India, Sept. 4 -- I want to mention straight off the bat that I haven't watched the famed Bandish Bandits that everyone raved about when it was released. So I watched the eight episodes of its Telugu remake, Jagamae Sangeetham, with no baggage or hope that it would live up to its potential. The web series managed to hook me, bore me, move me, and dissuade me all within a few hours. While it has its heart in the right place, the web series needed some oomph to make it work.

The story of Jagamae Sangeetham is quite simple and set in Vaikuntapuram. There's the young and optimistic Balu (Akshay Lagusani), who wants to live up to his grandfather, Carnatic legend Shastri (Prakash Raj), and be a worthy successor. Pallavi (Sushmita Shetty) is th...