2023 Web Series - Choona

Choona refuses to be boxed into one genre. It’s a heist thriller, but it’s also a political satire, a social drama, and a slapstick comedy. One moment you’re tense during a wire-transfer scene; the next, you’re laughing as characters debate the authenticity of a fake planetary alignment.

Title: Choona Year: 2023 Platform: Netflix Language: Hindi Genre: Heist / Dark Comedy / Thriller Director: Pushpendra Nath Misra

The story revolves around a common enemy: Avinash Shukla (played by Jimmy Shergill), a ruthless and superstitious politician who operates with an iron fist. The narrative brings together a motley crew of outcasts, each wronged by Shukla in some way. choona 2023 web series

Leading the pack is Shashi (Vikrant Massey), a street-smart man with a penchant for lies and deception. He teams up with a sharp-witted shape-shifter (Monika Panwar), a hacker, a locksmith, a transporter, and an orthodox Hindu priest. Their goal? To rob Shukla of his massive illicit fortune stashed away in a secretive vault.

Unlike Money Heist or Dhoom, where plans are executed with military precision, Choona thrives on disorder. The team plans to "choona lagana" (to deceive or hoodwink) the politician by exploiting his superstitions and the systemic corruption around him. The show focuses as much on the "why" as the "how," exploring themes of caste, power dynamics, and the desperation of the marginalized. Choona refuses to be boxed into one genre

Choona is not a conventional heist story; it is a "revenge-heist" narrative heavily laced with satire. The show borrows heavily from Western tropes—most notably the Ocean’s franchise and Money Heist—regarding the assembly of a team with specific skill sets. However, it indigenizes these tropes.

The narrative structure relies on non-linear storytelling and exposition-heavy episodes that flesh out the backstories of the seven protagonists. The show utilizes the concept of the "impossible heist" not just for thrills, but to highlight the absurdity of power dynamics in India. The target of the heist is not a bank, but the illegal accumulation of wealth by a politician, symbolizing a direct attack on systemic corruption. The story revolves around a common enemy: Avinash

Visually, Choona adopts the vibrant, chaotic aesthetic typical of the North Indian heartland (the "Cow-belt" cinema aesthetic). The dialogue is laced with regional dialect and profanity, grounding the show in a specific socio-economic reality.

However, the series is not without its flaws. The pacing is deliberately slow, prioritizing character study over constant action. While this allows for emotional investment, it occasionally stretches the narrative thin, with the actual heist taking a backseat to exposition in the middle episodes. The use of a narrator to explain plot points is a divisive stylistic choice that risks treating the audience as passive consumers of information rather than active participants in solving the puzzle.