Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke Review: Regina Cassandra Saves Series That Gives ‘Same Old’ Feeling

By Shweta Parande

Summary: Jaanbaaz Hindustan is a good series but not gripping enough. Director Srijit Mukherji who has also made films probably needs to adapt to the web series way of creating, where the drama has to be engaging episode after episode.

Rating:

South Indian actress Regina Cassandra, who was seen as Sonam Kapoor’s girlfriend in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019) as her Hindi debut, now makes a splash in the Hindi market with Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke in a lead role. The actress carries the series on her shoulders.

Otherwise, the plot and proceedings seem ‘same old, same old’ as far as web series are concerned. Viewers are not new to over-the-top (OTT) platforms now and need some novelty in the writing and presentation of such series. But what more can be done in a cop-naxalite-terrorist drama?

The plot of Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke revolves around Regina Cassandra’s character of supercop Kavya Iyer aka Shillong Ki Sherni, a tough policewoman placed in Meghalaya. She excels at work but struggles to maintain a work-life balance, rather is not able to maintain it, as she is largely focussed on her duty and the responsibilities that come with it. Her IAS officer husband (Barun Sobti) can’t take it anymore and files for divorce.

Her mother is there to take care of her son, but Kavya herself is a hyper mother as far as the security of her child is concerned. She knows the enemy is out there and also finds her picture in the wallet of a slain terrorist. She worries for her family.

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Kavya also goes overboard at work, or her officers think she does, when she acts upon a hunch and it results in civilian deaths and that of her colleagues. She is soon transferred to teach at the police academy, but her mind is still on the hunch she had about a terrorist attack involving RDX smuggled by a dreaded terrorist Tariq (Sumeet Vyas).

Such an attack does take place but her seniors are still not convinced by her theory. In comes Mahira Rizvi (Mita Vashisht) from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate the terror attack carried out in public via a drone. The series carries on, as Mahira continues her investigation while Kavya, too, gets into her own investigation mode with the help of her earlier deputies.

Jaanbaaz Hindustan is a good series but not gripping enough. Director Srijit Mukherji who has also made films probably needs to adapt to the web series way of creating, where the drama has to be engaging episode after episode. It is decent but probably Mukherji’s creative team including the writer and the editor could have contributed to making it more intriguing.

Regina was also seen in Kangana Ranaut’s Thalaivi in a special appearance, and in the series Rocket Boys as Mrinalini Sarabhai, and is a part of Prime Video’s Farzi that stars Shahid Kapoor, Raashi Khanna, Vijay Sethupathy and Amol Palekar.

Disclaimer: This review is based on the first two episodes of the series.