Anything that Avinash Arun trains his lens on (Killa, Paatal Lok) becomes a 360 degrees sensory experience, a world so immersive that it is hard to come out of. The question then is: will the story-telling be as compelling? ‘School Of Lies’, his eight-episode web-series now streaming on Disney Hotstar, keeps us engaged, more or less.School of Lies Season 1 Download
‘Main toh roz bolta hoon jhoot. Toh kya hua (I lie everyday, what is the big deal?)’, says a little boy to another at a private boarding school. It’s a statement that makes you smile, not just because the speaker is bathed in such guilelessness, but also because there’s so much truth in it. Some little boys (and girls) are expert liars and grow up to be even more expert manipulators. But there’s a difference, even if it is semantics, between a harmless fib, and a deliberate, hurtful lie whose consequences can spiral out of control.To lie is human. To acknowledge those lies, and face the consequences thereof takes gumption and courage. Arun’s series, set in fictional hill-station Dalton Town, delves into one of the most common human weaknesses, and comes up with a bunch of troubled, twisted individuals who feel real. What is striking is how it asks us not to judge any of these characters, but to present a series of extenuating circumstances which can force people to act in ways they have no desire to: some tragedies are accidents waiting to happen.It opens with a hook which sinks right in. Twelve-year-old Shakti Salgaonkar (Vir Pachisia) is absent from a class. He is not to be found in his dorm, nor in the infirmary. As the day wears on, mild concern turns into full-blown anxiety, and we begin meeting the characters who may or may not be directly involved, but are certainly hiding something: