Aditi Roy’s Anusandhan, headlined by Subhashree Ganguly, is the latest entrant in Hoichoi’s slate of thrillers built around women who refuse to be silenced. The premise is solid — an investigative journalist pursuing a story inside a correctional home — and the performances pack enough punch to pull viewers in. But the execution doesn’t always live up to the promise.
Anusandhan is set inside Rooppur Women’s Correctional Home. We meet Anumita Sen (Subhashree), already an inmate and already broken in more ways than one. She is pregnant, injured, and trapped in the crossfire between two inmate leaders, Ammi Jaan (Arijita Mukhopadhyay) and Bilkis Begum (Swagata Mukherjee). On top of that sits the cold, calculating jail superintendent Victor Pakrashi (Sagnik).
From here, the series shifts between Anumita’s grim present and her past as a respected investigative journalist. She is sent to the prison to interview the influential political leader Narayan Sanyal (Shaheb Chatterjee), who is serving time, but still holds an unsettling sway. During that visit, Anumita stumbles upon a pregnant inmate being forced into an abortion. It’s a moment that shakes her, and it sets off a chain of events that bring her face-to-face with a larger conspiracy brewing behind the correctional home’s walls.
The pieces fall into place quickly — a disturbing video discovered by her fiancé Arnab (Hani Bafna), a sudden accident that leaves him in a coma, and pressure from various quarters for her to stop asking questions. Before long, Anumita finds herself behind bars, this time as an accused.
The premise has all the ingredients of a gripping thriller. And to the team’s credit, these elements come through strongly in the first half. The performances are the show’s biggest strength. Subhashree Ganguly is terrific as Anumita. She doesn’t play her as a heroic crusader; she plays her as someone who is scared but stubborn, hurt but unwilling to give up.
Shaheb Chatterjee makes Narayan Sanyal unnerving without raising his voice. Swagata Mukherjee and Arijita Mukhopadhyay are superb in their inmate-leader roles, and Aritra Dutta Banik adds a soft edge as Bhombol, Anumita’s assistant.
Ramyadip Saha’s cinematography paints Rooppur in muted tones, making the place feel damp and decaying. The sound design stays subdued but effective, adding weight without overwhelming the scenes. There is a constant sense of danger, and even when the plot slips, the atmosphere holds steady.
Where the show stumbles is in the writing. Each episode runs just over twenty minutes, and the story tries to pack too much into too little space. As a result, several important arcs feel rushed. Some characters simply appear without enough context. Key twists happen conveniently — clues fall into Anumita’s lap at exactly the right time, dangers strike at conveniently timed intervals.
Logic, too, takes a back seat sometimes. One can understand creative liberties, but a heavily pregnant woman scaling a gate during an escape attempt stretches believability.
This hurried pacing also affects the tension. The series wants to be a nail-biting thriller, but thrill comes from build-up and uncertainty. Here, things unfold so quickly that the viewer rarely gets time to settle into the dread.
Still, Anusandhan is far from a write-off. When it works, it works well. Its commentary on power, corruption, and the cost of speaking the truth is relevant.