Review: 'Country Mafia' is just another dark and gritty saga promising powerful performances

Country Mafia

Country Mafia, a web show which will be streaming on ZEE5, revolves around the lives of two siblings, Anshumaan Pushkar, the Jamtara fame and Soundarya Sharma. The two aspire to be IAS officers, and Ajay even measures up once, but when their father is stabbed to death by the area's liquor baron Babban, their world is flipped upside down. Surprisingly, Anita Raj, who plays their mother, serves as their greatest ally.

Babban(Ravi Kishan) is a man who will stop at nothing to accomplish his evil objectives. Be it openly displaying his chauvinistic side or brazenly chopping a man's throat deep into the earth. Additionally, he seems to have a Godman (Mahant, Satish Kaushik) present for dubious counsel and divine inspiration.

It's a good, meaty premise with heaps of violence, blood, and guts. It kind of seems like a lite version of Mirzapur in essence, but of course, needs a lot to be added to touch that bar. 

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The Performances

Satish Kaushik portrays his character with such conviction that it is clear the actor is enjoying himself on-screen. The convincingly snarky Ravi Kishan plays Babban, and he has a treat for his audience. Sledging a man who was partially buried in the dirt; this is the point where he steals the show. It is clearly an aggressive ploy intended to intimidate potential enemies into opposing him. He nails it as the villain you'd love to despise. Anita Raaj has a few sequences where she can really shine, and she is competent. As siblings, Ayushmaan and Soundarya are approximately as good as Ajay and Nannu. 

What doesn't work

Even though the characters are strongly portrayed by this set of actors who have given their best, the plot somehow seems stale at points. It boils down to ample violence, foul language ad gory scenes all accumulated to set up the land of the mafia. Some plot twits don't land and feel shoddy in places. The execution is bleak that watching a series of episodes becomes difficult even though there is continual action in every episode. In addition to the narrative having a hint of novelty, the overall screenplay has a familiar vibe. The writing could have been more firmly supported.

The Verdict

Country Mafia comes in with a strong cast and powerful performance by Ravi Kishan but boils down to being just another dark, gritty story lacking novel inception. 

Rating *** stars (3/5)