Shoorveer (2022)

Military shows are notoriously not my scene. It’s a genre I rarely, if ever, seek out so I walked into Dinsey+ Hotstar’s Shoorveer with very tempered expectations, and my attitude towards it remains tempered after having finished it as well.

Shoorveer’s story is simple. India is under attack; the threat is unknown but deadly. Who’s going to save the day? A new team of specialized officers and their hard-ass commander/ captain/ boss (you get it). Sounds familiar? It’s because it is. Most of us have seen how this story plays out a hundred times. We know the character archetypes we’re going to see and how the story will conclude from the get-go. In that regard, Shoorveer brings nothing “new” to the table. It's your typical military drama.

However, there is something to be said for good execution of beloved tropes and, despite what I may think, Shoorveer tries its best to cater to its audience. Do you want the lone wolf with a chip on his shoulder? Shoorveer gives you Viraj Sehgal (Armaan Ralhan). Do you want the badass female pilot? It gives you Avantika (Regina Cassandra). Rivals, friends, and villainous terrorists? Check, check and check.

While the characters and the plot may be predictable the actors, for their part, try to sell their performances. I particularly enjoyed watching Manish Chaudhary as the unflappable GC Ranjan. He embodied his character and sold his motivations quite well. The rest of the cast did a serviceable job, though there were moments when the acting and dialogue delivery felt awkward and stilted( the whole Fighter and Razor thing had me cringing a bit).

In terms of plot, as I mentioned before, you can see the twists and turns coming from a mile away. Despite that, the show's dialogue help keep the content fresh, and Shoorveer, for the most part, manages to stay clear of excessive cheesiness and deliver something interesting enough to make you keep an eye out for season 2. Falling back on the tried and tested to establish characters and their dynamics is not new, but I hope to see the creators pushing the story in more unpredictable directions in the coming seasons.

So, if you're in the mood for a simple military drama without all the mental math of figuring out who dun it and what's going to happen next, Shoorveer, with its relatively short run-time, might be a good fit. However, if you’re looking for something to blow your mind and keep you on the edge of your seat, maybe look somewhere else.