‘Anya’s Tutorial’ web series review: Nivedhithaa Satish and Regina Cassandra perk up the horror drama

For nearly four episodes, the horror is limited to the moody setting and nothing much happens. At one point when a character asks Anya aka Lavani aka Lavanya (Nivedhithaa Satish) to switch on all the lights in the room and comments that the dark, brooding lighting is misleading, it rings apt. 

However, the writer-director builds curiosity about the happenings in Anya’s Tutorial, the protagonist’s social media channel that is centred on makeup tutorials, until a turn of events changes the channel’s identity.   

In the series, the eeriness does not come from manipulative jumpscares. The isolation of COVID-19 lockdown coupled with fractured familial ties sets the stage for a horror drama. 

Some of the stock elements are in place, like a flickering bulb, leaky pipe and broken mirrors. Yet, underneath the atmospherics is a story (screenplay and story by Sowmya Sharma) that goes back and forth to explore the childhood of sisters Lavanya and Madhu (Regina Cassandra) who are left to fend for themselves by their single mother who is exhausted, frustrated and annoyed at having to toil to make ends meet. In a rundown place that is supposedly haunted, Lavanya as a child feels the presence of strangers. Madhu is frustrated at being unable to attend regular school and instead, having to tend to a hallucinating younger sister. 

The layers peel rather slowly and call for some patience in the initial episodes. The payoff is in the form of characters that are not squeaky clean. Emotional, hurt and bruised egos ensure that bygones are never treated as bygones. Small touches such as Madhu refusing to address her sister as Anya and sticking to Lavani add to the tussle between the characters. Child actors Nanditha and Divya as well as the adults, played by Nivedhithaa and Regina, make these complex characters work. Given her experience, Regina is effortless in portraying her anger and concern and is impressive when she enters the frame. Nivedhithaa comes into her own in the later episodes, enacting Anya with horror-inflicted grace. Watch out for her transformation in the last two episodes.

A large chunk of the credit for making the series watchable goes to the technical team – art directors Abhishek Raghav, Tirumala and Nagendra; sound designer Gautam Nair; music composer Arrol Corelli, editor Raviteja Girijala and cinematographer Vijay K Chakravarthi.

Appreciably, the story uses the online tutorial space to comment on content creators who seek to exploit a situation and the large population that inevitably binge-watches, irrespective of whether they agree or disagree with the content. 

The series leaves questions unanswered, with ample scope for the story to be continued in Season Two. Not all of Anya’s Tutorial is convincing or absorbing, but as it progresses, it emerges as one of the better series in the Telugu-Tamil digital space.

(Anya’s Tutorial is streaming in Telugu and Tamil on Aha)