Hunkkaar reminded me of Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s Dahaad (2023), which co-incidentally also translates to “roar”. There might be a reason for it, since Mehra and Kapadia are products of the same studio and have assisted Akhtar and Kagti respectively. But there’s a glaring deficit in ability, which reveals itself in an early episode.

A man, seemingly defeated by life, is seated in Baapji’s (Raghubir Yadav, as a godman) communal gathering. Baapji asks him what he does for work, and he says he “cleans toilets, does labour work.” When he’s offered to become a member of Baapji’s family, his eyes fill to the brim and we see his gratitude crystallise into a dangerous, fanatical loyalty. It happens too quickly here, as against a similar scene in Dahaad – where a man searching for his missing sister gets recruited by Hindutva forces fanning the flames of the ‘love jihad’ conspiracy theory. Compared to Mehra and Kapadia’s show, it felt more organic and intuitive in Dahaad.

Hunkkaar begins with 17-year-old Meenu Rawat (Aneet Kaur Padda) alleging she has been sexually assaulted by Baapji. Living in a fictitious town in Madhya Pradesh, where Baapji is essentially god, there couldn’t be a more blasphemous claim in the eyes of the town. But, Meenu, escorted by parents Dharampal (an excellent Rajesh Sharma) and Vaishali (Charu Shankar), help file a first information report against the godman. A young ACP Jasleen Singh Soin (Fatima Sana Sheikh) is handed this as her life’s first case, with the hope that she might fumble.

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