1000 Babies Review | An Engaging Serial Killer Tale That Withstands Rahman’s Flawed Malayalam

For a non-Malayali viewer, the new Hotstar series 1000 Babies, directed and co-written by Najeem Koya, will feel like an intriguing concept that keeps you interested because of the enormity of the central event. I am saying this because one of the major things that was bothering me while I was watching the series was how several characters, especially the central character Aji Kurien, played by Rahman, spoke in Malayalam. The logical inconsistencies here and there and the overall amped-up dramatic tone can be forgiven to an extent, but this error in judgment when it comes to casting is an evident flaw.

So in 2010, a woman named Sarah Ouseph, who had worked as a head nurse, was admitted to a hospital after she got severely injured. Before her death, she asked the doctor to bring an advocate and a police officer to the hospital. Sarah handed over two letters to both of them—one for the police and the other for the magistrate. What we see in the series 1000 Babies is the content of that letter and its traumatic, long-lasting impact, which caused problems in many people’s lives.

For a creative idea to materialize, the part of pitching the idea to the investors is a major step, and having a catchy synopsis is something very essential for that phase of the development. In the case of 1000 Babies, I feel that aspect might have been easier for Najeem Koya and his co-writer, Arouz Irfan. Even though the visual scale of this story is minimal, the psychological element, when you think about the repercussions of the heinous act, will make you think about the various possibilities. The episodic structure feels more interesting because the story becomes very exciting, as it was difficult to find the killer’s pattern because of the large data pool.

The dramatic stretching of the content from a bullet point level was slightly underwhelming for me. The story is ultimately a police investigation, and there are a lot of cinematic, familiar beats in the presentation of that investigation. Rather than the making style, it is the story’s development that keeps you invested in the series. The background stories of certain characters do not really bother the central idea as it has no direct connection. The digital wall and the way the special team operates sort of take away realness from the story. At one point, we see them getting furious about information about this top-secret investigation getting leaked. When they were discussing who that mole could be, I was like, dude, there are three folks sitting right behind you, and they are not deaf.

They say half the job is done when you cast the correct actor for the role. Almost three major characters in the series 1000 Babies felt like a wrong casting choice. In the case of Rahman, it feels more like they could have done something on a writing level to save that performance. When your lead actor is struggling to pronounce the words correctly, why are you burdening him with more and more sophisticated Malayalam words? Instead of making that character a Malayali, if they had made him a Rishiraj Singh kind of character and mixed more English words in the dialogues, that would have made the experience less annoying for the viewer. The second one on the list is Ashwin Kumar. He plays the role of a struggling scriptwriter, and there again, you see him stumbling on dialogues, and I really thought someone should have dubbed for him. The last one on the list is actor Manu, whose Palakkadan accent felt really exaggerated. In fact, the guy who performed the part of Kalesh delivered a more authentic performance.

Neena Gupta, as Sarah Ouseph, plays a very crucial character in the series with relatively less screen time. In terms of performance and choice of casting, she was perfect, even though the dubbing artist had a tough time getting the lip sync right. The most impressive performer, in my opinion, was Sanju Shivram, who played a key role in the series, and he was really good at portraying three different shades of that character. One could see the gradual evolution of that character in his performance. Irshad, Shaju Sreedhar, Adil Ibrahim, Radhika Radhakrishnan, Sirajudheen, Shalu Rahim, etc., were fine in their respective roles, while the performances of Joy Mathew and Dileep Menon felt a bit rigid, especially the dialogue delivery.

In terms of the way the series has been presented, there are flaws and familiarities. But like I said before, the scale of the idea is something deeply disturbing, and it actually has the scope to explore the unthinkable. So, in future installments, if they can think beyond the mocking of the right-wing and go for the grey and complicated implications of such a scenario, I think the series will manage to do justice to its enticing premise.