Kaala

Ok let's understand why the same directors keep getting multiple opportunities even after they have shown so much times in the past they have no idea how to tell a story?!

Yes you want to keep churning out cheap pointless content as an ott just to show something new is available on your platform but please maintain some standards.

Either be Netflix or Apple tv but hotstar India content is questionable and seems lost. They keep releasing the same looking shows of applause and the others are also remakes.

My conclusion is - don't even watch this show if you have an existing hotstar paid account.

Story and direction along with screenplay are awesome. Some parts are predictable and storyline could have been faster. It could have been wrapped in 5 episodes instead of 8 with 5 main protagonists headlining each episode. This is tightly woven around main character so the direction has been marvellous in that sense. Cinematography suits the flow and build up. Well written, minimal dialogues are not heavy and absorbing around the storyline itself. This is tightly woven around main character so the direction has been marvellous in that sense. Cinematography suits the flow and build up. Well written, minimal dialogues are not heavy and absorbing around the storyline itself.

A well made series that chronologically goes back & forth from 1980s to 2018. The best hero of this series are the performances, not a single actor have under delivered their role.

A movie style series that uncovers true colors of each character slowly.

Starting with leads - Avinash Tiwari who has played IB officer flawlessly, sometimes over the board but overall well acted.

But the finest came from Jitin Gulati, and his shades of character. A slow transformation that goes from various turfs.

All others have played their characters really well.

Background score, casting and production values are top notch.

Some flaws though - bit draggy in parts, unnecessary characters exposure and too much of timelines shift that may make few watchers impatient .

Overall, a very solid drama about money laundering that should have more takers.

This is the second Avinash Tiwari series that released last year along with Bombay meri Jaan. Kaala is a series about money laundering and much more. It is a story of two generations of enmity. The series focuses on Ritwik an IB officer who is involved in tracking the money laundering case. As he tracks down a big consignment of black money being transferred from India to Bangladesh, he starts to know more about his past, a past that involved his estranged father and his enmity with a person called Balwant who made him a traitor . What this past was actually and how it gets linked to the current money laundering case is the whole story .

I have to say that Bejoy Nambiar is a very interesting filmmaker . His creative choices are quite often spot on. Even in this series, in every episode he would give us glimpses of a certain events only to give its explanations later. A good thing that he does is that he doesn't keep any unwanted intro for this series . The action sequences are pretty well choreographed except that one chase sequence in the second last episode involving Ritwik being chased by two bikers . It involves so many awkward jump cuts that you lose interest out of it.

Coming to the past of Ritwik which involved his father Shubhendu and Balwant . It's pretty interesting . Jitin Gulati plays Balwant whose character is something that will make your jaw drop as the series progresses. For many it might come across as really awkward and hard to digest. But boy, Jitin plays that character of Balwant so well almost that he becomes the star of this series. Shubhendu aka Adinath's story is also really interesting as he tries to hunt down his enemies . His character too has many layers.

The slightly non linear screenplay makes sure that you are always in hunt for answers and the series has them ready at proper moments. The emotional quotient often does not work than does . They are not properly fleshed out.

What I found surprising was that characters spoke less slangs in this series (which is a forced trend in every series these days). The Bengali accent use is a bit of hit and miss with many nailing it while many missing it. Mita Vashisth's Bengali accent sometimes sound spot on sometimes awful.

The pacing tbh is a bit uneven. I lost interest at certain points due to this but it's not a big concern I eventually watched the whole series quite comfortably. Apart from Balwant , the other villains like Naman, Bismil etc are poorly shaped by the series. The songs used at many places are really good. The failure to establish proper emotions results in certain sequences like Shubhendu being cremated feel lifeless.

Overall, a decent one time entertaining series .

Kaala flip-flops between brilliance and cliches and is at times exhilarating and at times exasperating. But Avinash Tiwary and Jitin Gulati - man, especially the later - absolutely steal the show and make you realise how not-so-known Indian actors are absolutely rocking the OTT space. Can watch the show for Jitin only.

Coming to the plot, financial thrillers are always fun to watch but Indians have not been too adept in it. Reverse hawala is a good concept and one can easily see why Hotstar wanted this show, but the money laundering bit leading to the end is not explained well. I found the pacing inconsistent as well, which made it a satisfactory watch, not a great one.