Hi Friends,
The Last Hour is the latest web series launched on Amazon Prime Video Platform on 14-May-2021 and I watched the same yesterday night in a single go. The location is something you will definitely like as it's some time whose name is not shown but you can see some posters with Gangtok written on the same. The 8 episode long series stars Sanjay Kapoor, Raima Sen, Shahana Goswami (Rock On fame), Karma Tapaka, Shaylee Krishen, Robin Tamang and some more characters. The introduction titles are really nice and showcase a lot of beautiful mountains getting covered in clouds and the valley of trees creating mysterious and terrifying effects with the background music that keeps you glued to the screen of your tablets, smartphone or even TV.
Sanjay Kapoor plays a Senior Cop who has been transferred to the North East region to solve some of the cases of murder and rape. He comes across a young Shaman played by Karma Tapaka who glues the whole series together. I am still not sure why he practices Archery in the jungle where there is not even a single arrow fired during any of the fight sequences later in the episodes. It's just a lot of mysterious drama that has been created around him as a person. He could even see the dead Raima Sen who plays the wife of Sanjay Kapoor died in a car accident. Shaylee plays the daughter of Sanjay Kapoor who eventually falls in love with Karma and Karma is also attracted towards her. She looks really beautiful and there is a chemistry developing between the local cop Lipika played by Shahana and Arup.
Karma's character Dev is able to talk to the dead within the first hour of their death and can tell who killed them or so which Sanjay's character Arup decides to use for catching up on all the criminals despite all the police and security forces available to them. Till the end of the series, they are not able to get hold of the criminals and then the series takes a turn which keeps you guessing as to what has happened and will there be a second season. The 8 episodes are a little bit boring as he goes and tells the guys who killed them and this goes on in all the episodes. One time just to showcase the strength of Arup as a senior cop, he solves the case without Dev telling him who is the murderer. There has been no showcase of why the policeman was corrupt in the first episode or maybe I must have missed the plot.
This web series is a lot between the life, afterlife and reversal of time to recheck the series of events in past as well as future. Some of the characters can see the future, some can see the past, some can see the ghosts and some are just plain humans like me trying to understand what the director and story writer is trying to tell us and show us. Sanjay Kapoor's way of holding the gun doesn't seem like a policeman - he should have taken some lessons from Priyanka Chopra of Quantino fame or his own brother Anil Kapoor of 24 fame. If you remember the movie Baar Baar Dekho, you will feel the pain of watching this one with the story moving forward and backwards again and again. The police are just doing the work after reaching the spot later after the murder is completed and not able to catch just 2 guys who are all behind this drama played by Robin named Yama Nadu. There must be mysterious tales around Shamans in the northeast which the director tries to bring to the notice of people. Yama Nadu can see into the future of people and starts charging money as a fortune-teller. Dev has the power to see the last hour of any person dead which Yama Nadu wants so that he can change it and can also become immortal or at least change his death.
This web series is not fully developed and the expectations due to the trailer are not fulfilled at all. It's not like ASUR and doesn't even have great execution. They could have compressed the story to 6 or fewer episodes and kept it mysterious with some great ending. A lot of time is spent in the afterlife version of yellow background with a boat coming to take the soul to the next birth or so with no conclusions. This is something you should watch at your own risk though the acting is good by Sanjay, Karma, Shahana and Kaylee. In the end, you will just think as to what the director wanted to showcase and why the police could not catch Yama Nadu? RATING 2/5