TOOTH PARI: WHEN LOVE BITES SEASON 1

When it comes to vampires, Bram Stoker was perhaps the most influential author who described some of their features as well as what attracts or repels these nocturnal hunters. These features were subsequently modified and used in books, series and films like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Interview with the Vampire, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, or What We Do in the Shadows. In Pratim D Gupta’s vampire-verse, the connection to Bram Stoker lore is noticeable but there’s also a good deal of Bengali pop culture references, reminiscent of films like Barfi or Jagga Jasoos. A case in point is the name, Ora (a pun on ‘they’ in Bengali), who leads the vampires residing ‘down under’. Moreover, the concept of beings in a parallel space has similarities to the premise in Anik Dutta’s Bhooter Bhabishyat, especially when it comes to the framing and colours. Blue, black and green are used to create dark circles under the eyes, or add a pale, sick effect to the skin.

The series begins with Rumi (Tanya) going out on a hunt for blood. Unfortunately, she breaks a canine while trying to drink a man’s blood and thus begins her quest for a dentist. She ends up consulting Dr Roy (Shantanu) who faints at the sight of blood. Enter, a gang of humans called Cuttmundu (another pun on both the Nepal capital and the Bengali words for severed head). Headed by Luna Luka (Revathy) (Italian for ‘light of the moon’), this gang finds and sends vampires down under and they find out about Rumi’s accident and resolve to stop her. The situation gets complicated from there on, where love and the lust for blood collide and the authorities get involved.
Among the actors, Tanya as Rumi is beautiful with her big dark eyes and wide smile, but her chemistry with Shantanu is quite lukewarm in the series. Shantanu, as the uncertain Roy, is twitchy and often whiny and his mother’s ‘Babushona’ starts becoming a tad annoying rather than endearing overtime. Moreover, a dentist who faints at the sight of blood is a rather implausible idea, as dentists, like any medical practitioner, need to pass quite a few tests involving surgery and blood before earning a license and certificate. As his father, Rajatava Dutta is hilarious, while Saswata Chatterjee as David, Rumi’s so-called second life giver, is a combination of love and sympathy. Tilllotama Shome plays an elegant Urdu-speaking seductress but leaves one cold since her dialogues and her ‘adaa’ don’t quite gel.
On the other hand, Adil Hussain (AD) plays the controlling connection between the worlds of humans and vampires with elan, while Revathy is a treat to watch as Luna Luka, the chief of the Cuttmundus. Her appearance has some distinct similarities to a popular wiccan from the City of Joy, too. Anjan Dutt in a brief role is a treat to watch, while as his son Kartik, Sikandar Kher is perhaps the one whose character, with all its defiance, angst and anger, is the best written one in the series. And Sikandar fleshes it out well, playing the tired cop and son to perfection.
Though there are a number of interesting things to look forward to in the series, the script itself feels scattered and quite slow, especially after the first two episodes and straight down to the fifth. Moreover, a lot of the attempts at tongue-in-cheek humor maybe lost on someone who’s not so interested in the nuances of Bengali but is eager to get on with the story. But the story takes its own sweet time to unfold. If at all. Even the continual mix of Hindi, English and Bangla in the dialogues feels unnecessary at times, and the characters switching from Hindi to Bangla is a bit of a drag, as the subtlety of the original dialogues is lost in the subtitles. This is perhaps why Tooth Pari isn’t able to hold on to the suspense and could have been a much better watch with crisper editing and a tighter script