Cybercrime for dummies

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who a show is for.

- RAJA SEN

Pritam and Pedro, a new buddy-cop series produced, written and edited by Rajkumar Hirani (JioHotstar), feels so elementary in its cyber cops-and-robbers storytelling that it, surely, must be for children. It is, indeed, a vehicle for Hirani to showcase his son, Vir, as a leading man, the Pedro of the title. As a show to amuse children and inform them about the perils of online addiction, this series could be considered sweet and well-intentioned enough... but then Pritam and Pedro throws in the swear words, as if mandated by the streaming networks, and this series lands in no-viewer’s-land: not suitable for children, not likely to keep grown-ups engaged.

We’re told Pritam is a “cyber-genius.” His crime-solving skills—which seem largely simplistic, often built on coincidence and Truecaller records—endear him to a Goa policeman Pedro, played by veteran Hirani bumbler Arshad Warsi. The two form an unlikely alliance taking on peculiar odds in order to solve kidnappings and retrieve old tape recorders. All while another “cyber-genius” waits in the wings.

There is something here, in the concept of a Crime Branch policeman who hates being transferred to the Cyber Crime department, a man of action forced to reckon with keyboard warriors and scammers. Unfortunately typing his password to boot up his computer is an effort for Pedro, which basically signals how this show’s idea of online malevolence is considerably childish.