Review: Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhen: A teasing thriller that fails to deliver
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Series: ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhen‘ (Streaming on Netflix)
Duration: Averages 40 minutes per episode
Director: Sidharth Sengupta
Cast: Tahir Raj Bhasin, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Anchal Singh, Saurabh Shukla, Bijendra Kala, Surya Sharma, Anantvijay Joshi, Sunita Rajwar
IANS Rating: ***
Designed as a pulpy thriller this eight-episode series is an engaging, psychological romance drama set in the backdrop of crime and power.
Based in the fictional town of Onkara, ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein’ follows a recently graduated engineering student Vikrant who is the cynosure of Purva’s eyes since her school days. Purva is the daughter of the local, all-powerful politician Akheraj Awasthi who would go to any length to keep his daughter happy.
Years later, circumstances make their paths meet when Vikrant after finishing his studies, is forced by his father to seek Akheraj’s blessings and maybe a “job”. Vikrant’s father works as an accountant for Akheraj and is indebted to him on various grounds.
Vikrant unenthusiastically lands up at Akheraj’s premise and by happenstance meets Purva, who ensures that her father offers him a job as the manager of her Zumba classes with a plump salary. Instead of getting elated, Vikrant is not happy because he can’t fathom how he’d put his engineering education to use in a dead-end job.
Also, unbeknownst to his family, he is in love with his college mate Shikha Agarwal and dreams of settling with her in Bhilai, where he hopes to get a job.
So, the next day after promising Shikha that he would marry her, Vikrant goes to Akheraj’s office intending to tell Akheraj that he is not interested in working for him. While he is there, he witnesses an event that repulses him. He then goes to Purva and tells her that he is not interested in working for her family, but the events that follow make it clear that he can’t escape Purva’s clutches.
So, he reluctantly accepts to work and later even marries Purva with the intention of revenge. How he attempts to break free from Purva and her family, forms the crux of the narrative.
The characters are all well-etched, and the lines they mouth are refreshing at times may even be soapy that drives too many aspects of the dramatic narrative.
Tahir Raj Bhasin as Vikrant is impressive. You feel and root for him as he takes you through Vikrant’s emotional journey as a simpleton to a determined lover wanting to marry the person he loves. Similarly striking are Vikrant’s friend Golden, and Bijendra Kala, who essays his father. For a change, Kala brings his character to life with his charged histrionics. The rest of the cast backed by familiarity are sincere but passable.
On the writing front, the plot of the series is straightforward, with the screenplay often teasing at some outlandish possibilities. The pace of the telling keeps you hanging to the ledge. It is only the final episode with its abrupt ending that leaves you a bit disappointed, for it does not fulfil the promise it assured us in the first episode. (IANS)
Review Of Yeh Kali Kali Aankhen: Insanely Fast-Paced Crime Thriller That Has You Hooked
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Yeh Kali Kali Aankhen (Netflix, 8 Episodes)
Starring Tahir Raj Bhasin, Aanchal Singh, Shweta Tripathi, Sourabh Shukla, Surya Sharma
Directed by Siddharth Sengupta
Rating: ***
If you have seen Siddharth Sengupta Undekhi for Applause Entertainment you know he is most comfortable in the world of ‘unorganized’ crime. Selfappointed ganglords and their thoroughly bratty children, powered by rudderless goons who think they can get away with murder, literally, make Sengupta’s blood boil.
There is an undercurrent of simmering spleen in Yeh Kali Kali Aankhein(named after a hit song from the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Baazigar for no particular reason) a looming resentment against the things people with money and power can do to the powerless. This is a series about the abuse of power of wealth ,about lawless gangsters forcing their will on the helpless: a favourite theme in our cinema for years.
But wait. There is a twist to the tale here. The bully patriarch , played with unerring pitch-perfection by Sourabh Shukla, has a lovely daughter and she is in love with the poor little pretty-boy since school. Purva,played by the lovely Aanchal Singh, is no walkover. Nor is she the vampish Bindu of yore slithering and slobbering all over her object of desire. She is a moneyed classy chick who wants the hick with the…never-mind.
The writing is unabashedly pulpy and the twists in the plot, specially from midpoint are mindnumbing in their presposterousness. To his credit screenwriter Siddharth Sengupta sustains the pulpy momentum right till the end. The frenetic pace, often literally staged with goons chasing law-abiding god-fearing citizens to their death, never slackens.
