4 min readSep 24, 2026 01:05 PM IST
A new-born baby vanishes from a hospital, leaving a devastated mom, who makes it her life’s mission to keep looking, even when time elapses and hope fades. She would have stopped if it hadn’t been for a painful annual reminder: she isn’t given the luxury of forgetting.
The premise has enough juice for it to power through 7 episodes, each 35-45 minutes long. It’s Parineeti Chopra’s web show debut, created by Rensil D’Silva and Sidharth P Malhotra, and directed by the former. The ensemble exudes promise. And the location is Shimla, the town claiming its actual name, which instantly lifts it from the spate of fictional towns we are being besieged with these days.
Exhausted after the delivery, Anvita (Parineeti Chopra) is surrounded by a happy bunch — husband (Tahir Raj Bhasin), mother-in-law (Soni Razdan), and a couple (Sumeet Vyas and Harleen Sethi), clearly close enough to be celebrating the birth. But within moments, the joy turns into shocked misery: the baby girl goes missing as she is not in the nursery with the other infants, the first port of call; the CCTV in the corridor isn’t working; and the investigating cops, led by the doughty Anup Soni, turn up nothing useful.
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Even though Shimla has been such a popular destination in the movies, there’s something about the hills which make you feel that there are spots right behind leafy trails where mysteries lurk. Sure enough, there’s a baba-tantrik type in the undergrowth, whose job it is to cast evil spells. A human trafficking ring is flourishing, to which the otherwise alert cops seem oblivious. Tribal women are being used as surrogates. Illicit affairs are being carried on, with at least one party admitting that they knew all along, and another professing deep surprise.
Clearly, there’s a lot going on. But as it winds its way around the bends of the very busy plot, stuffed with characters who appear straight-forward but who, keeping with the tone and title, harbour dark secrets, it becomes clear that the show doesn’t want you to work hard. The continuous little reveals are presented along with spelt-out motivation followed by explanatory dialogue, with a few loops on repeat: for a woman struggling with unprocessed grief, grabbing at baby girls, and breaking down hysterically, can’t just be done once. When this happens with yet another mother (Jennifer Winget), everything starts to unravel even faster.
Contrivances in a show like this are never the problem, because yes, babies do disappear and yes, some people never really recover, and yes, of course, strange things happen all the time. But you have to make those twists convincing: the zeal to keep the hard-working Chopra— looking as natural as she can, never buried under make-up — in the forefront means that the other parts feel undercooked.
Shaque Trust No One reminds me very much of your standard undemanding Harlan Coben shows: the actors are all competent, and there are some moments of suspense, but the outcome stays determinedly mid.
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Shaque Trust No One cast: Parineeti Chopra, Jennifer Winget, Harleen Sethi, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Anup Soni, Soni Razdan, Sumeet Vyas, Dhruv Chaudhary
Shaque Trust No One director: Rensil D’Silva
Shaque Trust No One rating: 2 stars