We meet two quidnuncs at a store and the frothy conversations begin before the relationship turns raunchy and carnal. Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia are ordinary people about to fall in love when we first get to know them
Cast: Dove Cameron, Avan Jogia, Megan Peta Hill, Dorian Missick
Director: Aletha Jones
Language: English
The first shot of Prime Video’s new series 56 Days is reminiscent of that thriller named Jagged Edge. For the first few seconds, the camera lingers like a snake in a sprawling and dungeon-like abode but the only catch is one central character is already dead. The decomposed body lies in a bathtub and a mysterious and masked figure is trying to figure out what might have just happened. We will have to connect the dots. We will have to go back in time.
56 days behind to be precise. Hollywood or Bollywood, some tropes ought to remain the same. So we meet two quidnuncs at a store and the frothy conversations begin before the relationship turns raunchy and carnal. Dove Cameron as Ciara Wyse and Avan Jogia as Oliver Kennedy are ordinary people about to fall in love when we first get to know them. This is no squishy moniker however. The series boasts no ingredients that you haven’t seen in the pulpiness of a Bollywood whodunnit. At first, the piquancy of the lady is drawn to the charisma and clandestine creepiness of the man. The red herrings are turned a blind eye to. Is it infatuation or love or lust? Whatever. It has ended in death for one of the two.
But the makers take time to reveal their cards as they are making a show that’s nearly eight hours long. We have to cover as many as 56 days and we get glimpses of all of them —From how it began to how it ended.
_Kal Ho Naa Ho_ anyone? From six, we get to 56. So the two in love meet at restaurants, a cinema, and then the abode where the apparent homicide has unfolded. The dramatic background score pulsates the intensity of the narrative. And then there are two investigators whose quips illicit faint smiles. In any chilling thriller, nobody should be loyal right till the end. There should be no room for black or white. Let the grey have a ball! Let the blame game begin!
So the girl is told the boy is not what he seems to be. The boy is told likewise. They both are spying on the other. They both are seizing the gratifying opportunity to seduce each other. Director Aletha Jones has teamed up with executive producer James Wan of
_The Conjuring_ fame for an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Howard. How does one get turned on reading about sexual intensity? Is the power all in the imagination? Here too, the physical attachment is visceral but never voyeuristic. It’s also a show that could make for a campy Hindi adaptation. Abbas Mustan in their prime would have delivered a heady cocktail of thrill, romance, raunchiness, and Anu Malik’s thunderous melodies.
56 Days is not great. It’s not the kind of a show that has a twist thrown in every second. But it does tempt you to know more about these deceptively complex characters. Who is ultimately going to turn out to be a green flag and red flag? Why are they doing what they are doing? And will we get all our answers right here in the first season? Will this be another show that succumbs to the necessity of a cliffhanger? And if the stars don’t align, will season two be canned like it has happened in India with many memorable shows? How many days we will have to wait for to get the answers?
Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)
56 Days premiers on Prime Video on February 18
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