Kaalkoot (Poison)

 Web series Review (Hindi)

A gem of a web series! As I watched Vijay Varma playing a cop, Ravi Shankar Tripathi, I was quite wary of his actions, expecting him to breakout into some kind of psychotic rage. It was such a welcome change to see this talented actor as a balanced human being. Anyway, I consider him to be the best of the lot right now.

The story is a hard hitting thriller on the patriarchal way of things. There is a victim of an acid attack played by Shweta Tripathi. Then there are men who consider themselves to be the saviours of society and see to it that young women are taught a lifelong lesson in obedience. Finally, we see fathers drowning their infant daughters in a pond. The pond is now polluted with the phosphorus from the bones of the dead and is poisoning the village! So much for sweet revenge.

The script by Arunabh Kumar and Sumit Saxena, who is also the director, is tight and each character is distinct. Gopal Dutt, the SHO and Yashpal Sharma playing Constable Yadav, were a perfect foil to Ravi’s character. At times though Ravi’s personal life encroached a tad too much into the story.

I am looking forward to this plethora of web series (Dahad, Kohrra) of the thriller genre, each one as good as the other!

Movie Review (Hindi)

Haraamkhor (Unfaithful)

I was truly impressed with the movie. Not just the story which needed to be shown but the acting, the direction and the camera. There was no slickness about the movie and that was precisely what made it so real. Hats off to Nawazuddin for taking on the role of a village teacher which gave it added credence.

So many relationships were touched upon with such a lot of truth:
Sapna (played by Shweta Tripathi) comes from a broken family. Her father has been a single parent for a long time and has been in a relationship.
Sapna is in love/infatuated with her married teacher. The teacher takes advantage of this and carries on an affair with her.
A class friend is in love with Sapna and looks upon the teacher as a rival. He is helped and guided by another friend. These two young lads are our eyes and ears most of the time.
Sadly the movie ends on a tragic note. Sapna, however, comes to terms with her new mother.

Thanks to the producers for going ahead and making this movie. I do hope director Shlok Sharma continues to direct movies based on relevant themes with such rawness so as to make the audience uncomfortable.