Tabbar is a slow but intense thriller
Tabbar (Family)
SonyLiv
Episodes: 8
Family, that’s what Tabbar means and in this slow but engaging, not to mention moving thriller, family is the centre of all wrongdoings. However, director Ajitpal Singh has so skillfully woven the emotions into the murders that he compels you to not just understand the killer’s situation but also empathise with his plight.
Pegged on the middle class family of a retired cop Omkar, his two sons, wife Sargun and his extended family of an elder brother, the series slowly unfolds into a drama that you could call a thriller or vice versa.
The director’s courage to go so deliberately slow needs a mention here as does the uniqueness of this story where an accidental death of a don’s brother at the hands of Omkar’s elder son leads to a series of unbelievable incidents in which this otherwise simple family gets mired.
Supriya Pathak, the wife of the retired cop, is as usual a brand of unneverving authenticity even though it’s her husband Pavan Raj Malhotra who holds forth as the proceedings get murkier.
Malhotra (Omkar) is an aspirational father who wants his elder son to become an IPS officer for which he sends him to Delhi for coaching classes. But what starts off as an accidental bag exchange by this son, leads him and his tabbar into a cauldron from which neither you as a viewer are able to divert attention nor is Omkar able to walk away unscathed.
It’s the pace that is stunningly mismatched with the proceedings and the eight episodes gently tugs you into binge watching the short but intense series. The director and the actors, not to mention the writer, have diligently lent the right ambience to this murder soiree. The landscape of small town Punjab, the social mores, the language and even the characters themselves bring the story alive and make it so real time that you forget it is fiction.
Sargun (Pathak), a loving housewife with Diabetes, gives the most moving moments to the series along with her husband who is the centrepiece of the story. Malhotra’s under-done histrionics suit his countenace and he keeps a tight control over his emotions all through, emerging as an undetected menace till very late into the story. Sargun, who displays shades of Lady Macbeth almost convinces you with her benign behaviour that foul can be fair and fair can be foul sometimes.
Also, the climax is the best part of the series which shows up Omkar as both the ultimate protector of the family as also its ultimate destroyer.
The series is watchable and carries within its almost still and calm belly, all the thunder, lightning and storm that any murder thriller can possibly want. A miss if you miss. Quite some watch if you watch.