Seen in the spirit of Sidney Sheldon’s fiction-in-motion. Yeh Kali Kali Aankhein is a sock-in-the-tummy entertainer . It is set in a town by the Ganga named Onkara (a stand-in for Varanasi or Allahabad) . The last two episodes which turn dark and murderous ,are shot in Ladakh with the change of visuals serving a specific function.
I saw no compromises in production values just because the size of the screen has shrunk. The series has an eye-catching look and a lived-in feeling.
All the actors from Tahir Raj Bhasin(so ridiculous in his bewigged Mahesh Bhatt avatar in this week’s other series Ranjish Hi Sahi) and Shweta Tiwari, playing the simple-minded couple whose togetherness is shredded by the murderous machinations of the rich bitch(these moneyed types, I tell you) to the typecast Brijendra Kala(as Bhasin’s cocky domineering father) and Surya Sharma as Purva’s borderline psychotic brother(almost a repeat of what this talented actor played in the same director’s Undekhi) all do well for themselves.
But the real catch of the serial is Aanchal Singh as the won’t-take-no-for-an-answer lovergirl. She plays the part in dignified measured tones giving Purva a kind of grace that perhaps the character doesn’t deserve.Alos watch out for Anant Joshi as Vikrant’s best friend . He is the comic relief and a welcome one for a change. And Purva’s rapper-suitor played by Nikhil Pandey is a hoot.
I wish the narration was not so anxious to take audiences along . A kind of desperate breathlessness does seep into the storytelling at times. But that’s okay. Better than 10 episodes of languorous tedium that we’ve been subjected to in some recent serials .
Also Read: Review Of Putham Pudhu Kaalai: Vidiyaadha, Amazon’s New Tamil Anthology Is Heartbreakingly Relatable
Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein review: Dark, twisty tale of obsession and love that falters repeatedly
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Sidharth Sengupta’s Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein (2022) turns the tables on the twisted love triangle. Borrowing its title from the hit Baazigar (1993) song featuring Shah Rukh Khan, the plot could be right out of those Hindi masala films of the period, except the object of affection here is male, not female.
Vikrant Singh Chauhan (Tahir Raj Bhasin) imagines a simple life for himself. A humble salary, a modest home and the woman he loves, his childhood sweetheart Shikha (Shweta Tripathi Sharma), by his side. But the return of Purva (Anchal Singh), daughter of his father’s boss, to the fictional town of Onkara upends his life and whole being.
Vikrant’s father Suryakant (Brijendra Kala) works as the accountant of powerful politician Akhiraj Awasthi (Saurabh Shukla) and worships the ground Awasthi walks on. He sends Vikrant into the lion’s den where he bumps into Purva again after all these years. Something about her unsettles him, and with good reason. His simple dreams go up in flames and he finds himself chained to a life he doesn’t want with a woman he can’t stand.
But his protestations are drowned out as his unfeeling family members push him towards a union with the Awasthi family, and he is forced to play down his romance with Shikha. The deeper he falls in with Akhiraj, Purva and their domineering lifestyle, the more he tries to claw his way out. In each of the eight episodes, Vikrant thinks he has a solution, but someone (and fate) is always one step ahead of him, making sure he doesn’t succeed.
The series opens with a quote from Shakespeare’s play Othello: “For she had eyes and chose me.” Purva wants to possess Vikrant, but it isn’t explained clearly why she chose the one child who wouldn’t befriend her to be fixated upon as an adult. Her line to Vikrant as children, “Humare friend banoge [will you be my friend]?” is a twist on the familiar Hindi film dialogue, “Mujhse dosti karoge?”, most famously used in another Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998).
Despite Vikrant’s desperate need to escape Purva and her family, he doesn’t go about it in a calm, calculated manner. He is careless in ways that come back to bite him later. As narrator of his entrapment, he tells us, “Aur ek imaandar aadmi jab beimani par utarta hai na, toh woh beimani beiman banane ke liye nahi, imaandari se badla lene ke liye karta hai [And when an honest man has to resort to dishonesty, it’s not for the sake of being dishonest, but to exact revenge with utmost honesty].”
Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein plays out in the same vein as Undekhi (2020), which was written by Sengupta. Anchal Singh and Surya Sharma, who were prominent in that drama, are part of the same family this time; Surya is Akheraj’s henchman Dharmesh and adopted son. Like Undekhi, this, too, shows us how those in power and privilege abuse their position, but the Netflix show has far too many outlandish twists, including one at the end of each episode.
