“Office”, the Tamil web series has made its official ingress in JioHotstar on February 21, 2025 (Friday) with four episodes running within 20 minutes each. The whole series is directed by “Heartbeat” fame Abdul Kabeez. The previously released promos and posters prepared the audience that this series is flavoured majorly with comedy, romance, unforeseen problems encountered in a government office every day and a pinch of multiple emotions.
Office – Storyline [Episode 1-4]
The initial four episodes are like a prelude, they introduce all the lead and supporting characters one by one. Then the story navigates towards the group of villagers who are marching towards the Tahsildar office with weapons to demand for water supply. Meanwhile, we are introduced to two parallel situations. One is a chaos whirling at the Tahsildar office between the staff who are in search of keys and on the other end the lead character Pari, an IT employee is introduced. All the three different worlds now coincide with each other when Pari reaches the “Tahsildar Office” as an IT employee but is misunderstood as District Collector. The raging villagers finally arrive at the office. Then, the series gears up for a compilation of confusion, laughter, anger, and acquaintances that takes place within these four episodes.
Office: Episode 1-4 Review
One of the stand alone qualities which impressed me is that all the jokes and comedy doesn’t have any subtext humours or any vulgarity. It is easy to add on such ambiguous humor but the team has taken into that consideration which needs a huge appreciation.
The early episodes which are taken to set the mood and for introducing the characters to the audiences look good. It is not packed with a bag of gags but brings smiles & giggles. When we turn the spotlight towards the characters & their performances, the popular Kollywood actor TSR Srinivasan comes first. He plays the role of Deputy Tahsildar, his usual drag and drop style of delivering the dialogues, the funny face reactions are flamboyant and makes us laugh. The overall performance of all the lead and supporting characters is adequate for what is needed, and it doesn’t exceed the range of over acting or doesn’t fall within the ray of wooden performances.
Some of the sequences such as between Pari and Indhu, the then lovers who are now parted their ways, encounter after a long time and they exchange words of fury and sarcastic taunting which makes the series appealing. And other characters played by Sarithiran, Keerthivel, Thamizhvani, and Rahul grab the attention of spectators whenever they appear.
Office – Hype vs Reality
Though it brings smiles, it lags in the initial drive and the tedious screenplay is stretching the story thin. Some of the characters like a Jamin who arrives to show off and even the character of Kemy serves no purpose and it looks pointless. The logic is also diluted with this character because no government office has a woman who is completely in modern outfits. Every office has a basic dress ethics, though it is a liberty of art it seems detached. Some of the jokes seem to be cliche and forced. It loosely gives the vibe of the previously released series “Panchayat” and “Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam”.
Office – Verdict
The genre of comedy in movies is common for the majority of the audiences but when it comes to web series it varies. It may not fulfill the mass audience. So, this series is a one time watchable content, preferable for all the ages. The glimpse of upcoming episodes shows that this series will get more engaging with new subplots.
