New Delhi, Oct. 17 -- OTT lighting. Killer of scenes. Destroyer of aesthetic. The flat, boring, unengaged style that says, we know this looks terrible but no one expects better anymore.

If Akshay Shere's Bhagwat Chapter 1: Raakshas was a persuasively written and acted and directed film, it would still be sunk by its photography. At first I wondered if cinematographer Amogh Deshpande and the camera team weren't equipped to light closed spaces with finesse, or just couldn't be bothered. But scene after overlit scene made me reconsider. This felt like an order being carried out, instructions to keep things overly simple for some imagined consumer of OTT who'll flee at the first hint of a shadow.

Arshad Warsi looks thoroughly bored-and who ...