Anahata Menon’s story had the dark potential, thanks to its gender twist, but Sengupta’s screenplay sends it careening in several directions. Thankfully, Varun Badola’s clever dialogues add the much needed dark humour to keep our interest going.
The series has some pleasing original songs that set it apart from other recent Hindi web-series. The original score and background music by Shivam Sengupta and Anuj Danait is a definite plus.
Tahir Raj Bhasin is wonderful as the trapped Vikrant whose schemes never actually come to fruition. The actor is best when he wavers in his resolve, when attempting to get rid of Purva or when persuading Shikha to wait for him. At one point, he learns how to cry from the internet; one more scheme that doesn’t go as planned.
Anchal Singh plays Purva with a perpetual half-smirk and a hint of menace; we never know what to expect from her. Tripathi doesn’t have much to do but react after the first episode, while Arunoday Singh makes a late entry as a hitman. Anantvijay Joshi as Vikrant’s school friend Golden lends great support to Vikrant’s plans.
The two veterans Shukla and Kala keep things watchable as the plot goes haywire. Shukla is terrific as usual as the all-powerful politician who wouldn’t hesitate to strike down anyone in his path and Kala is first-rate as Vikrant’s father who can’t believe his good-for-nothing son’s fate when he is chosen by Purva.
But the constant need to shock and set back Vikrant (and put forth the kernels for the second season) becomes tiresome while watching the series at one go. It has become de rigeur for international series to end on cliffhangers, leaving viewers wanting more. But having invested time and energy into Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, I just wanted answers that weren’t forthcoming at all.
Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein is now available on Netflix.
‘Must Watch Or Bulls**t’: How People Reacted To Tahir, Shweta’s ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein’
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As we have already stepped into 2022, the cinematic world has a lot to offer to its audience. From action movies to intense shows, this year is going to be a blissful one for the movie buffs. For this weekend, Netflix is offering its new thriller Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein. When you have talented actors like Tahir Raj Bhasin and Shweta Tripathi on board, you can surely expect a roller-coaster ride.
When the teaser was dropped, people were looking forward to watching the show. As per the trailer and teaser, it’s a twisted love story with underlying themes of an identity crisis, fate, and a cobweb of lies. It starts like a normal love story but soon turns into a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Bhasin plays Vikrant, a simple man who falls for fellow college student Shikha (Shweta), who reciprocates his love. Enters his childhood friend Purva (Anchal Singh) who is crazily in love with Vikrant and can go to any level to get him.
Here’s the trailer:
The official synopsis of the thriller reads, “A romantic simpleton, Vikrant, becomes an object of desire for Purva, who will go to any lengths to get him. As Purva’s ruthless efforts to make him hers begin to destroy all that he holds dear, the mild-mannered Vikrant finds a new side to him emerging. In order to escape Purva’s clutches and reclaim his life with his true love, Shikha, he goes down a dark path only to regret it later in this pulpy thriller.”
Set in the fictional town of Onkara, the psychological drama also features Saurabh Shukla, Surya Sharma, Brijendra Kala, Arunoday Singh, Anant Joshi, Sunita Rajwar, and Hetal Gada.
The show has finally been released and has been streaming on the OTT giant from 14th of January. We saw the show way before it was released and we had mixed opinions about the show as it had the potential but it did lose its track. It’s surely watchable as the actors have done a brilliant job at the part but it’s the writing that either breaks or makes it. The show had all the components of making it a hit but the second half lost its grip and never got back on track. What didn’t work for us was the climax. We will not take away the fact that filmmaker Siddharth Sengupta did understand the twisted Shakespearean plot and showed how obsession can ruin lives.
As people have also watched the show, they too have mixed reactions. A few felt that it was like the same old drama and others hailed the show. They loved the performances and are looking forward to watching the next part.
Here are the reactions:
Are you planning to watch the show? Let us know in the comments section.
Rai pulls off one-stroke victory to claim Surya Nepal Central Open title
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Rai pulls off one-stroke victory to claim Surya Nepal Central Open title
A total of 58 golfers –39 pros and 19 amateurs — took part in the event organised by Nepal Professional Golfers Association under the sponsorship of Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd.
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