Gangstars, created by Nandini Reddy, is a quirky comedy set against the backdrop of the Telugu film industry where a chaotic work environment on the sets of a film lands its lead characters in a big mess. Directed by Ajay Bhuyan, the Amazon Prime series has several popular stars from Telugu cinema - Jagapathi Babu, Navdeep, Swetha Basu Prasad, Siddhu Jonnalagadda, Posani Krishna Murali, and Rahul Ramakrishna playing important roles, along with newcomer Apoorva, and Shivaji. While the series offers its share of hilarious moments, it falls prey to the paradox of storytelling - It’s entertaining as long as it doesn’t try to tell a story, and once it does, it goes all haywire.
The series is about KD - Kumar Das - a notorious gangster (Jagapathi Babu), who will do anything to recover his money from people who owe him. One day, he’s told that he might die soon due to cancer and his world turns topsy-turvy all of a sudden. Since he has amassed a lot of wealth, he’s advised to invest in a movie to turn his black money into white. And this decision intertwines his life with four other principal characters of the show - Ajay (Siddhu Jonnalagadda); Keerthi (Apoorva Arora); Vishwa (Navdeep); and Aishwarya (Shweta Basu Prasad).
For a show which delves into the process of filmmaking, and the quirky characters that inhabit this world, Gangstars offers some genuine laugh out loud moments as long as it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Take for instance, there’s Pala Subramanyam (Posani Krishna Murali), a milk producer-turned-movie producer, who has a track record of producing several blockbuster films. The first time he appears on screen and claims that he isn’t a benami for any politician, it reminded me of a real life incident where similar allegations were made on a noted Telugu film producer. Another time, when Vishwa (Navdeep), popular actor, refuses to follow instructions from a choreographer (Dhanraj), this too comes across as a dig at the high-handedness of actors on movie sets.
Among others, there’s Varun Sastry (Mirchi Sastry), a prototype of every filmmaker who wants to be in the good books of the lead cast. The film that Vishwa and Aishwarya are part of is named ‘Love You Raja’, a reference to Posani Krishna Murali’s famous catchphrase. However, all this fades in comparison to another character Red (Rahul Ramakrishna), who dreams of becoming a movie star and amassing more followers than Shahrukh Khan on Twitter. Rahul Ramakrishna is one of the primary reasons why Gangstars works, to an extent, and the actor, who shot to fame with Arjun Reddy, brings his verve to the forefront once again. There’s a memorable scene where he recites a few dialogues along with Aishwarya (Shweta Basu Prasad), who loses her cool instantly. If that doesn’t make you chuckle, then there’s very little else that the series offers to make you invest in the characters.
The series was originally meant to be a feature film; however, with multiple characters in the fray, it was deemed to be a potential idea worth expanding into a series. The problem is that there’s very little in Gangstars which does justice to what it sets out to achieve. Initially, it begins as a story of KD and his quest to reform himself; and all of a sudden, it becomes a story of Vishwa and Aishwarya’s turbulent relationship, while Ajay and Keerthi grapple with their own feelings for each other. There’s very little backstory to each of the characters and even when the series offers an insight into how much their lives have changed, it doesn’t stay with you. It feels like there are multiple storylines and themes all vying for the same space. At times, it takes itself too seriously and we see that in the long sermons from Posani and Annapurna about the brutal truth of filmmaking and stardom. In other instances, the characters are absolutely clueless about what they are doing, especially towards the latter half of the show. Ajay Bhuyan, director, manages to connect all the threads and concurrent subplots in the end, but the ending itself feels too rushed and out of place.
In the end, Gangstars feels like a missed opportunity to create something unique and charming. It has its moments, when it takes a sly dig at the film industry, but when it focuses on its own story, it becomes too self-aware of what it wants to do and it never finds its groove. It’s nearly four hours of content, split into 12 episodes, but even then, Gangstars leaves you with a feeling that it has barely scratched the surface of its own potential.