Abhay Deol and Rajshri Deshpande's Trial By Fire on Netflix will be talked about for years to come

Not too many films or series possess the power to change lives. Trial by Fire, based on the harrowing first-person account of Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy on how they lost both their children in the fire that engulfed the ill-fated Uphaar cinema in Delhi on 13 June 1997, is the kind of rare work which makes the collective audience re-think its priorities in life.Neelam and Shekhar fought a lumbering legal battle with the big sharks of Delhi’s entrepreneurial ambit for eighteen years.They never thought of giving up, even when those others who had lost loved ones in the fire, backed out due to financial and emotional pressures.The seven tightly edited adroitly directed episodes (by Prashant Nair, Randeep Jha and Avani Deshpande) do not let the Krishnamoorthy’s down. Neither do Abhay Deol and Rajshree Deshpande who play the bereaved couple with dignity and understanding that has no room for over-sentimentality.The monstrously underused Deshpande is especially moving. Her refusal to shed tears in public (which is used against her in court) and her attitude of defensive despondency are so vividly portrayed by the actress, I felt this to be one of the most stark and unalloyed portrayal of grief and bereavement.It is also interesting how differently the two Krishnamoorthys handled their grief. While Neelam is aggressive and relentless in her quest for justice, Shekhar tends to hold back , to deflect his grief into drinking binges with old friends. There is a wonderfully conceived sequence where Shekhar tries to frantically hide the cake ordered for their (now deceased) son’s birthday ordered prior to his death.Trial By Fire doesn’t focus only on the inexpressible grief of the Krishnamoorthys. It diversifies its storytelling into the lives of others who were casualties of the devastating fire. There is a brilliantly enacted subplot about a poor electrician (distinctly portrayed by Rajesh Tailang) who is made to take the rap for the catastrophic fire. Tailang’s home, and especially wife, played brilliantly by Kiran Sharma, are those forgettable people from our social structure whom this series won’t allow us to forget.In comparison, Anupam Kher and Ratna Pathak Shah as a retired army officer and his truculent wife come out looking a bit stiff and artificial. Their fractured domestic life seems manufactured especially when Ratna Pathak Shah bursts out with, ‘Maybe I’d have liked to f…k somebody else.’ It is a totally out-of-character line.The final episode is devoted to recreating the panic pandemonium and destruction inside the movie theatre on 13 June, 1997. It a well-conceived finale which will haunt us forever, though the writers’ imagination runs a little towards the wilder side. What was the need of making up a little drama at the end about a gay couple caught in the fire?These are minor quibbles in a series which has so much to give and so much to take away in so little time. Trial By Fire is a remarkably honest and objective look at a ghastly human tragedy which was suppressed by money and muscle power. This series invokes the deepest respect for bringing back the burning truth about a tragedy that could have been avoided.Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.