The first season of Sujoy Ghosh’s Netflix series Typewriter, kicks off chillingly. In the sleepy and susegad-hit Bardez in Goa, three school kids and their beloved dog seem to be the only hyperactive souls around. Members of a self-formed ghost club, their dream is to see and nab one for real. There is a haunted Bardez Villa close at hand that promises to set things off in motion, when a family of four shifts from Mumbai and lets the ghost out of a storage carton, so to speak. The first couple of episodes are tight and pacy with a menacing mood, way-out characters, inexplicable happenings, gory killings, a ghost-written book and an old typewriter ticking away disturbingly, adding to a lurking fear.

Soon enough explanations pile on, past gets dredged out, revenge motif laid out, bonds between seemingly disconnected people are established by joining the many dots and mythology gets mixed with mumbo-jumbo on a blood-moon night in a clumsy finale. In the process the narrative gets unwieldy. Why weave in a subplot, which has to do with the marriage of the Bardez Villa couple? It feels needless... but then there is the possibility of the second season ahead where it’s likely to get fleshed out.

Ghosh has a way with creating inscrutable characters that make his stories edgy. On top of it, there is a consummate set of actors (special mention for Jisshu Sengupta and Palomi Ghosh) whom Ghosh harnesses well, be it the kids, the elders or the ghost-buster dog. It felt unfair, however, that in a series with a bunch of 10-year-olds leading from the front, only those above 16 are allowed to click on the play button.

It’s worth a stream.

– Compilation