Pharma Review: A Bitter Truth, Diluted
Before we go any further, there’s something that needs to be said upfront. Pharma positions itself as a provocation, an attempt to shake complacency around an industry protected by credibility and clinical language. The subject is timely, the intention is sincere. And yet, despite all this, Pharma never quite lands the blow it’s clearly aiming for.
This isn’t because the series lacks material. On the contrary, the world it enters is among the darkest corporate ecosystems imaginable where ethics are negotiable and human lives are often treated as acceptable collateral. The tragedy of Pharma is that it approaches this moral abyss cautiously, almost politely, when rage, discomfort, and moral chaos were required.
KP Vinod, played by Nivin Pauly, is not introduced as a hero or a villain. He is ambitious,hungry, hopeful, and desperate for upward mobility. The pharmaceutical industry doesn’t corrupt him overnight; it absorbs him slowly. Like Promotions replace principles.
The show briefly understands that the most dangerous corporate crimes are committed by people who convince themselves they are merely “doing their job.” Meetings filled with rehearsed empathy, conference rooms echoing the same hollow corporate vocabulary, CEOs who speak of damage control as if they’re discussing logistics Pharma gets this tone disturbingly right.And yet, it stops short of fully weaponising it.
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Nivin Pauly’s return to a grounded, dramatic space is welcome. As Vinod, he internalises guilt rather than externalising rage. His performance is restrained, sometimes admirably so, sometimes frustratingly muted. The arc from an eager medical rep to a morally burdened insider is believable, but never explosive. See this isn’t a failure of acting; it’s a limitation of writing.We are told he’s shaken, compromised, changed but we rarely feel the weight of that corrosion. The series wants him to stand in the grey zone, but doesn’t push him deep enough into moral quicksand.
Shruti Ramachandran brings quiet authority and conviction to Dr Janaki, grounding the series whenever it threatens to drift. Rajit Kapur, as Dr Rajiv Rao, lends credibility and intellectual heft, though the character itself is underwritten more symbolic than fully alive. Narain enters later with measured gravitas, doing more with silence than some characters do with monologues.
Binu Pappu deserves specific mention, his portrayal of corporate mentorship equal parts charm and menace is one of the show’s sharpest observations. He represents the system perfectly not overtly cruel, just dangerously normal.
Writer-director PR Arun clearly knows this world. His non-linear structure, spanning nearly two decades, smartly mirrors how corruption outlives individuals while replacing faces. The opening single-take sequence is technically confident and thematically sound throwing Vinod into a system that never stops moving.
Arun avoids melodrama, which is commendable but in doing so, he also avoids fury. The whistleblower narrative unfolds with caution, opting for familiar beats over unsettling truths. The fictional drug KydoXin is meant to be the moral trigger, especially in its impact on vulnerable populations like children and pregnant women, yet the writing treats it more as a plot device than an existential horror.
Abinandan Ramanujam’s cinematography is among the show’s strongest assets.The visual language matures as the narrative darkens, even if the story itself doesn’t always keep pace. The background score however, rarely elevates tension. It exists, functions, and fades never pushing scenes into discomfort. Similarly, the editing lacks urgency. Important revelations arrive without impact, and timeline shifts feel abrupt rather than disorienting.These technical choices collectively blunt the series sharpest edges.
Well, Pharma ultimately falls into a familiar Indian expose trap, sincerity without savagery, The villains are recognisable, the conflicts are predictable. The courtroom climax arrives exactly when expected. For a story about systemic evil, the series is strangely courteous.This is especially glaring in an era where global medical dramas have shown how deeply unsettling such stories can be when they embrace moral chaos instead of narrative comfort.
Here, Pharma is important. It raises the right questions, identifies real dangers, and exposes a system that thrives on silence. But it lacks the narrative audacity to truly disturb. The pill it offers is bitter, yes but it’s coated just enough to make it easier to swallow. And maybe that’s the most ironic flaw of all.
Because when you’re talking about an industry that profits from half-truths, side effects, and buried data, playing safe isn’t just a creative weakness it’s a moral one.
