Aashram Review: With Bobby Deol's Solid Presence, Prakash Jha's Digital Debut Is Nothing If Not Bingeworthy

Aashram Online: Watch Aashram Webseries Online

Cast: Bobby Deol, Aaditi Pohankar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Anupriya Goenka, Tridha Choudhury, Tushar Pandey and Vikram Kochchar.

Director: Prakash Jha

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

You know you are bang in the middle of Prakash Jha territory when politics, democracy, policing, encroachment of forest land, reservation, the caste system - yes, the whole jingbang and then some - are repeatedly invoked in a story crammed with dizzying twists and turns. 

In Aashram, an MX original series that packs quite a punch, the veteran producer-director adds religion to his pet panoply of socially grounded themes and not a day too soon.

Aashram is Jha's first full-fledged foray into the web space. He uses the length and leeway that the medium allows to reflect upon the infiltration of blind faith into India's public life and its deleterious consequences. 

The nine-episode series rests on the theme of a manufactured personality cult. It explores the nuts and bolts of the bulwark of andh-bhakti (blind faith) from which a godman's power flows and gnaws away at the vitals of the heart of a society with multiple faultlines.