Mysteries in the Mist
I am not a regular viewer of Netflix or Amazon prime, but two web series and one film captured my viewing interest. What got me binge watching these, though not in one go, was a combination of familiar location and local actors coupled with compelling stories and engaging drama.
The first I watched was "The Last Hour", a mystery story based in Sikkim, with glimpses of a familiar school: Dr Graham's Homes in Kalimpong. The story revolved around a local shamaan or Jhakri, who uses his uncanny sense of the nether world for solving the mystery.
The second, a movie, called "Jaane Jaan" with the recurring theme of murder mystery in the mist, this time featuring a Darjeeling school: Mount Hermon. The mathematics teacher in this movie, uses his dogged persistence in solving maths problems to become part of the murder mystery solution.
The most recent one "Pataal-lok-Season 2", another murder mystery story shot on location in Nagaland. The location in the final episodes seemed familiar: Dr Grahams' again.
These two schools, Mount Hermon and Dr Grahams are sister concerns, and it was said on winter evenings the bon-fire in these schools could be seen by each other across several hills.
What the movie and the web-series feature, apart from the scenic back-drop often enveloped in mist and mystery, the underlying portrayal of local culture, the almost laid-back attitudes and the simple-yet-complex nature of human spirit of the local people of North-east India, are things that still tug my heart. In many ways, they take me home and to my school (one of the two mentioned above), the winding mountain roads spanning tea gardens and fir trees and the eternal, elusive mist with so so many mysteries hidden beneath.
This post is my own book mark, should I want to watch them again; and here go some trailers of the web series...
The Two Schools across the Darjeeling and Kalimpong Hills:
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