Directed by Rohan Sippy and created for India by Goldie Behl and Priya Jhavar, Mithya runs six episodes long. But it may have been better to compress it into a 1.5-hour long movie.

Set in Darjeeling, Mithya centres around Juhi Adhikari (Huma Qureshi), a professor of Hindi literature, and Rhea Rajguru (Avantika Dasani), her student. The series starts with a standoff regarding plagiarism between the teacher and her student. While Juhi Adhikari wants her to learn integrity, Rhea Rajguru is hellbent on revenge for such a damaging accusation, or so it seems. Both, however, have one thing in common–the struggle to make an identity of their own in the shadow of a famous father.

The tone of Mithya is set from the beginning. It’s dark and mysterious with a flawed protagonist and an excessively creepy antagonist. When Juhi’s husband, Neil (Parambrata Chattopadhyay), is found murdered, the real story starts unravelling.

The first episode moves at a great pace and is gripping. But from the second episode, the series starts faltering and doesn’t really capture your attention. Instead of a gripping story, we are handed a plotline that gets far too predictable with unrealistic angles. When Rhea, a student, starts getting a bit too close to her professor and her professor’s husband, it’s difficult to believe that a relationship like this would even be allowed to get this far.

While the story drags on needlessly, the viewer can pretty much predict what the main characters are going to do next, especially if you’ve watched your fair share of the murder mystery genre. Most of the shock moments don’t really make the intended impact and it becomes monotonous, after a while, to wait for moments that you know are coming.

Avantika Dasani makes a promising debut as a young girl with a traumatic childhood and the desire to seek revenge. Huma Qureshi is fairly unremarkable in the series and does not deliver the kind of performance that we know she’s capable of. Parambrata Chattopadhyay is not unpleasant in his portrayal of a confused man caught in the middle of a dark secret. At several points, you do end up feeling sorry for how Neil is used as a pawn in the show. If that was the only purpose of the character, it was achieved.

If you’re looking for a murder mystery that won’t take up too much of your attention or time this weekend, Mithya is a decent watch. But if you’re expecting a gripping story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, this is not it.

Mithya is streaming now on Zee5.

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