Masoom review: Family skeletons are exposed in this absorbing yet murky drama

The black sheep of the Kapoor family, Sana (Samara Tijori), returns home from Delhi to find her mother Gunwant (Upasana Singh) dead under mysterious circumstances. The young woman, who has never seen eye to eye with her family, suspects her overbearing father Balraj (Boman Irani) is behind it.

Disney+ Hotstar’s Masoom (2022), an official adaptation of the Irish TV series Blood (2018), is set in Falauli, a village in Punjab, where the Kapoor family is well-respected. Balraj is a doctor at a nursing home named after Gunwant. But his wife’s death couldn’t have come at a worse time for Balraj, who is on the verge of contesting local elections and is also experiencing a bit of financial trouble.

As the family prepares for Gunwant’s last rites, Sana stirs up a hornet’s nest. Why is money missing from the safe at the Kapoor residence? What did Balraj try to dispose of away in the dead of night and what is his relationship with nurse Romi (Sarika Singh) at the nursing home?

Sana’s elder siblings have issues of their own. The oldest daughter Sanjana (Manjari Fadnis) is separated from her husband, while her brother Sanjeev aka Kittu (Veer Rajwant Singh) is closeted and wants to leave the country for a better life. Both of them admonish Sana for not letting sleeping dogs lie.

Masoom also weaves in snatches of Sana’s past memories that may or may not be reliable. Is she or isn’t she telling the truth? The six-episode series, written by Satyam Tripathy, often wavers between the two periods, which are inexorably intertwined.

The drama is grim and dark like the skeletons in the closets of most dysfunctional families, but while the milieu is apt for this retelling, there are a few loopholes in the storytelling. After introducing Balraj’s mistress Romi, the show doesn’t know what to do with her in the second half. The same is the case with the creepy uncle Manraj whose inclusion seems odd in the first place.

Irani, as the strong-willed patriarch, is all menace and darkness, adding a bit of ambiguity to his character as well, as we often see him from Sana’s biased perspective. The Kapoor kids are inherently flawed due to their upbringing and Tijori, Fadnis and Veer do well to highlight their constant anxieties. You just wish this family would communicate properly with one another, once and for all.

Upasana Singh is memorable as the late beloved mother whose illness consumed their daily lives. Manu Rishi Chadha also stands out as the local cop Ranjit Singh who is trying to make sense of Kapoor family affairs.

Director Mihir Desai keeps the action flowing in every half-hour-long episode, and the finale, at 40 minutes, ties up all loose ends and explains away most misunderstandings. But like the memories it presents as flashbacks in the series, Masoom is more murky than satisfying, despite the absorbing strands it raises.

Masoom is being streamed on Disney+ Hotstar.