Info
Original Title: Typewriter
Country: India
Creator: Sujoy Ghosh
Release: 2019
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Language: Hindi
Hello, there! I’m dos Santos, welcome to Ulven Reviews. Movies and series from all over the world and all eras.
Today’s review is of the Indian Series Typewriter Season 1, created by Sujoy Ghosh and released in 2019. A woman moves with her family back to her childhood home, which a group of local kids suspects is haunted.
Typewriter
I need to say sorry in advance because I most likely will be mispronouncing the names of everyone. But remember, no offense is intended, be kind, and, if possible, teach me the correct pronunciation.
In the 1980s, author Madhav Mathews (played by Kanwaljit Singh) is writing his new ghost story, The Ghost of Sultanpore. He interrupts his work to investigate something disturbing the sleep of his little granddaughter Jenny (played by Tvisha Jain), then dies mysteriously.
Around thirty years after the author’s death, the grown-up Jenny (played by Palomi Ghosh) moves back to the mansion with her husband Peter (played by Sameer Kochhar), teenage daughter Anya (played by Sara Gesawat) and younger son Nick (played by Aaryansh Malviya).
The city of Bardez, where the mansion is located, is also home to a group of kids fascinated by ghosts: Bunty (played by Palash Kamble) and Gablu (played by Mikhail Gandhi) and the ghost club leader, Sam (played by Aarnaa Sharma), the daughter of the local police chief, Ravi Anand (played by Purab Kohli).
Sam is convinced the mansion is haunted by the ghost of Sultanpore, like in the novel. Ravi thinks the daughter’s obsession with the supernatural is a mechanism to cope with her mother’s death.
Well, that’s the framework in which the story unfolds. I rather not reveal too much.
The plot has a lot of elements typical of horror, so it’s not the most original, but still satisfactory. It keeps us engaged for the most part of the season, and the only disappointment was the ending.
Despite these horror aspects, I don’t feel like the genre is actually horror, it’s much more of an Adventure and Supernatural Thriller. For example, the Supernatural series (2005-2020), it’s much closer to the action genre than horror, despite having ghost and demons.
The adventure aspect resembles a family movie, with the kids investigating the ghost and executing their plans to leave school early. It’s a fun time. While the thriller is in the uncovering of mysteries about the past of the mansion and characters.
However, the Adventure and the Thriller not always fit together. The series has murder, stabbings, and bleeding eyes, while other times, we have children running around with a smart dog. Sometimes it’s too mature, and others, family-friendly.
The kids are mostly good enough for child actors, but Aarnaa Sharma, as Sam is the best one. She did amazing, especially for a child. According to IMDb, she is eleven now, so she has a bright future ahead of her.
Her interactions with other characters are very compelling, especially with her father, Ravi. But another connection I liked is between her and Jenny, I hope to see more of the two together in the second season.
I also liked Ravi a lot, he is a good father, trying to do the best for his daughter after her mother’s death. He’s a competent police officer as well, and the banter he has with the police officer Selwyn (played by K.C. Shankar) is quite funny.
The other star of this series is Palomi Ghosh as Jenny. She’s an exceptional character, a beautiful, smart, and proactive woman who is trying to reconnect with her childhood. The whole series orbits around her, everything relevant is connected to her in some way.
Jenny and Sam are the leading characters of the series, while Ravi is the most important supporting character. These three are among my favorites characters, and their acting is flawless with an emphasis on Palomi Ghosh.
Not all characters are good, though. Peter – Jenny’s husband – and Amit Roy (played by Jishu Sengupta) – the evil math teacher, are the worst. The acting is decent enough, the problem is the characters, both very uninteresting.
Peter didn’t have to exist, but since he does, they gave him an inconvenient mistress. It seems he’s going to have a better second season, but in the first, he was an awful character.
Amit Roy is the antagonist, but he is not even the most compelling one at that. He works at the local school as a math teacher, while murdering and threatening people in his free time, until the end, of course. His conclusion is the disappointing thing about the ending. The revelation of his past is cheesy, and his destiny made me roll my eyes, but I won’t spoil it.
Now, the other antagonist. As I said earlier, Jenny, Sam, and Ravi are among my favorite characters, but there is one more left to mention: The Fakeer (played by Abhishek Banerjee).
The Fakeer is the man who would later become the so-called ghost of Sultanpore. He is introduced in the fourth episode, showing his back-story since childhood, and how he became such a terrifying threat, feared and talked about since the very first scene.
The character is really compelling by itself, the bits of episodes telling his story were crafted with mastery, full of tension and horrifying elements. Abhishek Banerjee’s performance makes everything even better, it’s nothing less than awesome.
Another thing that stood out to me since the very beginning was the cinematography, with a beautiful shot of the mansion. The colors throughout the series are also great and fit well with the plot.
Almost every shot is beautiful and clear, and I love being able to actually see what is happening on the screen. Movies and Series of horror, in particular, are awful with clarity, and some people even believe that’s how the genre should be made, but I disagree, and I’m glad Typewriter didn’t choose this lazy route.
The first season of Typewriter was interesting, fun and refreshing. It’s not scary at all but had some nice thriller and adventure with some evil supernatural touches and even some gruesome details. I will give it 8 Moons.
That’s it for now. Don’t forget that mental health professionals are fundamental in coping with grief. Bye!
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