BOTTOM LINE
Light, Well-Done Old-School Revenge Story
PLATFORM
ZEE5
RUNTIME
3 Hours (7 episodes, approximately)
What Is the Show About?
Rahul, the son of an influential businessman in Kanipur, is found dead in a car submerged in a lake. His business partner, Dodo, is the prime suspect in the investigation. The crime is probed by Agni, a former cop coping with a personal tragedy. He slowly returns to normalcy with the help of a best friend, Bumba. What ties Agni to the fates of Rahul and Dodo?
Performances
Vikram Chatterjee, playing a former cop keen on vengeance, carries the proceedings with ease. He keeps the character accessible, relatable even with the occasional hero-giri. Satyam Bhattacharya brings a light-hearted touch to the story, thanks to his frequent verbal banter with Agni.
Priyanka Sarkar’s role, Chhanda, comes with an interesting surprise element, though you wish the part was fleshed out better. Meiyang Chang is surprisingly effective in the standard bad-guy act. While the character graph is nothing particularly new, he plays it with restraint and rarely goes overboard.
Others, including Joydeep Mukherjee, Ayush Das, Sushmita Roy and Korak Samanta get brief roles, and they fit in, even though they don’t have ample scope.
Analysis
In an age where a majority of titles, OTT and theatrical, over-promise and under-deliver, ZEE5’s latest Bengali web series Taarkata, helmed by Samik Roy Chowdhury, is an underdog that more or less delivers. The show is a simple, straightforward revenge story of Agni, a cop grappling with memory issues, while he tries to uncover the mystery behind the death of a crime lord’s son, Rahul.
Taarkata switches between Agni’s past and present, while his friends ensure his recovery stays on track. The narrative elaborates on his current-day routines in a lighter vein, while introducing viewers to the other pivotal characters: an influential businessman, Ashok, his pampered son, Rahul, his business partner, Dodo, a doctor, Chhanda and Agni’s colleague, Bumba.
As we return to Agni’s past, we realise he had a brother, Tintin, a teenager with a rebellious streak. The show has its cop protagonist primarily dealing with the drug menace in Kanipur, where several misguided youngsters lose their lives. Dodo is the typical baddie, who is a vile drug lord with minimal verbal diarrhoea. As tragedy strikes Agni’s household, he seeks to punish the guilty.
Expectedly, it doesn’t go as planned, and he loses track of his past. The show is all about Agni recollecting brief details about his past life and finding his purpose again. The backstories of the apparent evil guys, Ashok, Rahul and Dodo, are put together neatly. Every time a sense of monotony creeps in, there is a decent little surprise or twist in store to keep the show afloat.
Each episode doesn’t extend beyond 20-25 minutes, and despite the gloom in the air, the proceedings remain relatively light. The writing is generally tight, and the interpersonal relationships are elaborated enough to keep you glued. Say, with the subplot around drugs, you just know that children are the convenient targets and anyone threatening to expose them keeps dying one after the other.
With the last two episodes though, you get a feeling that the screenplay is trying to pack in too many events into the narrative that leave you breathless. While the twists remain interesting, the storytelling is too rushed, in a tearing hurry to wrap up formalities. Apart from these minor blips, it adapts a one-line old-school plot for the times, dealing with memory, revenge and duty, convincingly.
Taarkata is aware that it is not special or out-of-the-box and knows its boundaries as a story. Even as you smell the turn of events in the story from a far distance, you don’t mind it because of its neat, uncluttered execution with minimal flab. All characters and events exist for a purpose, and it is just a little longer than an average masala fare (over 3 hours). Timepass guaranteed.
Music and Other Departments?
Kuntal De pumps in regular doses of metal and rock music influences to pep up the narrative. Sometimes, it feels desperate, and in other cases, you don’t mind it. The show comes with an intriguing choice of locations, both interior and exterior, and Prosenjit Koley takes care of its aesthetic appeal, while doing the needful. Occasionally, the editing is jerky, jumping from one event to the other quickly (and sometimes randomly). The writing, even if it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, is compact.
Highlights?
Simple, straightforward and engaging
Enough surprises once in a while
No-frills, focused narrative
Drawbacks?
Generic story
Mostly predictable
Lacks a contemporary touch and good detailing
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes, not because it’s anything new, but the creators know their job well
Will You Recommend It?
If you crave a decent, well-made old-school masala saga, you may try it
Taarkata ZEE5 Web Series Reviewed by M9 News
