Kaalkoot Review: Vijay Varma Finds His Reel & Real Redemption With A Balanced Stellar Performance That Even Overshadows The Flaws

Cast: Vijay Varma, Shweta Tripathi, Yashpal Sharma, Seema Biswas, and ensemble.

Creator: Arunabh Kumar & Sumit Saxena.

Director: Sumit Saxena.

Streaming On: Jio Cinema.

Language: Hindi (with subtitles).

Runtime: 8 Episodes, Around 45 Minutes Each.

Kaalkoot Review: What’s It About:

In a remote town in UP, a girl suffers an acid attack, and the culprit is unknown. Begins the chase for the criminal, which leads to the witch hunt of the victim, an entire circus that questions her character, and self-realisation for many people who are made to question their morals.

Kaalkoot Review: What Works:

The art of exploring the victim of heinous crime through the lens of the people around her is a blueprint that always creates a very intriguing products. Everyone has an opinion about the one who is suffering, and some even have motives to pull them even more down. But when Arunabh Kumar with his partner Sumit Saxena decided to tell a story about an acid attack survivor, they chose to explore male toxicity and show us how deep-rooted it is in our system that even the most honest of the people are somewhere a part of the clan. First of all, Kumar exploring something so dark is a shift and experiment we must welcome.

This has to be the Vijay Varma in and around the cop stations universe, where he is the Kang who can be any character he wants. This time around, he is the clay that a very haunting plot shapes. Like Dahaad, where a lady cop was chasing Vijay Varma’s serial killer, the tables now turn, and he is the cop chasing the man who attacked a young girl with acid. Created and written by Arunabh and Sumit, Kaalkoot is a very detailed look at the conditioning of men in a system that reveres them as the strong gender, only to realise that the pit they are throwing their daughters into will turn poisonous someday and hit them back, literally and metaphorically.

The plot is about a girl suffering an acid attack. As she fights for her life and later starts recovering, she has no say in the investigation that is deciding the status of her life, character, and justice. The metaphors run deep, because even the women who are healthy and have a voice do not have the chance to speak, so Parul on her deathbed is no different. The cop station bullies new recruits more than it trains and makes them heartless calling it the training; men decided the character of a girl is loose just because her purse has expensive cosmetics and a bottle with alcohol mixed in it. Kaalkoot explores the toxicity, misogyny, and patriarchy induced in our surroundings very cleverly.

Clever because it makes a man who thinks he is woke and empathetic see the evil firsthand and realise that he is no different at micro level. One must look at how he is shaped to understand why a lead character must be like clay, who absorbs the effects of the story and transforms by the end.

Kaalkoot Review: Star Performance:

Vijay Varma is the man of the hour and deserves to be celebrated for just showing his range with two projects, almost of the same genre, releasing close to each other. As Ravi Shankar Tripathi, he enters the frame while he is late to attend a training session that is talking about gender sensitivity. He peeps from behind a pillar. Soon you realise he is the one who is bullied and one who hasn’t learned to revolt ever. He is the antithesis of police and hates his job. The distress that Varma brings to Ravi does most of the heavy lifting. His act keeps transforming as his character grows horizontally, learning about the evils. Vijay is so balanced that he doesn’t let his grip over the material ever to go loose.

Gopal Datt, who plays SHO Jagdish Sahay, is the most surprising of them all. The actor, who has played more comedy roles, turns into a grey character that you will dread to know in real life. His performance is over the top but also serves the purpose here. He single-handedly makes the entire cop station look scary.

Shweta Tripathi refuses to age and plays a part over a decade younger than her real age. While the mental prep to play an acid attack survivor is complex, on screen, the actor is effortless in the little screen time she gets. Most of her scenes are her reactions to the opinions about her. I wish she could have voiced her pain at least once.

Seema Biswas is an actor filmmakers should hire more often. As a mother who is ambitious and supportive of her children, but also childlike, she is so refreshing to witness every time she graces the screen.

Kaalkoot Review: What Doesn’t Work:

While it is a clever deep dive into the gender conflict of this country, Kaalkoot cannot escape the male gaze. No woman in the show ever gets a voice that is substantial to establish their hold over their life. Even Seema, who is the only commanding voice, never goes out of the limitations drawn by her son. This could also be the result of a lack of female involvement in the writing room. At no point does the show negate its cause, it is brilliant and aware not to do that, but the camera never focuses on the women beyond the central conflict, like it forms a bond with the men who get to discuss a lot other than the case.

Sumit Saxena’s direction stands between being nuanced and serving the pop culture, and it takes away the magic multiple times. With no intent to compare, the show neither gets dedicated attention to detail like Dahaad, nor is hell-bent on exploring the bonds and nuances like Kohrra (both the shows are stellar recent entries to the same genre). Add to it the music that gets too much to process at multiple places where silence could have been more impactful and haunting.

Kaalkoot Review: Last Words:

Kaalkoot is a show that belongs to good actors and a story that walks with some flaws but is still worth your time. You must watch this drama that isn’t marketed much is a lot better than many that are sold at full throttle.

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