Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti. The series is set in current times and revolves around serial killings. Arshad Warsi made his web debut in this series.[3]
| Asur | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Crime Mystery Thriller[1] |
| Created by | Gaurav Shukla Shweta More Vibhav Shikdar |
| Developed by |
|
| Written by | Gaurav Shukla Niren Bhatt Abhijeet Khuman Pranay Patwardhan |
| Directed by | Oni Sen |
| Starring | Arshad Warsi Barun Sobti Anupriya Goenka Ridhi Dogra |
| Country of origin | India |
| Original language | Hindi |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Tanveer Bookwala |
| Production locations | Mumbai, India |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 34-63 minutes |
| Production company | Ding Entertainment |
| Distributor | Voot |
| Release | |
| Original network | Voot |
| Picture format | HDTV 1080i |
| Audio format | Dolby Digital |
| Original release | 2 March 2020 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Plot
Set in the backdrop of the mystical city of Varanasi, Asur follows Nikhil Nair, a forensic-expert-turned-teacher, who returns to his roots at the Central Bureau of Investigation, and along with his former mentor Dhananjay Rajpoot, finds himself caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a brutal serial killer.[4] What follows is a blend of suspense, mythology and the murders of some people totally unrelated.
Cast
- Arshad Warsi as Dhananjay Rajput
- Barun Sobti as Nikhil Nair
- Anupriya Goenka as Naina Nair
- Ridhi Dogra as Nusrat Saeed
- Sharib Hashmi as Lolark Dubey
- Amey Wagh as Rasool Shaikh
- Pawan Chopra as Shashank Awasthi
- Vishesh Bansal as Shubh
- Gaurav Arora as Kesar Bharadwaj
- Anvita Sudarshan as Raina Singh
- Nishank Verma as Samarth Ahuja
- Archak Chhabra as Aditya Jalan
- Aditya Lal as Moksh
- Deepak Qazir as Neelkanth Joshi
- Bondip Sarma as Ankit Sharma
- Jayant Raina as Radhacharan Joshi
- Sunayna Baile as Lolark's Wife
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The dead can talk" | Oni Sen | Gaurav Shukla | March 2, 2020 | |
| The episode starts with an 11 year old story where a young child named Shubh is seen performing puja rituals along side his father and a person. His father, while returning in a boat with his son, drowns in the river and dies. The young child is emotionless and it is shown that the child presumably poisoned his father. The story moves on to the present, where a forensics expert, Nikhil Nair, is shown teaching at the FBI HQ. Later on he is shown doing some dillydally with his wife Naina, arguing about the reasons to leave his job with the CBI, something which he deeply regrets. Meanwhile, in India,a murderer killed a woman and takes down in another place, next day her charred body is found by the police, whose autopsy is performed by Dhananjay "DJ" Rajpoot, a senior forensic expert in the CBI. The modus operandi of the murder reveals that a serial killer is on a murder spree, in which DJ's wife also included. | |||||
| 2 | "Rabbit hole" | Oni Sen | Gaurav Shukla | March 2, 2020 | |
| The episode starts with a story set 18 years ago where a young Shubh is shown as cold, ruthless and cruel. His father is shown calling him an Asur (demon/devil). In the present timeline, Nikhil comes back to work with the CBI. Towards the end of the episode, DJ receives an envelope containing a video in which the charred body is revealed to be that of his wife, Sandhya. Being directly related to the murdered, DJ can't handle the case anymore and Nikhil takes over the case. But even before he could come to terms with the inconceivable loss, Dhananjay is arrested for murdering his wife, based on Nikhil's calculation, and the camera pans out with the sight of a mysterious person witnessing all this. | |||||
| 3 | "Peek - a - boo" | Oni Sen | Gaurav Shukla | March 2, 2020 | |
| The episode continues with another glimpse of the story set 18 years ago where it is revealed that Shubh shows symptoms of autism, and is deeply ill-affected by his father's torturous behaviour towards him. In the present timeline, with Dhananjay behind bars, Nikhil thinks it's all over until he gets 3 new coordinates from the same mysterious source. The killer follows the same pattern, thoroughly planned assaults targeted at random people at random locations. | |||||
