Review by Saptarshi Nag
Neeraj Pandey has been an accomplished storyteller ever since his directorial debut A Wednesday hit the screens and enthralled audiences all across. When a show has his name as a creator behind it, expectations start mounting. And if it’s the second chapter of his much debated yet loved show Khakee, the anticipation is sky high. Does he deliver? Yes, in parts. Does he steal the show? Sadly, no.
After a respected officer’s death in early 2000s Bengal, IPS Arjun Maitra confronts powerful gangsters and corrupt politicians in his mission to bring law and order to a region gripped by crime and chaos. This is a one liner synopsis of the story. However, to lengthen the show to fit to a seven-episode chapter, the plot has been dragged and unnecessarily convoluted at times. Poor characterization, lack of enough back stories kill the fun so often. Many questions remain unanswered even till the end of the show. Music and background scores which could have been the pillars of such a show are pure duds and leave you unfulfilled. All said and done, the pace of the show is fantastic and so are the performances of most of the actors and in the end, those are the takeaways from this chapter of Khakee.
The creator has been clever enough to select a period where not much retro designing of the sets was needed. However, no special attention was given to highlight the change of the eras as the show progressed. A show like this with high production value should have given more attention to such details. Apart from that the cinematography is sleek and something Tollywood should learn from. No unnecessary drone shots, no slo-mo shots were used. Srijit da listening? The dialogues mostly lack impact. Unnecessary vulgarity so common these days on OTT has been wisely avoided. Use of profane language has been kept at minimal level. In one scene, a character uses two different pronunciations for ‘Sagor’. One character pronounces ‘Saptarshi’ differently in two different scenes. In one scene, a front facing ac vent in the front seat in a luxury car was shown. Neither such car model, nor such AC model was available at that period. Such details should have been taken care of in a show with such production value. The character of Chitrangada Singh as the fearless opposition leader is flimsy and even Singh is misfit in the role. Even though she is a fine actress, she fails to excel in a deglamourized role. It appears that the writers created her character just to create sensation. The story of Cheena is unconvincing and leaves a big question mark.
Parambrata Chatterjee in his small role appears uninterested and his character lacks conviction. Saswata Chatterjee as always is brilliant and even though he does not have enough space, he as always seizes the role. Prasenjit Chatterjee as the crooked politician is brilliant as ever. Jeet as a dynamic cop oozes style and he carries the show on his shoulder with panache. The make-up artists should have given more attention to his look though. Aadil Khan as Ranjit and Ritwik Bhowmik as Sagor are assets of this show and I am adding one more star to this show for their brilliant performances. In fact, the casting director has done a brilliant job to ensemble such a stellar cast. Mimoh as Himel has done a commendable job, too. Rest of the cast do their jobs sincerely. As I already have mentioned, the show has a wonderful pace and even though there are plenty of loopholes in the plot or in the making of the show, it is bingeworthy and keeps you glued to the screen till the end. The climax is a bit disappointing and leaves your thirst unquenched.
Overall, the positives of the show somehow manage to mask the thinness but in comparison to the gripping and phenomenal Bihar Chapter, sadly it is a distant second.
My Rating- 7.5 out of 10
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