Season 1 – Tooth Pari: When Love Bites

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arvind s @Arvind100 05/09/2023 It is always interesting to watch an alternate version of a city. Tooth Pari is set in Kolkata; a Kolkata wherein vampires exist & so do vampire hunters. The vampires stay underground & are forbidden to go above ground. When one of them, Rumi frequents parties to drink fresh blood, all hell breaks loose when one of her canines fall out. The most beautiful thing about setting a story in a particular city is how the beauty of the city is captured amidst all the action that is unfolding. Tooth Pari blends the alleys of Kolkata, the language & food into a vampire story. Tanya Maniktala plays Rumi, the rebellious vampire, whose indiscreet nature puts her entire clan in trouble. Tanya is the heart & soul of the story and she is simply fantastic. The vampires' adversary is a group called Cutmundus led by the charming Revathy Asha Kelunni; another standout. Tillotama Shome, Saswata Chatterjee play fellow vampires; Sikandar Kher plays a policeman & Shantanu Maheshwari plays Ruhi's love interest, the dentist. Adil Hussain, Anish Railkar co-star. Tooth Pari brings vampires to Indian audiences in a grounded fashion. The makers don't go overboard with highly stylised action sequences or a cringey plot. Instead, they get the balance between the city & the lore just right! Do watch this gem of a series if you love fantasy & Kolkata. See more Hemant S 05/02/2023 So I ventured into this series, in my ever yearning search for some quality amidst the flood of OTT content we are subject to in this day. The roster of actors, who are of very good credibility, encouraged me. The theme, which is centered on Vampires drew me even more. I was reputed to be a Vampire geek, a Werewolf nerd even more - during my younger movie buff years. To my knowledge, Vampires were seldom explored in Indian television or films – at least not in mainstream. Even the closest we may have got was to a Were-tiger (if I may call it that) in Mahesh Bhatt's "Junoon" (1992) or a more closer looking creature in the multi-starrer, "Jaani Dushman" (1979). From a secret wish to be one of those two mythical beings (yes true! - when I was a kid), I grew up to revere the lore of them. Hence, I would gobble up Werewolf and Vampire based films from Hollywood, or generally other countries at the drop of a hat. Until "Twilight" of course, which drew me away like garlic or a silver-bullet, mainly because it was more of teenage romance than anything else. "The Wolfman", "Dracula Untold" didn't build my thirst up either - they were ok in comparison to the classics I had grown up on like "Fright Night", "Silver Bullet", "Bram Stoker's Dracula", "The Night Flier"and even a few from the "Blade" and the "Underworld" series. So the mere mention of a Vampire based Indian series on Netflix made my fangs emerge. "Tooth Pari: When Love Bites" may draw different reactions, but I definitely didn't get my pint of blood from it. There is surely an effort, especially re-imagining a community of fanged creatures in the underbelly of Kolkata. The dim-lit streets and the Bengali culture to enhance the ambience. The elements existed, but were sinfully underutilized. To add to it, it's a sort of comedic take on the lifestyle of Vampires, and also a romance which seemingly is futile. But also thrilling and supposedly serious when it comes to the battle with Vampire hunters? Too much to juggle around, and all the balls drop and bounce around. Sticking to a comedic romance would have done it good. Any lore and mythical ways that applied to Vampires that we knew so far get tossed out of the window - invisibility, bats (?), almost fatal aversion to garlic and silver, crucifixes (?), holy water? It's re-invention on a too large scale for my liking. Any kind of origin story is not given much importance. While the Bengali speaking audience may find it affable, I found myself wondering if this was more of Bengali than Hindi. More like Benghinglish? The few good things I could scrape out of it were the scattered acts from the leads - Tanya Maniktala, Shantanu Maheshwari (the boys got potential!), Sikander Kher, Saswata Chatterjee, Revathi, Adil Hussain, Zarina Wahab and a few many veterans from the Bengali film industry. Some rare dialogues around the romantic theme made me pause and ponder deeply, and a few laughable moments of comedy. It's a rehash of all the Twilights, Underworlds and even some of the Ekta Kapoor supernatural brigade, with a few drops of "Matrix" sprinkled in. Lots of acting talent disappeared into that Vampirical fog. If they still follow up with a second season, I really, really hope they (the creator, writer and director) can up the ante. More often than not, these days I always end up thinking that Deadpool line "Well, that's just lazy writing.". This one stabbed me with a stake. Tread carefully, if you dare. See more ananya r 04/24/2023 Very interesting watch - one of the best Indian vampire shows out there! It's NOT cringey at all, and is very well thought through. The story, the mystery, the logic - it's all there. 5 on 5! By the way, for those wanting to catch up on Bengali culture, this show provides a pretty accurate window. See more Read all reviews

Tooth Pari: When Love Bites — Season 1

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