| 4 | "Ashes from the past" | Oni Sen | Gaurav Shukla | March 2, 2020 | |
| The episode continues with the incident 11 years ago as it is shown that DJ was the person who was doing the puja rituals. While doing the puja, DJ finds something fishy about Shubh. After the death of the father, DJ tells everyone that he died due to poisoning not drowning. In the present timeline, Nikhil almost succeeds in finding out the murderer's location, but an automated tranquilizer attack results in the killer successfully capturing Nikhil alive in a remote location with no access, and Dhananjay is behind bars. Meanwhile, Dhananjay tries to figure out how it's all connected. | |||||
| 5 | "The devil has a face" | Oni Sen | Gaurav Shukla | March 2, 2020 | |
| The episode continues with incident 11 years ago where Shubh is arrested and put behind bars for his father's murder. Shubh doesn't show much remorse and instead starts preaching from within the prison, as a wilful follower joins him and becomes his first disciple. In the present, Dhananjay is tasked by the CBI to work on the case while in prison. During work on the case, he meets Kesar Bhardwaj, a motivational speaker on spiritualism. Naina arrives looking for Nikhil with their daughter Ria, though Nushrat is unable to calm her down when Dhananjay's team inadvertently reveals that Nikhil has gone missing. Dhananjay's colleague, Lolark, is sent by Dhananjay to Banaras and continues to dig into Shubh's background when Kesar figures out that Dhananjay's past may have something to do with it. Dhananjay, with his team, comprising Nikhil's ex-girlfriend Nushrat, hacker Rasool Shaikh, and a few other officers working directly under Lolark, tries to find the connection between the victims and concludes that they were all good people with no criminal records. Meanwhile, Nikhil, fearing Naina and their daughter Ria's safety, helps the killer murder a neuroscientist. A mysterious clue occurs to Dhananjay, who realizes that Nikhil is alive and he has contributed to the murder. | |||||
| 6 | "The firewall" | Oni Sen | Gaurav Shukla | March 2, 2020 | |
| 10 years ago, Shubh gets arrested and is in jail. Lolark inquires with the retired police officer. The officer tells him that he taught his jailmates and make them cut the fingers, just like is being done to the victims of this serial killing. He drew pictures of many asuras and read many scriptures. Lolark then went to meet Shubh's grandfather, from whom he finds out that Shubh was born on the day "Asur" is born when his father wanted him to be born the day "Devtas" are born. This is why Shubh was always called Asur and Raakshas, and this hate motivated him to kill his father. Lolark shares this information with Dhananjay, who says they need to find out what kind of Asur he is trying to be to understand his thought process. In the present, Nikhil is given another victim, Aditya Jalan, a famous businessman who generously wishes to donate a major share of his property to charity. Kesar helps Dhananjay by reading the horoscopes of all the victims and find out they belong to a specific Hindu zodiac sign. Dhananjay, with help from Naina, is able to hack into the firewall of the NIC, which gives the date, place and time of birth of people. From this, Dhananjay realizes that the next victim is Jalan. While Dhananjay gets a call from the killer saying that he knows he's trying to save Jalan from getting killed, this causes Dhananjay to convince Jalan to cancel his engagement, but Jalan rebuffs the warning. Dhananjay then enhances the security arrangements; realizing this, Nikhil plans a counterplot, though another counterplot is initiated by Dhananjay. Nikhil, however, finds another counterplot, which ultimately results in Jalan being killed the same way during the engagement party. | |||||
| 7 | "Let there be darkness" | Oni Sen | Gaurav Shukla | March 2, 2020 | |
| Dhananjay, aggrieved at his failure to save Jalan, seeks Kesar's help again, and finds out that the victims were born under a certain star. Knowing that the killer could very well come after him, Dhananjay stakes himself and asks Naina to manipulate the NIC database in order to get the killer to promptly plan his murder. Initially reluctant, Naina agrees. She receives a connected call from Nikhil and is relieved to find out he is alive, but the kidnapper cuts the call short. Parallel to this, a flashback shows that Nikhil met Shubh in prison and promised him that he would help him. Shubh responds by assuring him that he will be back. Nikhil gets a hint of his kidnapper and realizes that it may be Shubh, but he is unable to speak to him at all. | |||||
