What Is the Story About?
Disney Plus Hotstar’s new Indian original series ‘Kaala’ centres around the scourge of money-laundering and corruption in India. IB officer Ritwik Mukherji (Avinash Tiwary) gets tip-offs from a secret informer about massive money-laundering taking place in Kolkata. As he goes after the kingpin Naman Arya (Taher Shabbir), his informer Adinath Bagchi is murdered.
In a parallel storyline unfolding in 1988, Indian army officer Shubhendu (Rohan Vinod Mehra) is on the run after being accused of turning traitor and murdering eleven of his army colleagues. How are the two storylines connected?
Kaala is created, written and directed by Bejoy Nambiar, co-created by Shubhra Swarup, and co-written by Shubha Swarup, Francis Thomas, Prayas Gupta and Mithila Hogle.
Performances?
Kaala is the kind of series where every actor is just about adequate in their roles. No performance is brilliant or breathtaking; each can be called just a shade above average. Avinash Tiwary as a relentless IB officer is efficient and watchable. Nivetha Pethuraj, as his colleague Sitara, is decent; as are Danish Aslam as IB boss Himanshu; Rohan Vinod Mehra as Shubhendu; Elisha Mayor as Aaloka; Anil Charanjeett as CBI officer Danish Khan; and Taher Shabbir as Naman.
A few actors do manage to stand out among the huge ensemble cast. Hiten Tejwani as Bismil is quietly self-assured; while Jitin Gulati’s as Balwant is a memorable turn. But both aren’t outstanding by any standard.
Lastly, a couple of performances are downright caricaturish and exasperating. First of the two is Mita Vashisht’s, as the CM of West Bengal. It’s quite obvious who the character is modeled upon; and the result is particularly annoying.
Second is stylish filmmaker Qaushik Mukherjee, aka Q, who plays a ruthless assassin in the series. He doesn’t utter a word in the entire runtime, but his overall look and mannerisms are enough to set your teeth on edge with irritation.
Shakti Kapoor and Priyanka Bose are saddled with badly-written, clownish roles. Mini Mathur makes a blink-and-miss appearance in an inconsequential role, and you wonder whether the character was even required. Shruti Seth is utterly wasted in her ultra-short role, as is the uber-talented Saurabh Sachdeva.
Analysis
Kaala is the perfect embodiment of the adage “too many cooks spoil the broth”. With not one, not two, but five writers giving life to the story of Kaala, it’s no wonder that the ultimate result is a gross mish-mash in the name of plot, structure and tonality.
Kaala starts off well, grabbing our attention swiftly and surely in the first episode. A couple of episodes in, though, as more and more characters begin to make their presence felt, the story inexplicably begins to lose its way. Most of the time, the narrative of Kaala careens wildly between engaging and exasperating. It also toggles between multiple timelines, from 2018 to 1988 to 1971, paying a visit to 1996 and 1998 — and also all the way back to 1965!
After a while of the non-linear style of storytelling, it becomes quite difficult and cumbersome to keep up with the era and time in which a certain event is happening. We understand that some part of the story needs to be told in flashback; but Kaala flogs the narrative device to death.
By the fourth episode, the multiple timelines, subplots and characters start to weigh heavily on the narrative. From interesting, it turns to messy and all over the place. The story jumps erratically from Kolkata to Siliguri to Darjeeling to even foreign shores of London and New York. The sole aim of this tactic seems to be to lend gravitas to a plot that has none.
Finally, the story is bogged down with an overload of twists and turns. The numerous plot twists make an already complicated storyline even more convoluted. What’s more, each is so obvious that you can spot it from miles away. Funnily, two crucial characters begin to display radically different body language just as it’s time for the twists related to them to be revealed. Needless to say, the altered body language are dead giveaways in the case of both twists.
The second half of the series is even more dull, drab and lacking in any real emotions. You don’t feel invested in any of the characters or their emotions. The plot too lacks in gravitas and a sense of urgency. Eventually, you root for just one thing – the series to get on and get over quickly.
Music and Other Departments?
The music and cinematography of Kaala are the saving grace of the series. The background music and songs by Gaurav Godkhindi are fresh and distinctive. They suit the narrative well. The cinematography by Director of Photography Siddharth Srinivasan is arresting. He has captured the verdant greenery of West Bengal and the essence of the India – Bangladesh border areas beautifully and adeptly. His innovative camera angles are good too. Priyank Prem Kumar’s editing is crisp.
Highlights?
No element in the series can be labeled a highlight
Drawbacks?
Too much non-linearity in the storyline
Too many characters
Convoluted and messy narrative
Plot has zero gravitas
Did I Enjoy It?
Not much
Will You Recommend It?
Only for die-hard fans of the Bejoy Nambiar style of filmmaking
Kaala Series Review by Binged Bureau
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