A brave effort to break new ground

Vikram Bhatt's web series "Maaya", which was advertised as the first Indian fictional work on BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism), is surprisingly tame and non-emphatic in its erotic excursions.

The first two episodes, which were released recently, show the protagonist Sonia leading a double-life as Maaya, a girl heavily into BDSM.
Not that we see her do anything that matches up to her erotic aspirations.

In one darkly lit-up handsomely shot sequence, Sonia/Maaya is confronted in a long empty hospital corridor by a masked stranger (who by the way, speaks in Vikram Bhatt's voice). The stranger leads her to an empty room luring her with promises to "hurt". He cuts open her hospital gown with a pair of scissors. We see the girl with the heaving bosom surrendering to her desires. But little happens.

The one thing that can be safely said about "Maaya" at the moment is that it does not encourage tackiness to get by as a web series. It is put together with the same professionalism as Bhatt's films, and with a lot less emphasis on shock value than one would expect in a series devoted to forbidden areas of urban sexual behaviour.

Everyone, including the hero's mother, speaks Hinglish. The dialogues are set at a pitch which keeps the melodramatic content of the plot in check. At one point, a female psychiatrist tells an exceedingly stressed man to go ahead and insult her if it helps him forget his problems. Such interludes of psychological illumination where deflective behaviour is pithily evaluated in one sentence are rare in Indian cinema. Hopefully the internet will eventually open up new avenues of expression. ‘Maaya" seems a step in the right direction.

The performances are pitched at a place where they grab attention without getting hysterical. Shama, for years on television and in some films, makes a comeback in a tough role as a woman battling her secret demons. Veer Aryan as her empathetic husband is controlled and willing to surrender to the demands of the plot.

However, the series is in its infancy right now. And it could get sufficiently steamy as the plot (deftly written with characters opening up their unhealed wounds) grows. Right now, "Maaya" impresses more for what it promises than what it delivers.

Web Series Name : Maaya

Cast : Shama Sikander, Vipul Gupta, Veer Aryan, Aradhya Taing, Parina Chopra
Direction : Vikram Bhatt
Genre : Erotic love story

By Subhash K Jha