Shantaram: Web-Series, did it live upto the Expectation?

Shantaram Book, is probably one of the best Novel one can read, and I had already written a separate review post of the Book. So this web-series was undoubtedly one of the most awaited series for all the Book lovers. Most people who watched and reviewed, had a positive review, but a few had negative reviews too. I too, as someone who have read both of the books, have had a few critical observations, so I thought why not write a more detailed review over it.

Being a Novel, which runs in 900+ pages, and still manages to be one of the most loved Novel, it can surly be difficult to portray perfectly in a web-series, that too, when the first Season is just 12 episodes long, and the story surly seems to be shortened, changed, adapted a bit, so as to suit the shorter time period of the web series. So while the expectations of the readers were huge, the web series makers, seem to have had some limitations in front of them.

Keeping all that in mind, did the web-series live upto the expectation? To answer that, let me first note down a few of the peculiarity of the Book which had made it stand apart from other Novels and made it so loved by its readers:-

1. All the main characters of the Book, were migrants in Bombay and had own troubled past. Their commonality had made them gravitate towards each other.
2. Some of the relationships are beautifully portrayed in the Book; viz. Lin - Prabhu, Lin - Karla, Lin - Lisa, Lin - KhaderBhai, Didier - the group. 
3. The Book is full of philosophical talks among these pair of people. Some of those talks, look meaningless and nonsensical too while reading. But most of the talks, which are more in the form of philosophical debates, look so profound. In my view, this was the most outstanding aspect of the Book. There were several quotes, with which one can relate to so much.
4. Lin & Karla's relationship is what stands out in the Book. How they talk, the situation between them, the arguments and debates they have, all that is so lovely in the Book.
5. Lin-KhaderBhai-Abdullah's story too is great, and so is Lisa's story.

So coming to the review of the web-series now, for me, what was most important was, how well did it portray the key elements of the Book. For example, Lin & Karla's love story was one key element, Lin-Prabhu, and their stay in Bombay's slum was one key element, the philosophical talks in Book was one key element, the Lin-KhaderBhai-Abdullah's story and the gang war, was one key element. 

There have been a few hits and couple of misses, but overall, I loved the web-series. 

I loved it because I loved the Lin-Karla portrayal, their relationship has been portrayed beautifully. Antonia Desplat has perfectly played the role of Karla. Her emotions, her expressions, everything looked so perfect. When Karla confides in Lin, about her past, as to how her father had committed suicide and she is still angry at her father for that (that he didn't consider her worth living for), when Karla tries to help Lin without informing her, when they have some philosophical talks, all these moments are so touching, so lovely.

Overall, in other places too, philosophical talks- usual sentences which hit so profound- are in abound. There are such talks between Lin and KhaderBhai too.

Lin's stay in slum and his brotherly/friendly relationship with Prabhu, is nicely portrayed. His urge to help others, to come out a better human being, is so relatable.

What also stands out in the web-series, and which was not so much focussed in the book, is the aspect of Lisa and her relationship with Karla. Lisa and Karla's die-hard friendship is portrayed so nicely in the Book. Lisa being so careless, and Karla being so caring about Lisa, was quite a thing to watch.

Where the web-series missed to focus, was at KhaderBhai and Didier. In the Book, Didier was shown to be central character in the group, always in picture, but here he is pushed a bit back from centerstage. KhaderBhai's role is not so prominent. First of all, the physical persona of Alexander Siddig, is completely out of place, compared to the portrayal of an imposing personality of KhaderBhai in the Book. His physical appearance, his voice, his walking style, everything just doesn't match with how a reader will imaging the KhaderBhai's character to be. So that was a big miss. Also, due to time constraint, it looks the web-series could hardly focus on the gang war aspect, so the entire Lin-KhaderBhai-Abdullah story left a lot to be told.

That said, for me, the dealbreaker aspects, as I mentioned, were the characters of Lin, Karla, Prabhu, Lisa, which are portrayed nicely. In particular, I loved the portrayal of Lin and Karla's story. In fact, contrary to how it happens in the Book's story, in the web-series, it almost ends at a positive note (except for those last few seconds! :( ). But barring those last moments, didn't it feel satisfying to finally see Karla and Lin in love with each other and not shying away confessing the same to each other :)

So keeping all that in mind, I loved the web-series. Of course, with a better cast, longer play time, higher budget, they could have created a much better web-series, but in its current duration, isn't it a nice web-series? I think it is, and I would highly recommend everyone to watch it. Here is my imdb review of the same.