Promising Start and a Sober Ending

Har Yug Me Aayega Ek - Arjun was a crime thriller that aired on Star Plus over the weekends between 2012 - 2013 comprising 145 episodes. (Strangely, I happened to only recently watch it.)

For starters, it was a refreshing crime show of a set of committed, young, brave and patriotic Police officers making up the Emergency Task Force having the Super Cop: Arjun Suryakant Rawte.

Here is a brief of my personal opinion on the show and does Not intend to hurt anyone.

Concept:

The concept of a Special Force resolving to stop crime predominantly in Mumbai and Pan India comprising of various investigating wings such as Ammunition, Narcotis, Technical, Forensic, Informer Networks headed by a Commando lead to a promising start with a strong Entry for each of the characters.

Direction, Casting, Acting, Shooting and Stunts:

Perhaps one of the primary reason for the popularity of the show was its attempt at authenticity, in shooting at actual locations. The stunts, which is the backbone of a crime thriller were superbly choreographed, shot and edited.

The Background score and Music was catchy and correctly pitched.

Full marks to the casting of each character and to the Actors each of who fit like they were living the role.

One would notice the changes in the way sequences were shot or the slight variations each director brough to the episode or case.

Cases & Investigation:

What started of with interesting, socially relevant cases and unique Investingation methods lost its track (like most shows) with trying to portray one single (titular) character above ALL else, some times above the cases. ALL that remained was just the story of a One-man-army: Arjun and Not Arjun the Super Cop of ETF. The cases became mundane with loose plots and many repetitive in nature and towards the mid-end there seemed to be only cases of superstition or psycho murders being solved which is rather strange.

Investigation is the most important feature of a crime show and each field of the team and experts in those fields play an important role in the investigation. However, with time, it was noticed that the titular character seemed to have a knowledge of practically ALL the fields while the Subject Matter Experts seemed to only agree to the theories and findings.

Characterization:

Firstly, one would have imagined that the show would give closure to certain characters which received such a grand entry.

Contrast characterisation is a common phenomenon in writing wherein, inorder to highlight, glorify the central character, other supporting characters are made contrasting in nature. Two different examples for this being:

1.) Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson:

Here, Dr.Watson's character is subdued to the extent of being a dimwit compared to the super smart Sherlock Holmes.

2.) Jai and Veeru in Sholay:

Here, Jai's and Veeru's characters are contrasting in nature but that is limited to behaviour and while both get equal screenspace and are equally important for plot progression.

Although, Arjun, as the name suggests, is his story and he is the central character, the other characters on the show were made mere spectators, having no contribution to the storyline. Agreed, one shouldn not expect to see a Jai-Veeru kind of characterisation, however, there was more than enough room to build each supporting character considering the grand entry they made.

The anger and sense of revenge that Arjun harboured almost became unjustifiable given the profession he is in and the explanations he gives to the culprit over revenge crimes.

There are so many characteristics that could have been explored. The maturity both he and his Chief show while working together, how he moves from being a lonely wolf to being "the wolf who lives for the pack" (Harsha Bhogle's quote for Rahul Dravid), how he knows when to side step and let the team take their due credit and how he respects the Chief and his seniors for their experience, knowledge and position may not be Sameer Rathod or the individual.

The character of the Chief leaves much to ask for. The Chief's character is made out to be a dimwit. One might wonder how he got to be appointed as a Chief given his next-to-nil contribution on cases, individual prejudices, his judgemental nature to draw conclusions without forethought are unbecoming of a Leader. Surprisingly, he also falls prey for his own misjudgment.

A classic case could be the Indian Men's cricket team of 2000 to 2010. The team was filled with stalwarts and legends and lead by a strong and able leader.

The most underrated character, one might argue, was that of the Commando, Chandrakant Patil popularly called, Chotu. His character graph was painfully limited and at times caricaturish. How a Commando contributes to investigation and is able extract the most safeguarded information about people and things left much to be explored.

Shreekant Sen fondly called Shree, was perhaps the most consistent of characters. The Geeky character possibly was the most well-defined characters until he disappeared ALL of a sudden and surprisingly, the team functioned without a Tech Expert. One dimension that could have been explored would be the difference in the dynamics he shared with the two bosses and the female leads.

Now to the female characters whose character sketch and role progression was vague and loosely defined leaving much room for ambiguity.

Research Specialist Riya Mukherjee was perhaps first on this list. A Research Specialist appointed for an on-field job of a premium investigative agency with no experience of handling weapons I hard to digest. Frankly, that wouldn't put her in the chain of command also, perhaps being the least experienced. One should credit the attempt to show that its not that bad afterALL to be the only female team member and her friendship with the boys of the team was well portrayed. However, the here's exit she received was heartening and well deserving.

