Kaala Review: Avinash Tiwary’s Show Surprises As A Queer-Thriller That Wasn’t Expected 

Director: Bejoy Nambiar

Cast: Avinash Tiwary, Hiten Tejwani, Rohan Mehra, Jitin Gulati, Taher Shabbir and others

Where: Disney + Hotstar

Rating: 3 stars

Filmmaker Bejoy Nambiar certainly has a knack for dealing with thrillers. With Kaala, for the first time ever, he not only delves into the world of reverse Hawala (traditional way of money transferring but also explores how one’s sexuality and revenge become the core intention of the narrative.

Rithwik (Avinash Tiwary), an Intelligence Bureau officer is in search of his father Subhendu (Rohan Vinod Mehra) only to discover some odd things associated with him. Interestingly, Naman (Taher Shabbir) and Balwant/Shakti (Jitin Gulati) have some strange connection with Subhendu. Will Rithwik cross paths with his targets?

Bejoy set his story at the Indo-Bangladesh border during the 1980’s, including his primary characters, his screenplay is twisted, complicated, and way too dark than expected. However, the entire show has the trademark style of Bejoy but visually, it is appealing. 

Be it a series or a film, Bejoy tells his stories very cleverly that often he is called an intellectual storyteller. However, when he announced Kaala, it was projected as a thriller that deals with the system of Hawala and reverse Hawala, not knowing beyond what it was promised.

Bejoy, not only bluffs with the basic idea easily but also infuses solid back stories of each character, which is commendable. Kaala is unaware of its genre it seems, which fortunately falls in the favour of the entire show. Bejoy somehow manages to accumulate his scattered characters and beautifully create a collective closure. 

Avinash Tiwary is impressive, he is like a rock to the bone throughout the show. Rohan Mehra is a great talent and Kaala gives him full opportunity to shine. But, the one who steals the thunder is Jitin Gulati. He will stun almost every molecule of your body and leave you with an eye-popping effect. Hiten Tejwani is decent. Taher Shabbir plays a suave businessman, who is also the soft antagonist in the show and does his job well. 

An 8-episode series, Kaala is a bit unusual thriller, especially with Bejoy’s non-linear approach to the story that is cherry on top.