Birangana just dropped on Hoichoi today-and I binged it right away. Here's my unfiltered take:
Right from the opening scene, Birangana hits you with this eerie hush over a wedding venue where a fresh bride lies lifeless in the rain. The visuals are gritty, raw and frankly hypnotic-like something you're forced to watch even when it scares you.
Sandipta Sen as SI Chitra Basu? Absolute fire. She's out there in a no-makeup, no-glam showdown, navigating a male-dominated police setup, clenched jaw, eyes burning with resolve-never seen her like this before. It's her first time playing a cop and she throws herself into it, both physically and emotionally. You feel her fight every step of the way-not just chasing killers, but battling systemic patriarchy.
Then there's Niranjan Mondal aka Laughtersane, making his acting debut as Chirayu Talukdar, the soft-spoken florist who somehow just knows things. His stillness is haunting-simple quiet presence that messes with your nerves, because you keep wondering "What is he hiding?" The trailer even got fans guessing if he's the killer behind the serial bride murders or part of something bigger.
Plot-wise, it's a gripping combination of how-dunit and why-dunit. Chitra's investigating these married women's deaths that authorities had chalked up as suicides. But she isn't buying it-she senses a pattern, a twisted ritual-and digs deeper. Every clue she unearths feels tight-rope suspense. When the day-to-day grind of investigation transitions to midnight interrogations and chase sequences, the tension ratchets up sharply.
The director is clearly back in his crime-thriller zone after a few other hits, and Birangana seems to complete a sort of hat-trick of gritty female-led suspense thrillers. His style sprawls between moody atmosphere, shadowy frames, and emotional punches. You feel the weight of Kolkata as much as the weight of Chitra's uniform.
Supporting cast like Anirban Bhattacharya, Pratik Dutta, Aditya Sengupta, and Sreya Bhattacharyya-they're all layered in the background, giving density to the cops, suspects, and street life in the city. It never felt like filler-they add believable life to the world around Chitra.
Watching it today, I felt emotionally raw-there were confronting scenes of trauma, street-level sexism, and grief. Yet the way it's shot kept me hooked: long takes, close-ups that hold on emotion, rain-drenched alleys, the grim silence of funeral pyres. The pacing is tight-just enough build-up, just enough reveal. But at times a scene felt stretched, like emotional beats dragged a bit too long. Could've tightened episode two a bit more.
Still, as someone who craves Bengali OTT content with depth and guts-Birangana delivers. It flips the trope of damsel-in-distress on its head: here's a cop refusing to back down, refusing to shrink. And the killer's identity? Oh man, the finale hit me with chills. I won't spoil it. But you definitely don't see some twists coming.
Overall, I'm impressed. It's raw, edgy, feminist without being loud, grounded in Kolkata's underbelly, and powered by Sandipta's charged performance. Laughtersane surprises you with quiet menace. The direction knows how to build suspense and dive into power structures. It's not perfect-some pacing issues here and there-but on balance it's a gripping, female-led, socially conscious thriller like we don't often see in Bengali OTT.
If you've got Hoichoi, drop everything and start Birangana. It's the kind of show that stays with you beyond the screen-makes you think about who speaks, who's silenced, and who has the courage to dig. And that scream-silence-anger mix Sandipta brings? Next level.
