Kaala paani – drama series review

Whenever I saw a decent web series in English, I often wondered why such concepts are not made in India. With story telling being in our genes, we should be much better than the crap that get churned out in the name of originals and specials that cost a bomb to those OTT channels that produce them. To answer this anguish comes Kala paani or as I would like to say, the best series ever produced, written and made in India. It is the perfect script, perfect storyline with perfect casting, perfect setting and pulsating finale that sets the series up for next season, on the lines of other famous series across the world. The dialogues are sharp and noticeable which add weight to the characters, the sequences are well thought through and connected to make them complete and above all the location – Andaman!! When was the last time an India movie, leave alone language specific industry ever came out with a story based on Andaman!!! The only instance I remember is Andaman Kaadhali, a Sivaji movie! The locations add to the mystery and the thrill elements organically get themselves embedded into the main storyline, which is age old in its concept – human development and fallouts.

With each episode being an hour long, every single one of them gives a feeling of watching a movie in itself. There is hardly any lag and all the subplots beautifully interconnect. Whenever people mention Andaman, the infamous cellular jail is what comes to mind and the very first scene opens with that jail. When I was thinking this is going to be yet another documentary on how our freedom fighters were tortured on that jail, the natives, Oraka tribe, bang open a water pipeline. When you immediately jump to conclusion that the series is going to be based on how tribes are impacted by modernization, the story shifts to its original plot of mysterious illness that not only proves fatal but spreads throughout the island, resulting in a lockdown. There are several sub plots like how a tourist festival is arranged bringing in lakhs of visitors who are all locked down on the island due to the outbreak. The official machinery behind allowing permission for an event of such a large scale when a potential epidemic is alerted by a savvy doctor played by Mona singh, how the lieutenant governor of the island, an astute Ashutosh Gowariker, makes that call, the repercussions that follow are all beautifully, logically, and mercilessly narrated. The reason being merciless is that the writers kill/chop down characters without any bias, staying true to the impact that creates on screen, much like GoT which literally spread dread on viewers wondering in each episode which of their favorite character is going to get killed. While here it is not gruesomely told, but the demise takes a logical course, showing that nature or life has no preference whether you are popular or not.

The best part about the series being the casting and characterization. It is hard to imagine anyone else as the LG of that island, who can bring such integrity to the role other than Ashutosh who hardly has few scenes but looks regal enough.  Be it the cunning tourist operator, who has a grand reveal about his origin towards the end, the nurse who has a terrible back story herself, rising up to the occasion, the simple family of four where the parents along with their boy and girl come to visit the island as part of the event only to have their family shattered and spread across the island, the grittiness and sadness that comes with this story lingers and almost justifies the action of the dad in the end, risking the lives of thousand others, which sets up for the next season and aligns with the plot’s core theme of how people react to different situations selfishly when in most of the cases they might’ve taken a different decision. The concept of flipping the switch – whether to sacrifice few to save many lives, plays throughout the series. There are several other notable characters the top of all being the corrupt and selfish cop, with eyes almost popping out of their sockets. His character is brilliantly sketched and the final twist that more or less ends up in his death is a poetic way of punishment self inflicted by him. The thrill element involving the cure, reminds of a KB movie where the characters desperately in need of money doesn’t realize that it is on the very box that they keep carrying all over. The leaf/plant that is needed to make the medicine being available right under their noses and the people not being aware of the same makes an interesting dilemma. To me the grandest slap in the face was when the cop finds out the reason that triggered the pandemic and slouches back on chair in utter shock at the futility of the act. It might be the dumbest of reasons but the success of the shock/surprise lies in that very fact that how even silliest of acts taken by humans, in the name of comfort and modernity, creates such a rippling effect leading to disaster is superbly told.

I wonder when would people up North understand that Tamil Brahmins are not South India!! The makers have taken so much efforts to break several stereotypes in story telling only to mess this up like their counterparts from other such attempts. There is a south Indian family of four, comprising of a virtuous mom, who leads an NGO and efforts in taking care of the Oraka tribe, her son who is the cunning travel operator and her other son being a campaigner against hyper development are depicted as a tamil family. There is even a tamil lullaby song, which sounds like a word for word google translation of some hindi song, which has a special place in the story setting. When I first saw this I was wondering how tamils are connected to the Andaman setup, only to realize that it was again a mix up between Telugu and tamil, when the dad character discusses movie stars to name their kid. He talks about Nagarjuna as a potential name which is rejected by the wife who ends up naming their kid Chiranjeevi (for a totally different reason though). It might be a case of genuine miss, or a wanton mix up due to not knowing difference between Tamils and Telugu. Guess this is one stereotype that will never end! But this minor sore point apart, it is a beautiful series that may very well stake claim to fame alongside Lost, Breaking Bad and several other hit series of thriller genre. Considering the scale of production and the locations, seems like they must’ve spent a fortune in making this series. Hope it gets enough returns for seeing a second season made as well! Wish they come up with multi episode book series on this story and premise which would surely sell big.