‘Yeh kaali kaali ankhein’ - Such a promising start, let down by the end

As kids who grew up on SRK films, imagine Raj waiting for Simran to ‘palat’ and Simran then turning into a psycho stalker whose obsession would put ‘Darr’ and ‘Baazigar’ to shame! Now imagine this story set in the lawless badlands of UP. That is the deliciously fun premise of Netflix’s 8-episode show - ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein’.

You are aware of the inherent implausibility of the goings-on but the characters aren’t and that is where this thriller almost turns into a dark comedy. The casting of every single Actor by my friend Shivam Gupta is on point and the music is refreshingly melodious.

The show is co-written and Directed by Siddharth Sengupta, who directed hundreds of episodes of ‘Balika Vadhu’ and atones for having done so by subverting every template Bollywood has fed you for decades.

Tahir Raj Bhasin vulnerability as the antithesis of the Bollywood Hero is perfect. Anchal Singh surprises with how unpredictable she makes her otherwise predictable stalker. Shweta Tripathi is as usual charming with her innocence. And Brijendra Kala, Saurabh Shukla, Anant Joshi and Surya Sharma are so refreshingly original in their supporting roles as the family and friends of the protagonists.

I’ve always believed that the Cinematography, Editing, Sound and Production Design are at their best when you don’t notice them and that’s what the technical departments of this show achieve.

But Alas, just when I had begun thinking that Netflix has turned a corner, this is yet another piece of content that has a finishing problem. And for a show, that problem can get extremely elongated - In this case, starting in episode 5 and progressively regressing with each episode thereafter. The show forgets that it was having fun and decides to take itself a little too seriously, thereby becoming a painful slog that has completely lost its identity.

Still, the fun I had until Episode 4.5 made me feel like investing in writing this review for all of you.