Sreejith N’s Malayalam web series ‘Masterpeace’ on Hotstar looks like a homage to Wes Anderson.
In the cinematic world, few directors have mastered the art of visual storytelling quite like Wes Anderson. With every frame crafted like a painted canvas and a color palette that capture your eyes.
Anderson’s films are a feast for the eyes and the heart. Don’t you remember ‘Amen’ by LJP filled with quirks, emotions, and political undertones. That’s another example of Wes Anderson style for those who are not aware of this brilliant maker.
This rich element of Wes Anderson’s visuals and narrative brilliance is the highlight in director Sreejith’s latest Malayalam web series, Masterpeace. Compared to Sreejith’s previous flick, ‘Oru Thekkan Thallu Case’ Masterpeace is a different experiment inspired by Wes Anderson style of storytelling.
Brief About the ‘Materpiece’
‘Masterpeace’ is a story about a young married couple, Riya and Binoy. They live in Kochi and have problems in their marriage. When they fight, their parents come to their home to help. But, the parents have their own ideas and want to be in charge. The show is satirical sprinkled with some serious moments. Most of the story happens in one day, inside Riya and Binoy’s flat.
Religion, feminism, Liberalism, Dowry, Gender Neutrality, Male chauvanism, Intolerance, LGBTQ+, stereotyping of people & even Nityananda swami 😉 . The list is long and never ending, I believe, you will find at least one one-liner from all these topics in a satirical way.
Why You Should Watch This:
A Masterpeace ‘Visual Treat’
As I said in the beginning, that Wes Anderson style is the biggest plus here. Masterpeace is beautiful to watch. The homes, the colours, and the objects in the series are chosen carefully. They make every scene look like a painting, and every artist on the screen looks like a caricature in that canvas.
The series has a special style, you can find a symmetry in every frame just like the way writer Praveen crafted ultra-dramatic characters and Understated or muted characters in every events.
A Unique Story
The series gives a close look at Indian families and how they deal with problems. It’s not just about a couple’s fight, but about how older family members try to solve things their way. This drama gave you some high hopes and entertainment value in the first three episodes.
Humour and Drama
There are many funny moments in the series. These moments feel like they are taken from real-life situations in many typical Mallu families. It will remind you of some family gatherings and personally I felt like it’s laughing riot especially for those who have some ultra orthodox family members.
Director Sreejith made a great comeback with this quirky satirical experiment.
What Could Have Been Better?
Length: While the series starts off exciting, it becomes long. There are five episodes, and each episode is more than 30 minutes. Some parts of the story feel repeated and could have been shorter or edited.
Repetitive Themes: The series with some frsh approaches on how older people behave and how their orthodox views contradict with the neo-liberals. But, after some time, it feels like the same things are shown again and again.
Narration Gaps: Sometimes the voice-over in the series was confusing and slow down the narration. I wondered why it was even there.
A Masterpeace Performance From Ashokan
The series centering around six characters and my biggest entertainment was Ashokan, he will makes you laugh a lot. He hasn’t acted in big roles for some time, but he made a comeback similar to what lalu Alex did in Bro Daddy.
Maala Parvathi also acts very well as a mother who likes to be in control. These two artists make sure that you won’t abandon this show in midway.
Shanthi Krihna’s & Renji Panicker’s muted characters were overshadowed by the other ultra-dramataic characters in the movie.
The music and camera work in the series are also very good. The director, Sreejith, has made the series look beautiful and quriky. But, it would have been better if the episodes were shorter.