She (TV series)

She
Promotional poster
Created by	Imtiaz Ali
Written by	Imtiaz Ali Divya Johri
Directed by	Arif Ali Avinash Das
Starring	Aaditi Pohankar Vijay Varma Kishore
Theme music composer	Ishaan Chhabra
Composer	Gaurang Soni
Country of origin	India
Original languages	Hindi and English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	14
Production
Production location	India
Cinematography	Amit Roy
Editor	Manish Jaitly
Production companies	Window Seat Films Inferno Pictures Viacom18 Studios Tipping Point
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	20 March 2020 (2020-03-20) – 17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)

She is an Indian crime drama television series created and written by Imtiaz Ali and Divya Johry. ^[1] Directed by Arif Ali and Avinash Das under production house Window Seat Films, the series stars Aaditi Pohankar, Vijay Varma and Kishore. It follows the story of a female constable who goes undercover to bust an underworld gang. ^[2] She premiered on Netflix on 20 March 2020. ^{[3] [4]}

Plot

She follows the story of a poor female constable in the Indian Police Force who has been inducted in the Anti Narcotics Group to fight a major drug lord. ^[5] As a part of the mission, Bhumika goes undercover as a prostitute in Mumbai city. Meanwhile, at home, Bhumika has to fight off her drunk husband and work on finalizing her divorce with him. She is the sole earning person of her family, with her mother battling an illness and her sister studying in college. The show depicts the idea that a woman's body can work well to control her surroundings.

Bhumika aka Bhumi is constantly struggling in her own thoughts living the moments over and over again. Sasya is captured with help of Bhumi and agrees to co-operate and become police informer but he has only one condition that he would provide information only to Bhumi. Before arresting Sasya, he and Bhumi have a brief intimate encounter where she enjoys it and re-lives that moment over and over again. ^[6]

Cast

• Aaditi Pohankar as Bhumika Pardeshi
• Vijay Varma as Sasya
• Kishore Kumar G as Nayak
• Vishwas Kini as ACP Jason Fernandez
• Saqib Ayub as Hemant
• Resh Lamba as Durga
• Vishesh Sagar as Kartik
• Sandeep Sridhar Dhabale
• Paritosh Sand as DCP Shishir
• Shivani Rangole as Rupa
• Ravish Desai as Amey
• Monika Dabade as Lawyer
• Suhita Thatte as Bhumika's Mother
• Sandeep Dhabale as Lokhande
• Dhruv Thukral as Deep
• Mohammad Ali Baig as ACP Alam
• Dilip Kumar Salvadi as Chinnana (Nayak's uncle)

Episodes

Series overview

Series	Episodes		Originally released
1	7		20 March 2020 (2020-03-20)
2	7		17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)

Season 1 (2020)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	1	"The Pickup"	Arif Ali, Avinash Das	Imtiaz Ali	20 March 2020 (2020-03-20)
Police officer Bhumi goes undercover as a prostitute to bust a drug cartel leader, but when the operation goes awry, she makes an unexpected discovery.
2	2	"The Proposal"	Arif Ali, Avinash Das	Imtiaz Ali, Manish Gaekwad	20 March 2020 (2020-03-20)
A visit from Bhumi's estranged husband angers her rebellious sister. Sasya agrees to cooperate in a police interrogation - on one condition.
3	3	"The Pawn's Move"	Arif Ali, Avinash Das	Imtiaz Ali, Manish Gaekwad	20 March 2020 (2020-03-20)
The team doubts Bhumi's mettle after Sasya manages to rattle her. Fernandez pushes to keep her as an undercover agent in a plan to nab Sasya's boss.
4	4	"Night Walk"	Arif Ali, Avinash Das	Imtiaz Ali, Manish Gaekwad	20 March 2020 (2020-03-20)
After going to dangerous lengths to prove herself, Bhumi is recruited into Fernandez's department, and begins to prepare for her risky new role.
5	5	"It's Time"	Arif Ali, Avinash Das	Imtiaz Ali, Manish Gaekwad	20 March 2020 (2020-03-20)
Newly emboldened, Bhumi seduces an unlikely target. Ahead of Nayak's arrival in Mumbai, Sasya attempts to gain police trust as an informant.
6	6	"The Promise"	Arif Ali, Avinash Das	Imtiaz Ali, Manish Gaekwad	20 March 2020 (2020-03-20)
With Nayak now in Mumbai, Bhumi is moved to a hotel under police surveillance, but her first encounter with the kingpin takes the team by surprise.
7	7	"Devil's Share"	Arif Ali, Avinash Das	Imtiaz Ali, Manish Gaekwad	20 March 2020 (2020-03-20)
In the wake of an unexpected complication, Fernandez doubts Sasya's loyalty. Caught off guard by a suspicious Nayak, Bhumi drops her own bombshell.

Season 2 (2022)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date  [7]
8	1	"The Test"	Unknown	Unknown	17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)
9	2	"The Tightrope"	Unknown	Unknown	17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)
10	3	"The Devil's Double"	Unknown	Unknown	17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)
11	4	"Samsara"	Unknown	Unknown	17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)
12	5	"Karma Cola"	Unknown	Unknown	17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)
13	6	"Dark Seduction"	Unknown	Unknown	17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)
14	7	"The Switch"	Unknown	Unknown	17 June 2022 (2022-06-17)

Controversy

In Season 2 Episode 1, the series portrays a character by the name of Ismail as the owner of a prostitution cartel dressed in the traditional attire specific to the Dawoodi Bohra community which sparked a controversy. ^[8]

Critical reception

Swetha Ramakrishnan from Firstpost gave credit to the cinematography of the series and applauded the cast performances. However, she further mentioned how and why she was disappointed with Imtiaz Ali on the plot. ^[9] Hindustan Times termed the series as sleazy and sloppy but hailed few instances from the series. ^[10]

Scroll.in appreciated the performance of Vijay Verma and highlighted that his character who was used to set up the events in the series was eventually sidelined at the end, which was disheartening. ^[11]

References

1. Arora, Akhil (4 March 2020). "Imtiaz Ali's She: Trailer, March Release Date Unveiled for New Netflix Series From India". NDTV. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
2. "In Netflix series 'She', an undercover constable takes on a ganglord". Scroll.in. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
3. "Aaditi Pohankar's Netflix series 'She' is about a female constable taking on a drug cartel". The Hindu. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
4. "Netflix drops power-packed trailer of Imtiaz Ali's crime-thriller 'She'". The Free Press Journal. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
5. "She Review: Women Deserve Better Than This Netflix Series". NDTV.com. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
6. "She Web Series Review Netflix Series | A Perfect Review". 23 May 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
7. "She on Netflix". The Futon Critic . Retrieved 8 June 2022.
8. News, Nagpur (23 June 2022). "Dawoodi Bohra community strongly condemns some scenes in Netflix series". Nagpur Today : Nagpur News. Retrieved 3 July 2022.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
9. "Netflix's She review: Imtiaz Ali's streaming debut could have been an intelligent thriller if not for its inherent male gaze". Firstpost. 23 March 2020.
10. "She review: Imtiaz Ali's bad luck spills onto sleazy, sloppy new Netflix series". Hindustan Times. 20 March 2020.
11. Ramnath, Nandini (20 March 2020). "'She' review: Profane games and limp erotic thrills in Imtiaz Ali's first web series for Netflix". Scroll.in.

External links

• She at IMDb