WEB SERIES REVIEW 'TANDOORI IDLY' (Tamil)

Producer- MX Player

Directors- A.L. Abanindran and Devanshu Arya

Star Cast- Avantika Mishra, Vikkals Vikram, Vinod Kumar, Ajay Prasath, Whatsapp Mani, Mirchi Saba, Suhasini Sanjeev

Genre- Comedy

Language: Tamil

Rating-**

Bland & Verbose!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Set in Chennai, the show Tandoori Idly hinges on a group of colleagues working in a not so big IT firm. Selvam, Alex and Chandran are three friends working under the project manager Deepak, who instead of promoting Selvam to the position of team leader, brings in a new Punjabi speaking girl Simran from Delhi for the post, what follows is a classic clash between a male and a female vying for the same post, between two cultures and languages.

Though you eagerly expect that the web series would throw some light on the conflict between the Tamils and the Punjabi import from New Delhi to the office, all you get to see is a bland and insipid comedy which has more of never-ending verbal spats between both parties which only end up grating your nerves awfully after a certain point of time. To add to your woes, the story has also the done-to-death filmi template of having three guys falling for the same girl, albeit in a corporate setup.

As far as performances go, I should say that Ajai Prasath cast in the lead of thye series as Selvam sports a constipated look permanently and looks tired and uninspired as the potential of the insipid script—while Avanthika Mishra, in the role of Simran, shows promise as a whiff of fragrance though she seems out of place at some places in the narrative. Vikkals Vikram does a better job as an actor than as a writer. Vinod Kumar, Whatsapp Mani, Mirchi Saba, and Suhasini Sanjeev have their own moments but fail to rise above the script

The drama that is required to sustain interest in a web series like this is inherently missing and the office setup too is dull, and convinces you that an office which does not even have a canteen is simply not good because the staff members are seen sitting in a footpath stall outside their office all the time to have their tea or coffee. To sum up, all that I can say is that though at the outset, Tandoori Idly offers nothing fresh, and is very tacky to the core as far as production values are concerned, it still manages to provide fun in parts due to the cast and their indifferent chemistry. The only reason I’d suggest that you watch it is because it is short and the six episodes , each of 20 to 25 minutes are over soon.