Bard of Blood review: Superb cast. Series? Not so

When Emraan Hashmi's Kabir Anand is not fighting enemies on dangerous territories, he is teaching William Shakespeare, and his importance which he himself did not know of when he was a child, to school-going students. The series Hashmi is acting in, however, is no Shakespearean play, for it suffers from major issues -- more dramatic that the titles given to the seven episodes in the first season, all borrowed from the bard. 'Bard of Blood', based on Bilal Siddiqi's largely unknown novel of the same name, derives much of its inspiration from the 'Bard of Avon' for it calls its hero -- the battered Anand -- Adonis. What 'Bard of Blood' could have taken a chill-pill with would be Islamophobia and Xenophobia -- especially in today's day and age where the world, especially the East, is demanding for more progressive cinema. 'Bard of Blood' suffers from major flaws -- sloppy writing, a script totally devoid of humour, listlessly directed sequences and irresponsibility when it comes to politics -- major enough to drown performances by Hashmi, Dhulipala and Singh in deep waters.