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Taranath Tantrik review: Q’s Innovative horror series comes short of becoming a classic, thanks to his indulgences

Gandu director Qaushik Mukherjee, more popularly known as Q, has come up with a Bengali occult horror web series titled Taranath Tantrik. The series deals with the origins and supernatural experiences of an elderly astrologer named Taranath, a self-proclaimed student and practitioner of the Tantric arts, and who, having failed to achieve the highest level of mastery over said arts, now lives an austere life telling fortunes and narrating stories from his life to a duo of eager listeners.

Based on the series of short stories written by veteran Bengali author Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (the series was later completed by his son Taradas Bandyopadhyay), Q’s version is a retelling of sorts, while keeping the spirit of the original intact. While there are several brilliant elements that the series can deservedly boast of, it does suffer from the indulgences that its maker is known to take — wherein the vessel seems to become more important than the content. But if you are willing to make your way around such known issues and willing to invest in the series, you will realise that it is one of the very few original and innovative projects that we have seen in the desi horror space in recent years.

Broadly speaking, the series can be divided into two parts. There are a few episodes (out of a total of 10) which are devoted to the life of Taranath — his origins, his difficult tutelage under various gurus of the dark arts and his experiences with love, spirituality and carnal desires. The second can be described as the various ‘cases’ which come his way, in which his help is sought to cast out a malicious spirit or explain a mysterious paranormal phenomenon. The second category is also how he earns his livelihood. The Second World War is on, two young men — a writer and his friend — become acquainted with the titular tantrik and are immediately captivated by the richness of his experience, and the way he tells his stories. They keep going back to him, and he keeps telling them stories — either for the love of his favourite brand of cigarettes, or to get a long-standing load off his chest. It becomes obvious right from the beginning that between the two members of the audience, it is the writer who is more skeptical and irreverent. But the tantrik does not seem to mind, apparently, for he knows how shallow the knowledge of these two city-slickers is. In fact, he seems to enjoy the irreverence at times — it seems to work as a welcome departure from his otherwise fruitless and uneventful life….Click here to read the full story