Masoom review: Boman Irani’s Hotstar show is a serviceable thriller

Based on ‘Blood’, a 2018 Irish TV serial, ‘Masoom’ begins with quick introductions to the main characters in the village of Falauli: the Delhi-based younger daughter sobs as she drives towards her home, devastated by the loss of her mother, the local cop (Manu Rishi Chaddha) who keeps an eye on the populace, the father, a much-respected figure, who is standing for elections, and the two siblings, who were around and about when their mother passed. Or were they?

A large stash of cash goes missing on the same day of the death. Are the two things connected? The plot includes a few other characters who have been old friends and compatriots of the Kapoor family. A comely colleague of Kapoor Sr who seems too close to him. A friend of the son who is clearly up to no good. And a friend of the younger daughter who has never been able to recover from the death of his father.

All of this should have been parlayed into a taut thriller, but the result is only intermittently effective and comes off, overall, strangely bloodless. Samara Tijori, whose character sets much of the action in play, is so morose as to be single-note. Of the other performers, Veer Rajwant Singh strikes a chord, as does, as always, Manu Rishi Chaddha. And it is good to see Boman Irani play something other than the kind of supporting roles he gets to do in Bollywood, but you wish his part had been written with more heft. You know that he knows more than he is letting on, but he only gets in a substantial chunk right towards the end, when we get to know everything, he does.

‘Masoom’ comes off serviceable, instead of memorable.