Overmarketed Colonial Charm

No other city in India has overmarketed colonial grandiose and its legacy as much as Kolkata. Perhaps like you, my eyes now give a hard pass when I see another Howrah Bridge and Victoria Memorial on screen. 

Narrow alleys, dilapidated & moss covered buildings, signs of urban degeneration strewn across - modern day Kolkata has the perfect vibe for a crime thriller (as unfortunately evidenced by recent events).

Violence Turned Up a Notch

Khakee: The Bengal Chapter elevates violence and bloodshed several notches up compared to what its spiritual predecessor Khakee: The Bihar Chapter did roughly 3 years ago (fits well with present reality). 

It was pleasantly unrealistic to see a bunch of 'young, fit and energetic' law enforcement officers in Bengal going about their business and unravelling the 'mystery' behind a trail of unabated killings. I mean we still haven't recovered Tagore's lost medallion after 20+ years but that's a different story.

Characters and Themes

The story kicks off with the final plot twist shown to create suspense - a common theme if it was the 90s but unfortunately it's not - the director should have done better there. IPS Saptarshi Sinha (Parambrata Chatterjee) and Arjun Maitra (Jeet) are shown as upright, honest officers navigating through the murky world of Bengal's politics and crime. 

However, one is shown as an idealist and the other practical - depends on if you consider yourself lucky surviving or getting killed while doing your rather thankless job in the end.

As the plot progresses, you come across themes such as a police officer hamstrung by the system, manipulative politicians enjoying popular support (freebies help yeah), revenge stemming from betrayal, flipside of student politics, a criminal climbing up the political ladder (rich legacy of Eastern India tbh), total absence of work-life balance and a bucketful of murders. 

So much so that the you would be able to predict the climax fair way before the plot takes its turn towards conclusion.

Performances and Casting

Neeraj Pandey has smartly chosen a solid star cast and stacked up a bunch of popular Tolly and Bolly names - Prosenjit, Saswata, Ritwik Bhowmik and of course the ever vivacious Chitrangada Singh. Bhowmik is a fine actor and has shown versatility in his short career so far. 

He owns the screen and his character helps stretching the show to 7 episodes where it could easily been wrapped up in 5. Both the Chatterjees - Prosenjit and Saswata play their meaty roles well without fuss and do not appear to break a sweat.

However the supporting cast of Mahaakshay Chakraborty and Aakanksha Singh leave much to be desired with their bits and pieces acting. Mahaakshay bro, if only you were blessed with a better voice on camera. Parambrata's 'special appearance' feels forcefully cut short to fit the plot. 

Chitrangada just about manages to do enact her role in the second gear - not 'impactful' enough to secure a promotion but also not 'redundant' to get laid off.

Overall Verdict

Thankfully the cinematography and plot sequence makes up for the rather banal script and storyline that has already been covered approximately 5 million times by now if not more in India's filmmaking history. 

The pace and chronology of subplots is passable - time won't slow down when you watch this show. But am hoping there are some prettier locales left back in Kolkata to be captured in future movies and shows.

There is no dearth of content across OTTs these days in that it feels like TV 2.0 again. One-time watch and I will leave it at that.