The best of entries was for the Undercover Specialist Ayesha Kapoor alias Nadia. Here again, a daredevil cop who, with her intelligence, valour and eye for detail and human behaviour, survived 8 months on an undercover mission amongst the deadliest of criminals was found making fundamental errors of judgement and conclusive without evidences. Her, having saved the Second-in-command thrice with his life was neither acknowledged by the team not the man himself. However, she was perhaps the only character to stand firm in front of her arrogant bosses and a mature friend to the rest of the team.

Forensic Experts on screen have forever been stereotyped and Lisa D'Cruz's character and looks tried to break that and did it, to some extent. Her inputs and suggestions were, like ALL characters, always overshadowed by the Super intelligent Second-in-Command. One would jave hoped for the Forensic Findings, Inputs and Theories to first come from the experts rather than as a result of probing or questioning.

OMG!!! How much I agree with you. Like this is what I felt everytime.. Thank you for putting this up 😄😄 I mean I always thought about it. No one in the show had any type of contribution other than Arjun.

Like they made Sameer look so not-like chief. I mean I understand that Arjun is the central character but Sameer is the chief of a force. How can the writers actually write something so bleak about him. He had all the qualities like a calm mind, leadership qualities, but still it felt incomplete. And where the hell did he disappear after 100th episode??

Chotu's and Liza's character was not given any sort of importance. Chotu was a commando, he could go anywhere and get out information by hook or by crook. But they wasted him.

Liza was a forensic scientist who would get all evidence, test them, give out her findings. But here that also Arjun did. Even the forensic work.

Ayesha had an amazing entry, but afterwards her character was also remaining stagnant. She was a strong headed girl and I would have loved to see more of her.

Riya and Sakshi were present there to only be Arjun's love interest. Sakshi since she was there in more cases we can see that her journalism was coming to help, but only sometimes. Riya was a very determined character but then they didn't even explore that.

After 100th episode Sameer was not there and after that the show also turned a lot boring as all the characters were not present together. It was kinda stopped in between. The team was there but incomplete. Arjun was the only one around whom the story was revolving. I wanted all characters to be explored. But before that all died.

The main thing I didn't like was in anger Arjun could do anything and everything, breaking the rules. But he was never at fault. He could humiliate his colleagues on most times and they would stand timid. Like they have no role at all in investigation.

I wanted all characters to be focussed and the case to be a lot more spicy. My work on the IF also is related to that. I want not only Arjun but all to have lead. And yeah sometimes I might also just make fun of the show's writing in my FF. So please don't get offended. I always wanted to talk about it. 😊🙈

I read this thread previously and reading it again and Kudos to you both for highlighting the show which could have been so much better but .... Sigh 😳

I so agree about aisha. The only woman who could hold her own there. Like she was alike to arjun if you think, stern and focused on work. But maybe she was a woman character hence she changed as women aren't supposed to be "rude" and later there was nothing to look forward to except sam-aisha scenes which came like bread crumbs😆 shame as her entry was awesome. And like TM said, she was underground for months. She was amazing and if only they used her skills more- like her informers back in uc mission or her trying to be double agent. And the point about none acknowledging how she saved Jun twice....that's just make me 😡

Shree and rest vanishing act 😆 and Liza doing forensic work which Jun also does...SINCE EPI 1 he did that. 🤣 chotu was for comedy only. And Sam...that's just a sore point all around. Just there to shout damn it at Jun and fight with him even when he made sense.

Tv has this writing issue when they make the main character cliche like - too mahan or too jerk. Arjun fell victim to same. Like you two said, everyone else was just there standing mute spectator to his super cop ability. Even when he hurt others there is no conflict arise from that. Silently taking it all in. Disagree about revenge though, he lost his wife so that desperation and anger is there. And if show was handled well they would have that journey from angry man to sensible arjun who cares about people. The ladies, sakshi and Riya...and especially riya she made me watch the show and many of us still into Ariya mode. Sakshi could have been PR for ETF, the journo writing for team was too immature storyline to introduce her. Riya should have been behind desk, coming across the horror of crime world and handling it, thinking with mind and acting with heart.

Role Stereotypes:

There are certain age-old stereotypes still shown on the show which could have been avoided.

ALL said and done, it still remains a watched show for the refreshing change it brought to the Television Thriller series. It is, for this reason that opinions are discussed and fictions based on the show still run on the forum even after years, with a wait for a second season. This time in a new improved manner.

Finally, coming to Sakshi Anand. Any Federal organisation wouldn't risk employing any individual who is not answerable or reporting to the Federal Services (much less an independent/freelance journalist) citing risks of sensitive information being leaked in public. Even PR Firms employed are strictly bound by discretionary clauses. We also saw an evidence of this in one of the cases wherein Sakshi leaked vital information unintentionally risking investigation.

Such being the case, one cannot imagine an independent journalist being part of interrogation, handling evidences and in one case, even arresting the culprit.

Sakshi's character was perhaps introduced as an afterthought as the female lead opposite Arjun. Her character lacked depth and definition which made a talented actor appear immature and almost childish at times.