Cast: Bobby Deol, Aaditi Pohankar, Darshan Kumaar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Vikram Kochhar, Tridha Choudhury, Anupriya Goenka, Tushar Pandey

Director: Prakash Jha

Rating: **1/2

Platform: MX Player

MX Player's 'Aashram' is the story of the biggest scams that are conducted in India in the name of religion. If you are aware of any such scam in real life then you can easily relate to this series. The story revolves around the merchant of religion, Baba Nirala (Bobby Deol) who traps poor and innocent people to increase the number of devotees to make his own kingdom and grow his influence in the state politics.

The story begins with a girl Pammi (Aaditi Pohankar) who is one of the sadhvis of Baba's aashram when she brutally hits few other workers and this is the scene which makes you question and think what's wrong and why is she doing so. This is when the series takes you to flashback where you find out who this girl is what her journey is, along with other characters of the story.

Correspondingly, a new case comes along when a skeleton is found in the city while doing construction digging work on the forest land which has its own story to reveal. What happens further brings to the forth some very dark and dirty secrets about the aashram, the conman Baba Nirala is, and the nightmares he keeps seeing that don't let him sleep peacefully at night.

Filmmaker Prakash Jha who is known for talking about social issues has tried to highlight this mainstream topic but seems like he has lost his Midas touch that we saw in films like 'Gangajal;', 'Apaharan' and 'Raajneeti'. The theme that he had at his disposal does not do justice with the content that we see on our screens.

The screenplay is slow and it stays like that till the 6th episode picking up after that to become a bit engaging. Cinematography is beautiful as the view of the Godman's ashram even the little aspects have been taken care of which can be seen clearly.

In the lead role of the Godman Baba Nirala, Bobby Deol has made authentic efforts to get into the skin of his character, His expressions are commendable while talking like a saint, his calm and composed stature is convincing and the cunning smile is what completes the look.

Apart from him, Darshan Kumaar as a cop with a 'who cares' attitude who later witnesses a change of heart and Anupriya Goenka as Dr Natasha have done some impressive acting and leave their mark. In fact, their love angle is seen at a few points that is adorable and add some masala in the series. All the other actors also deliver appreciable performance.

However, the editing part can disappoint you because the first few episodes are very slow and at few points, you might feel that the story is exaggerated and the question when this whole thing will be over?' might come to in your mind. And if you expected to see some real incidents being portrayed here then sorry, you will be disappointed.

The makers of Aashram want you to come back so the series leaves you with a cliffhanger. There are many dark secrets that are yet to be revealed and for that, the second season will be out soon (If you would still want to see that after finishing this one).

All in all, Aashram has tried its best to benefit from the Dera Saccha Sauda case as much as it can and you will also find many similarities but what you hope to see is what is missing here. In the end, it all depends on your expectations too, what you are anticipating from the series.