‘Dupahiya’ review: In comedy series, best-laid plans are destined to go awry

A village in Bihar is well on course to bucking the state’s reputation for lawlessness. Dhadakpur – the “Belgium of Bihar” – hasn’t seen a single crime in 24 years.

Though money is tight and some Dhadakpur denizens have dreams of fleeing to Mumbai or Delhi, nobody feels compelled to pick another’s pocket. Panchayat member Pushpalata (Renuka Shahane) is expected to receive a promotion as a reward for nearly a quarter century of good behaviour.

So the theft of a motorbike purchased for a wedding expectedly leads to hysteria. Banwari (Gajraj Rao), who has borrowed money to pay for the two-wheeler, is beside himself. The nuptials of his daughter Rohini (Shivani Raghuvanshi) are a week away.

Banwari’s son Bhugol (Sparsh Shrivastava) teams up with his friend Amavas (Bhuvan Arora) to find the bike. Although the village tries to keep the news under wraps, police inspector Mithilesh (Yashpal Sharma) gets wind of the robbery.

A fan of pulp novels with lurid covers, Mithilesh declares that he can solve a murderer by the fifth page. But Mithilesh takes a while to understand who would want to ruin Dhadakpur’s fair name, and why.

Dupahiya is no hurry to get to the bottom of the mystery. Written by Chirag Garg and Avinash Dwivedi and...

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