What Is the Story About?
Set against the gritty backdrop of Kolkata, Brown follows Rita Brown (Karisma Kapoor), a fiercely resilient but disgraced detective battling severe alcoholism and deep personal trauma. When the high-profile murder of a wealthy businessman’s daughter shocks the city, a reluctant Rita is pulled back into active duty.
Teaming up with a grieving junior officer, she hunts a meticulous serial killer, forcing her to confront the city’s dark underbelly alongside her own buried demons.
Performances?
If you guys are early 90s-born, then you must know, or at least have heard of, Karisma Kapoor. She was undoubtedly one of the biggest actresses in Bollywood during the 90s and the early 2000s. But despite enjoying an illustrious career, Kapoor was never utilised to her full potential. She is undoubtedly talented, and ZEE’s Brown gives her a great opportunity to showcase her range.
It’s not like Kapoor leaves our jaws on the floor, but what we get is still impressive, considering her overall filmography brimmed with female characters who were either the hero’s romantic interests, glamorous avatars, comic relief, or damsels in distress. So, seeing her finally, after all these years, come out of her comfort zone felt good.
The best thing Karisma does is that she doesn’t go over the top. Instead, she restrains her mannerisms and emotions, and her subtle expressions land well.
The “battered, alcoholic detective” trope has now become an overused one. But Karisma doesn’t just play the character, she lives it, and that’s what gives Rita Brown some much-needed freshness.
She leans into a tired, internal exhaustion. Her body language is heavy, her face looks genuinely weathered, and she handles the character’s deep grief and addiction with a quiet, gritty realism. It’s a solid, mature comeback that proves she can handle dark, character-driven thrillers effortlessly, without needing any of the old Bollywood melodrama to make an impact.
Analysis
ZEE5’s Brown could have been another feather in director Abhinay Deo’s cap after Delhi Belly, but sadly, that isn’t the case here. The series takes inspiration from Abheek Barua’s novel, City of Death, and enters a very crowded room of Indian streaming thrillers.
It tries hard to distinguish itself from that crowd and attempts to take advantage of a grim, bleak and melancholic Kolkata setting. But if we strip away this setting, along with the hype of a big celebrity comeback, there is not much in the latest ZEE5 original series.
Karisma Kapoor undoubtedly emerges as the strongest asset of this series. Playing Rita Brown, a battered, alcoholic Anglo-Indian detective, Kapoor completely strips away her vanity to deliver a performance defined by restraint and quiet, gritty realism. And she receives strong support from Surya Sharma as her grieving junior officer, Arjun. Together, their chemistry looks natural and seamless.
Unfortunately, the actual writing rarely backs up the show’s lofty artistic ambitions, resulting in a whodunnit mystery that is remarkably weak and predictable.
If you guys have consumed a massive or even a decent amount of crime content, then you will likely spot the killer in this show from a mile away. And the writing gets dragged down further by clichéd tropes like the generic “influential family secrets”, “she is the only detective who can solve this case”, and “growing pressure from politicians and senior cops”, etc., etc. You get the picture!
The pilot episode opens with a solid hook, as we see the victim’s dead body hanging awkwardly and in a nasty manner in a bedroom. After this, the subsequent episodes begin with a retro-feel, stylised, dark flashback about the killer. Then, after the opening credits, we get to the main story, and the entire narrative gimmick becomes formulaic.
Brown can test the patience of a lot of viewers, as the first four episodes are slow-paced and basically throw us here and there instead of sticking close to the main storyline element, which is finding the killer. The series is only seven episodes long, with every episode averaging around 40-45 minutes, and it takes things seriously, but slowly, as well.
While the deliberate slow-burn approach works well in the initial episodes to establish a thick, neo-noir atmosphere, the show stretches its narrative far too thin across its seven-episode run, turning what could have been a tight, gripping miniseries into a sluggish crawl.
