There are some talents whom you can be sure will come up with something different every time they take the creator’s seat. Rajkumar Hirani is one of them.
Just as he left everyone gobsmacked with his 2003 blockbuster comedy Munna Bhai M.B.B.S, his debut production Pritam & Pedro on Hotstar is an absolute delight. Crisp and to the point, it doesn’t waver from the plot, and carries just the right amount of the quintessential Rajkumar Hirani touch.
Pritam & Pedro is directed by Avinash Arun of Paatal Lok fame, and marks the debut OTT production of acclaimed filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani. The cyber-crime series is inspired by the books Hidden Files and Return of the Trojan Horse by Amit Dubey. Rajkumar Hirani trusts his maiden OTT venture to the able hands of friends and family.
Unlike Goa’s brazen party landscape, Rajkumar Hirani and director Avinash Arun take viewers on a Goa trip high on crime in Pritam & Pedro. The sun-kissed Arabian Sea coastlines and the lush Western Ghats add to the scenic setting. The meandering lanes, colourful houses, and coconut trees bobbing in the brisk breeze – this is Goa. But the intense drama stirring amid it grabs your attention from the get-go.
Rajkumar Hirani’s Munna Bhai trio returns, while Boman Irani and Sanjay Dutt appear in cameo roles. Arshad Warsi, as the seasoned cop Inspector Pedro Gonsalves, is the frontrunner of this show and he never disappoints. Mona Singh joins the cast as Stacey, the bereaved mother and Pedro’s wife – both parents battling a personal loss while he also tries to do his duty. The surprise package is Vikrant Massey, once again a grey antagonist, just how Rajkumar Hirani likes to paint his villains.
Pritam & Pedro also marks the debut of Rajkumar Hirani’s son Vir Hirani, who has previously acted in short films such as Yoon Hota Toh, The Doctor Will See You Now, and Apna Apna Andaz.
In a gist, Pritam & Pedro is a compact comedic cybercrime thriller. Two diametrically opposite personalities – the tech-savvy Pritam (Vir Hirani) and the street-smart cop Pedro (Arshad Warsi) – come together to solve the high-profile kidnapping of a sports minister’s (Satyadeep Misra) son. After an initial mishap with a case that was also filed by the minister, Pedro is forced to be transferred to the cyber cell. Old-school as he is, he is cranky and irritable because this is unfamiliar ground. He desperately wants to get back to the crime department and get cracking.
Pritam and Pedro’s paths cross for the simplest of reasons. An innocent Pritam comes to the jail to find a missing voice recording of his grandmother, which is the last memory for his beloved grandfather. After a little scuffle he’s put in jail, but ends up helping to track a criminal in a case Pedro is handling.
Thus a partnership is formed. A cocktail of Pritam’s brilliant knack for digital investigations and data tracking meets Pedro’s unbeatable on-ground policing and instincts, even when he falters with modern technology. The ride through the remaining five episodes as they solve the abduction becomes a thriller, with every episode ending on a cliffhanger.
The other characters leave a rather imposing aftertaste. They all do their jobs well. Stacey (Mona Singh), a former aspiring singer, is devastated after they lose their son. Her mystery segues into a full circle towards the series’ culmination. Mona Singh, as always, is just right for the role – effortless. In her limited screen time she makes an impact, and that’s why we love to love her.
Rajkumar Hirani’s seamless concoction of buried emotions, goofy comedy and social commentary is his superpower. In Pritam & Pedro, he delivers a very important societal message too: the perils of online crime and how exposed we all are. It is precisely because of the dangers of online gaming and cyberbullying that a grave danger befalls the minister’s son, though there is a primary motive behind it and specific targets the kidnapper chooses.
As Pritam and Pedro pursue the case, hidden truths from the past resurface; they realise how much all their stories are connected. From Pedro’s son’s death to Pritam’s suspicious demeanour whenever questions about his past arise to the minister’s missing son – they are all interlinked, and the director Avinash Arun does a stellar job of letting the plot simmer until the truth is unmasked.
Vikrant Massey is a surprise package – not for his craft, but to see him in a shady role after quite a while. The director ensures he is not entirely villainous, peppering Vikrant’s character with diverse emotions and logic that are both intriguing and make the viewer empathetic to his side of the story.
Just like Karan Johar has often had Kajol as a good luck charm in many of his productions, it seems Rajkumar Hirani cannot do without Sanjay Dutt and Boman Irani in a lot of his releases.
Boman Irani plays the role of the ego-driven Professor Fonseca in Pritam & Pedro. Vikrant Massey as Martin is his son. It is a revenge borne of severe pain that pushes Martin back into the fray as a formidable cybercriminal. Though Boman Irani’s role is limited, he realistically forms the crux of the whole kidnapping scenario that drives the six-episode series. Sanjay Dutt appears as Sanju Baba, totally himself, literally and figuratively, and once again addresses another grim occurrence on online platforms – morphing of pictures.
And thus the Munna Bhai trifecta is complete with Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, and Sanjay Dutt.
Arshad Warsi is excellent at expressing the myriad emotions his character goes through: sorrow, professional struggle in the cyber world, domestic highs and lows, and finally finding a new partner-in-crime – and no, this time it isn’t Munna Bhai. Vir Hirani, in his debut, leaves a lasting impression. He is a natural. He is the perfect forward sidekick to Pedro’s backwardness, and there’s a whole new “opposites attract” thread in this friendship. Together, they are as deadly as the crimes they solve.
There’s a new duo in the block, and Pritam & Pedro make you laugh and cry at their eccentricities and camaraderie. They are each other’s ride or die, and we’ve got to thank Rajkumar Hirani for once again serving BFF goals with his lead pair. Here’s hoping Pedro finds his ‘crime ki khushboo‘ wherever he saunters, and may Pritam’s happy-go-lucky presence always make them an interesting pair to watch out for.
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