| 8 | "End is the beginning" | Oni Sen | Gaurav Shukla | March 2, 2020 | |
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10 years earlier, Nikhil finds out that DJ had framed the evidence to send Shubh to prison, which is the reason why Nikhil resigned from the CBI. At present, Nikhil is assigned DJ as the next victim and tells the killer that he has to go to jail to kill him since the central jail has high surveillance. The killer gets into the jail and as per plotted, reaches DJ and is about to kill him, but gets tied up by DJ instead. Since the killer is in jail, Nikhil finds a way to get out of jail. There, the killer reveals there are many Shubhs and not one, prompting DJ to conclude that Kesar is the mastermind who murdered his wife. Additionally, a female journalist, a Hindu preacher and an Islamic preacher are locked in a chamber where they have only 12 hours of oxygen supply available. Naina has, meanwhile, left Ria to the care of a househelp. Meanwhile, Lolark spots a deep scar on Rasool's hand, and along the highway, he questions Rasool again, but Rasool, in turn, has his college friends speak to Lolark about him, which somewhat convinces Lolark. By this time, Nikhil manages to escape the killer's custody by mapping his fingerprints on a water tumbler and putting them in the biometric machine, but is unable to do anything to save the captives. The Islamic preacher tries to convince the Hindu Preacher to kill the female journalist, but the Hindu Preacher disagrees, in response to which the Islamic preacher tries to strangle the Hindu Preacher to death, even as the female journalist comes forward to stop them both from killing each other. Lolark and Rasool successfully discover the killer's hideout, when Lolark stumbles upon a notebook in Rasool's bag and finds out that the drawings in his notebook are the same as what Shubh's grandfather gave him. Rasool reveals that he is actually Shubh in disguise, and that he is the commander of a spiritual cult where multiple people follow his preachings, Kesar turning out to be one of them. Kesar, upon being confronted, makes DJ confess what he did with the evidence against Shubh and compels him to self-harm, in return for telling the location of the journalist and the preachers. Eventually, it is revealed in a flashback that Kesar is actually Shubh's first disciple, the wilful one who joined him in prison. Shubh ties up Lolark after attacking him brutally and contacts Nikhil when he reunites with Naina upon discovering the location of the captives. DJ collapses after consuming the tablets offered to him by Kesar, which increased his heartbeat and blood pressure significantly, but Nushrat and the officers are able to rescue him. With time running out, Shubh offers Nikhil on phone the option of choosing between Ria and the captives, and Nikhil, exasperated, sacrifices Ria, who is revealed to have died through the househelp, revealed to be one of Shubh's followers, who spiked the food she was eating. He then shoots Lolark dead. However, the female journalist suddenly grabs a pistol from one of the lady officers and shoots the Islamic preacher dead. DJ's revelation spews another rivalry between Nikhil and DJ since it was DJ's mistake 10 years ago that led to all these killings and thus, Ria's death, in the form of revenge. Finally, the camera pans out as Shubh has one last stare at DJ, hinting at an unfinished business, i.e. an upcoming season. | |||||
References
- "Asur review: Arshad Warsi, Barun Sobti show mixes up CID with Sacred Games for a pulpy new offering". Hindustan Times. April 2, 2020.
- "Asur first impression: This thriller holds promise". Indian Express. March 5, 2020.
- "Arshad Warsi makes his digital debut with Asur". India Today. March 4, 2020.
- "Asur Review: Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti starrer is gripping and will keep you hooked on to it till the end". PINKVILLA. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
External links
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