But Brown tries to raise the stakes by adding another murder from the same killer with the same MO. While it strengthens the characters’ motivation to catch the killer, we’re just not sure how much it will do to maintain viewers’ attention.
Director Abhinay Deo succeeds in treating Kolkata as an active character, draining the city of its typical cinematic warmth and replacing it with muted lighting, damp lanes, and a decaying, pale palette. However, his heavy focus on mood frequently comes at the cost of the thriller’s core storyline.
We also get improperly treated subplots along the way. In the beginning, we see Arjun and his struggles with his father, as well as his own battles with a tragedy from the past. However, Deo barely explores these elements, using them more as atmospheric details than meaningful story threads.
By the time we reach the finale, we just stop taking Arjun’s struggles seriously. In addition, plot developments associated with the Jaiswal family, Raju, Saikat, and others could have been handled better.
Also, Brown suffers from plenty of one-note and clichéd characterisations. There is not even a single supporting cast member who stands out, except Surya Sharma. Yes, there are scenes exploring Arjun’s personal battles, but they needed better treatment from Deo. Despite juggling plenty of important, sensitive and social elements, Brown surprisingly lacks strong gut-punching moments.
Even the finale is a letdown. The killer’s motive appears weak. For a show that spends hours building up a dark, psychological atmosphere, the ultimate “why” behind the crimes feels generic and dated.
Despite a committed performance from Karisma Kapoor and strong cinematography that captures a grim, neo-noir Kolkata, Brown struggles with a predictable mystery, sluggish pacing, underdeveloped subplots, and clichéd character arcs.
Other Artists?
Surya Sharma looks good as Arjun. He also delivers a restrained and controlled performance, while sporadically but effectively portraying conflicted and emotional moments. But his character and his struggles needed better treatment.
Soni Razdan and Helen do a decent job with what they are given here. Yes, they add some much-needed warmth and a bit of humour to the show’s overall dark and grim tone. But they are treated more like tools than characters, tools that exist merely to provide emotional support to Karisma Kapoor’s character, and are ultimately wasted.
Playing the victim’s psychiatrist, Dr Sandip, Jisshu Sengupta tries his best to layer his performance with intrigue. Unfortunately, the character is noticeably underwritten, eventually collapsing under the weight of artsy, over-explained monologues designed to force psychological depth where there is none.
The wealthy and powerful Dhiraj Jaiswal (Ajinkya Deo) and his second wife, Nonnie (Meghna Malik), embody cartoonish elite-class clichés. They operate strictly on the generic “influential family hiding dark secrets” template, bringing plenty of scowls but near-zero depth.
Paresh Pahuja also remains criminally underused. A dark and twisted character like Sanjay needed more focus and exploration, but Abhinay Deo missed this opportunity. Aryann Bhowmick looks good as the brash, arrogant and shady Saikat. His moments with Arjun are entertaining to watch.
And then we have Shaan. Well, we get a nice song out of him (thanks to his singing talent) and some decent flashback sequences. But his chemistry with Karisma Kapoor looks a bit off.
Music and Other Departments?
Cinematographer Amogh Deshpande does a brilliant job draining the life out of Kolkata. His use of muted tones, dim lighting, and decaying lanes creates a wonderfully moody, suffocating neo-noir atmosphere. The background score excels when the show focuses on dark or tense moments, but remains okayish for the rest of the show.
However, Huzefa Lokhandwala’s editing fails to maintain the thriller’s tension. The pacing is slow, stretching a thin plot across seven episodes with repetitive flashbacks. It looks polished, but the sluggish editing ultimately drains the story of any real momentum.
Highlights?
Karisma Kapoor’s performance
Good cinematography
Drawbacks?
Predictable, cliched, and thin mystery
Sluggish pacing
Formulaic narrative structure
Underwritten subplots
Weak and underutilised supporting cast
Lack of impact
Did I Enjoy It?
Nope.
Will You Recommend It?
Only if you love watching crime thrillers or are a fan of Karisma Kapoor.
Brown Web Series Review by Binged Bureau
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
