Tooth Pari: When Love Bites – Better get Bitten by a Mosquito than this Vampire

Dr Khusi Pattanayak

First things first, as a fan of fantasy genre I am glad to see mainstream Indian film-makers experimenting with magic, vampires, witchcraft, folklore etc. (remember Brahmāstra, 2022?). I wish to see more such content marinated with local flavours. But unfortunately, Tooth Pari (Hindi, 2023) is not appetising enough.

At a certain juncture in the web series, a muggle man follows a lady with supernatural powers. Somewhere in the metro station, right next to a pillar, he lost track of her. As he looked at the pillar in shock and groped, a secret door opened and the man walked in.

No, this chase sequence is not set at platform 9¾ in King’s Cross Station. This takes place in Kolkata.

In another key scene, one character sarcastically remarks – have you been watching too much of Hollywood movies? I have a feeling the writers wrote this dialogue during a moment of self-reflection; because if you are into fantasy and supernatural genre and have watched a decent number of Hollywood, Korean, Japanese, and other available popular movies, and series you know Tooth Pari (Hindi, 2023) is hopelessly unoriginal.

The basic premise revolves around familiar and successful trope- a rebel female vampire falls head over heels for a human dentist and must kill a powerful witch for the sake of love.

It was good to see how the web series has upgraded the vampire world. While the vampire narrative is littered with the ancient popular clues- garlic, sliver, sun rays etc., we see blood reaching the vampires through blood bank so that they don’t have to go out hunting unnecessarily causing trouble to human species. Pratim D. Gupta’s (director) vampire world is technologically advanced. We witness hibernation pods, gaming zone, gym, electricity and what not in the underground world; though no mobile phones.

The availability and advancement of innovation has not only made the lives of vampires interesting; it has made easier for web series like Tooth Pari to incorporate cool VFX that keeps the entertainment quotient high. The only lament – wish the major action sequences did not exude a sense of been-there-seen-that!! There are some smartly packaged political commentary and references – colonialism, patriarchy, morality, society’s obsession with certain professions – none of which find enough space to grow.

Other than a handful few happy exceptions, the series remains largely uninspiring. The screenplay is slow beyond redemption (even playing at 1.5x speed doesn’t hurt the dialogue delivery!!) and the ending is rushed.  Most of the actors are underutilised – Revathi, Saswata Chatterjee, Tillotama Shome, Anjan Dutt, literally everyone; and Adil Hussain with that dreadful wig and beard – absolute horror! Moreover, why was he made to / insisted on sounding like a caricature of Big B from Piku? The only two actors who manage to steal the attention are Sikandar Kher and Shantanu Maheshwari.

The vampire group felt moving in an eerily familiar territory like the bunch from the Bengali movie, Bhooter Bhabishyat (2012) – non-human species from various timelines and various interests are put together in a single place. For a series dealing with revenge and animosity, there isn’t enough adventure, suspense or action; not to mention there isn’t enough love either.

Like a true Indian series, that intends to continue for multiple seasons, this season ends with a promise for season 2. If you are a fan of vampires, have crush on Tanya Maniktala, willing to forgive a weak screenplay and a dentist who refuses to wear mask while attending patients, you can watch Tooth Pari on Netflix.