The makers of Mastram, the web series (like Mastram himself), sell the sex in the stories of Mastram, and lose sight of the fact that the show is about the writer as well.

To blatantly put it, it’s exactly what’s running in the writer’s head all the time. Of course, there’s no chance that a show about Mastram will not have sex in it.

When any filmmaker attempts to narrate the true story behind the popularity of Mastram series that enjoyed never-seen-before readership across Hindi readers in the country in the 80s, you sincerely hope it would be done for the right reasons (especially in the web form) – to delve more into the mind of the writer, how he finds inspiration for his stories, handles fame and stays sane (despite his wild imaginary streaks). The likes of Nehal Vadoliya, Harshita Kushwaha, Murari Kumar get very little to do too. Jagat Singh as the creepy uncle has good screen presence, but the poor characterisation doesn’t help him add much value to the show. Tara Alisha Berry has a long way to go with her acting skills – the performance remains very superficial and perfunctory. Vipin Sharma perfectly fits into the shoes of the greedy publisher – he builds upon the notoriousness of the character with subtle glances and expressions effectively. The ease which he lacks is exactly what Aakash Dabhade has – he is an absolute hoot as the friend of Mastram. However, there’s a sense of inhibition and the submission to the role feels incomplete on a certain level as well. Will he ever be able to discuss ‘Mastram’ with her at all? Performances?Īnshuman Jha plays Mastram well and makes a genuine attempt to understand his psyche. Complications arise when he falls in love with a girl. The way he looks at life isn’t the same anymore – he sexualises almost anything and everything under the sun and channelises his sexual awakening into writing and not action. Rajaram, still apprehensive of the move, adopts a pseudonym Mastram to pen a pornographic fiction series that would go onto witness unforeseen fame. It takes a friend for him to understand that ‘sex always sells’ regardless of the form. Yet, time was running out, he was making very little money and his publisher only had a simple suggestion to offer – write something ‘masaledaar’.

Rajaram could have been any other aspirant Hindi writer in the 80s endlessly waiting to get his literary magnum opus published. Skin and swear: Contains Several Lovemaking Sequences, Has Strong Language What Is the Story About?

Mastram characters