Chiraiya takes on the uncomfortable, often avoided subject of marital rape in India. The JioHotstar show is based on the idea that marriage itself does not imply consent. For a while, Chiraiya really bends into that discomfort. But what starts off as a character-driven drama with a very quick setup slowly turns into something more heavy-handed and less satisfying.

The six-episode Hindi series is based on an idea by Soumyabrata Rakshit, created by Divy Nidhi Sharma and directed by Shashant Shah. Set in Lucknow, the story follows Kamlesh (Divya Dutta), the ideal daughter-in-law in a tightly-knit clan led by the scholarly Papaji (Sanjay Mishra).

Kamlesh takes pride in tradition, in knowing her place, and in ensuring that others do too. She dotes on her younger brother-in-law Arun (Siddharth Shaw), almost like a son, and shares a loving marriage with her husband Vinay (Faisal Rashid), which only strengthens her belief that the system works. She thinks nothing of the fact that she overindulges Arun, compensating for her own disappointment at having given birth to a daughter.

Things begin to shift when Arun’s new bride, the “woke” Pooja (Prasanna Bisht), enters the household. It soon becomes clear that she is being forced into sex within her marriage. Pooja’s resistance is brushed aside...

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