Escaype Live… The ugly and dangerous side of social media…

Directed by: Siddharth Kumar Tewary.
Story: Jaya Mishra, Vinod Sharma, Ranveer Pratap Singh, Amol Surve, Siddharth Kumar Tewary.
Cast: Siddharth, Javed Jaffry, Plabita Borthakur, Aadya Sharma, Shweta Tripathi, and others.

Social media is just the perfect medium to connect with people, express opinions, showcase talents, write stories, to earn money, to show one’s beauty and lifestyle and what not?

But does social media have an ugly and dangerous side too? Absolutely yes, and how and in what way?

One can understand very easily by watching this series. From young to old, boys to girls, men to women, poor to rich, everyone in general are influenced by social media in one way or the other.

But the ugly, dangerous and terrible side are undeniable too. It’s a must watch if we use social media in our day to day life.

Escaype Life: What is it all about.

Escaype Live is a 9 episode webseries and it’s about an app named Escaype Live, originally from China which lands in India.

It asks people to make video contents live, and in return it pays the content makers money if the audiences like and give diamonds.

Looking at the popularity of the app, the app announces a contest of 3 crores which will be given to the winner.

Millions from the slums of Mumbai to the entire part of India take part of India take part in it to win the prize. That’s the plot of the webseries.

The Story.

The main story is the app Escaype Live itself, and the fallout of its usage by the users and the consequences the users face, and also to what extent the users go to become popular through the app is the main substance of the story.

There are many stories inside the main story, a 10 years old girl who becomes the victim of the glamour world.

She wants to be famous through her dance but little she knows that she would be used by many to earn money at her cost, even by her very own uncle.

Her childhood is taken away, she is given hormone injections to look like hot and grown up woman.

She does not even know what is happening to her because of her innocence and by seeing the glamour world. This one story is hard hitting but true in every sense.

Another story is from the holy town of Varanasi, a transwoman trapped in a a male body, his only dream and task is to make his very own and the world to realize about his condition.

The character has been performed excellently by Rohit Chandel, he looks so believable.

And there is a young girl from North East, played brilliantly by Plabita Borthakur. She looks sizzling hot in the show with her antics, she uses her body to attack views and becomes popular among those who like to watch her in revealing outfits.

She has her own dark story though, how her own boss exploits her and the racial discriminations towards the people of North East is being shown in real.

A boy from the slum of Mumbai, can go to any extent to become famous and rich. His dream is to come out of the miserable life he and his parents are having.

He would do any stunts for the sake of winning the competition, he does not mind doing life threatening stunts too. What happens to him and his story is beautifully shown.

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And a psycho, can even kill people for his pranks, another real looking story which should not be revealed at all.

And the main protagonist, played by Siddharth, does have his own story too.

He works for the Escaype Live app and clearly does not agree with the tactics used by the App, the mal practices for growth and being popular for the users are absolutely no no for him.

What he does and what are the consequences are shown well. Siddharth does have a personal angle too, his personal story and his beliefs are covered well.

What is wrong in the series?

Too many stories within a story, too many characters, sometimes it can be felt that each story could have been explored more.

But it would have been way too long a series which could have bored the audiences.

Performances

The performances by the ensemble casts are incredible. Everyone has given their everything for the show.

No character looks not real. Javed Jaffry in a pivotal role makes the series even more watchable.

Siddharth in his very sensitive and nuanced character excels very well. The little girl played Aadya Sharma is just unbelievable. Plabita Borthakur is too good in her role.

About the message of the show.

The series does show the ugly and the dangerous side of social media. Social media, since its inception has been a great friend for everyone across the world.

But social media undeniably has many dark sides which are so dangerous.

Instant fame, social media sensation, viral and so many other reasons some people can do anything.

Social media is fun but only when it is used in a sensible way, otherwise anything can happen. Watch it to know it.

Escaype Live, Where to watch?

It’s available in Disney+ Hotstar.

By Nandan Chetry