Yeh kaali kaali story: My quick take on Netflix’s web series “Yeh kaali kaali ankhen”
Yes, it's dark and pitch black, but it's a binge-worthy product. Siddharth Sengupta's last two web series, Apharan, and Undekhi had turned me into a fan. He has a talent for writing pulp fiction, and watching his series is like going to any AH Wheeler bookstall on a railway platform and picking up a Surendra Mohan Pathak's book and reading it on your journey.
Yeh kaali kaali ankhen (YKKA) is a racy and pacy account of a young aspirational Engineer who gets caught in a kind of love triangle with a local Bahubali’s daughter falling for him and he goes after his classmate. These pulp stories generally have hard-boiled villains, scandalous women, soft porn, and of course a dashing hero, YKKA has it all but for a dashing hero. Poor guy Vikrant (played by Tahir Bhasin) is caught between the devil and dead sea (pun intended – as the Bahubali is known to be an exponent of chain saw who khimafies the bodies of his opponents and dumps into the sea like water body created by a huge dam in the vicinity).
Eight episodes long series is made binge-worthy because of its pacy plot, place, and performances. It is set in a place called “Omkara”, it may be a fictional name but the location is simply awesome, perched on the foothill of a Dam, with a huge river basin, connected by majestic bridges and palatial monuments. Full marks to the cinematographer to have captured this pristine beauty so well. There are some portions of the series which is shot in Ladakh and these shots are simply pristine. The plot may take you back to Mirzapur or Apharan or Bhaukaals theater where a Kalin bhai type Bahubali rules the roost. Here this role is essayed by talented actor Saurabh Shukla who otherwise has played a rollie Polli-type funny character in past, but here he has played a ruthless politician who can go to any extent to have his say. Shweta Tripathi and Ravishing Anchal Singh form the other two vertices of the love triangle, where Anchal Singh is the daughter of Bahubali Saurabh Shukla who like her father will go to any extent to get what she wants. There are other talented ensembles of the cast like Bijendra Karla, Anant Joshi, and Arunoday Singh.
Production quality is top-notch, Director has given it a feel of a Bollywood movie, with apt songs which go well with the situations. The performance of Tahir Basin is wonderful, he could emote his helplessness in difficult situations very well, his sidekick Anant Joshi is good comic relief and so is Bijendra Karla who plays the father of Tahir. The casting is top-notch and everybody has given their best performances.
Overall I felt this time Netflix scored a goal by investing in entertaining pulp fiction, maybe this is the second-best Netflix’s Hindi product after sacred games. If you like the Wild Wild Western UP Wala plots like Gangs of Wasseypur, then you may enjoy this 8 episode long web series where the profanity index of dialogues is slightly tempered, nudity is toned down (maybe it is reserved for Season 2)
Series title is taken from King Khan’s Baazigars song, the movie which had catapulted the Delhi boy SRK into superstardom, now another Delhi ka bacha Tahir Bhasin has done this series , can’t comment on his future stardom but one this is for sure that this series is his Baazigar moment.
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