Netflix’s Typewriter Review: A Good of Suspense-Thriller

Netflix is now streaming an exciting, mysterious horror genre of web series, Typewriter.

Sujoy Ghosh, who is the director and co-writer of this mini-series, has previously made many other hit Bollywood films too. Typewriter is his first attempt of making a web series for Netflix.

Netflix’s Typewriter Review

The five-episode long series opens with three kids – Sam (Aarna Sharma), Gablu (Mikhail Gandhi), Bunty (Palash Kamble) who are seen talking about ghost hunting and a book named ‘The Ghost of Sultanpur.’

The four kids somehow reminded me of ‘The Stranger Things.’

Anyways, the story is about Jenny (Palomi Ghosh) who along with her husband Peter (Samir Kocchar) and two kids Anya (Sara Gesawat) and Nick (Aaryansh Malviya) moved to her ancestral house ‘Bardez Villa.’

The house belonged to her grandfather Madhav Mathews (Kawaljit Singh), who was a famous ghostwriter.

Purab Kohli plays the role of a local cop and also the father of Sam.

So, these are the main characters of these web series that you will see playing. Ever since Jenny moved into the house, weird incidents are happening, and she could also feel a strange presence of something.

Sujoy Ghosh’s Typewriter tells unorthodox supernatural folklore which gets revealed in the series only after the second episode.

But what I felt is Typewriter is highly inspired from other ghost and supernatural stories like The Haunting of Hill House, Stranger Things and Stephen King’s horror stories.

A haunted house which has its past stories, a ghost who is trapped and finds a soul to become complete resembles some similarities with many other horror movies in Netflix.

Director Sujoy Ghosh has told in an interview that ‘he wanted to work with the children’ and here in the series they emerged as the star undoubtedly.

It is the four gang of kids who solved the ghost mystery. The character Sam is precisely superb. She is enthusiastic, curious, and brave. She doesn’t get scared of the ghost.

Instead, she wanted to hunt the ghost, and for that, she involved her other two friends too.

It is Sam who told Jenny about the typewriter and also how the typewriter is linked to her.

The combination of all the four kids, including Nick, has generated an exciting factor in the story. They drive the series till the end with a touch of innocence, and simplicity.

I felt Purab Kohli has remain underutilized in the story, his character as a local cop’ is the element of action and support to the story.

Although, Purab Kohli has done complete justice to his role till the end. His caring single-parent and an inquisitive cop who believes her daughter and trying to piece together the unsolved scenarios is impressive. But his back story left unexplored.

Palomi Ghosh as Jenny is calm, mature yet confuse as a character, unable to understand what’s her connection with the typewriter and the villa. She is on her own journey, trying to look for her nanny, which she is hoping could help her fill in the gaps.

As the series moves forward, Jenny’s character becomes stronger till the last episode where she figured it out that she has a mirror image which is the ghost.

The role which Bengali actor Jisshu Sengupta played is a complex personality who is a follower of the ‘fakeer’ and has a task of assembling everything for the night of full red moon so that the fakeer can take complete shape.

He has played the role of a dual personality, he is naïve mathematics teacher, also a killer. He kills them who comes in his way to obstruct.

Initially, you won’t understand completely what his character is doing or his purpose. But as the series moves on, we see him in a more violent character who is even ready to sacrifice himself. He is the true son to ‘Fakeer.’

Samir Kocchar as Peter is a sub-story, who is involved in a troubled business which cost him everything now. His story is secondary, so it hasn’t been on the screen much.

If we talk about the plot, at certain areas, the screenplay goes quite plain and too much predictable.

I am talking about the ending. The ending of the Typewriter is too clumsy and dramatic.

It couldn’t ignite that element of a thriller rather quite messed up with a little bit of layman’s action between Purab Kohli and Jisshu’s character.

Because it is a mystery-horror genre of series, it is expected to witness some nerve-wracking haunted scenes. Unfortunately, it is missing in the series.

Except for one or two scenes, I couldn’t find any which could justify Typewriter as a core horror genre of series.

I liked some scenes inside the bungalow that gave an eerie feeling, for example, the angle of the corridor and attic that has been adequately captured along with placing of the light. Although, almost at every horror film which is based on a haunted house, light and camera angle are the key.

In that respect, the team of Sujoy Ghosh has done an impeccable job.

Still, I would say, Typewriter is a movie which invokes the spookiness which kids could handle.

Of course, there is a warmth in the storytelling with kids bunking the school and running around trying to prove that spirit/ghost does exist. It is fun to see them playing with the characters and looked like they are enjoying it.

The one character that annoyed me the most is ‘fakeer.’ The story of Fakeer, who is the most powerful evil ghost who is meant to rule the world, will make you want to watch the series more in-depth.

But when the character playing Fakeer is shouting, jumping, and killing people just by lifting his hand, it makes me lose my interest.

We know ghost or evil spirit are always notorious that plays with your mind, trick you. But here in Typewriter, it failed to create that magical thing.

It feels good that Indian directors are also trying to establish something unique in the new age of web series. Not perfect although, but definitely a decent attempt.

The ending clearly refers that season 2 will come soon. I just hope to see more Typewriter scarier, less drama and more exciting.

Related review: https://worldupclose.in/stranger-things-season-3-review-most-awaiting-netflixs-original-series-of-2019/

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Conclusion:

The review is based on my understanding of the series. It is not a sponsored post.

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