It’s a tale we lived and forgot. Netflix’s Kaala Paani revolves around a disease whose symptoms include dry throat and fever. It can spread through droplets generated when the infected coughs or sneezes. People are checked for it using thermal scanners. Everybody wears transparent masks and doctors inspect patients in full-body medical suits. But there are some differentiating tells. The disease spreads through water. The infected ultimately develop black spots on their napes. As they near the big sleep, they start getting uncontrollable hiccups, as if death itself is missing them. This disease breaks out in 2027, seven years after the world has come out of a global pandemic. At the beginning, Kaala Paani seems like a work of Covid speculative fiction. It both is and isn’t. It seems predictable but then it didn’t really want to surprise you. It feels like getting what you paid for with an added bonus, like a free gift along with a juice packet.
Cast: Mona Singh, Ashutosh Gowariker, Amey Wagh, Sukant Goel, Vikas Kumar, Chinmay Mandlekar
Directed by: Sameer Saxena and Amit Golani
Written by: Biswapati Sarkar
We begin in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Soudamini Singh (an impeccable Mona Singh), is investigating the cause of a mysterious illness. A town festival is incoming and the interests of a world conglomerate named Atom is attached to it. Ketan Kamat (an impressive Amey Wagh), a corrupt cop, is liasoning for Atom with the authorities and mounting pressure on Soudamini to give a green chit for the festival. Somewhere, the region’s indigenous tribe, the Orakas, are bursting Atom’s water pipelines. The epidemic ultimately breaks out. A lockdown is announced, flights are cancelled and the islands are cut off from the world, becoming the prison they are famous for.
For ex-TVF creators Sameer Saxena, Amit Golani and Biswapati Sarkar, whose previous works include the rom-com series Permanent Roommates and the delightful coming-of-age film Jaadugar, a survival-drama like Kaala Paani is uncharted waters. The series deceives initially. When the authorities lay out the plans, it seems like it will turn out to be a rescue-drama. It has elements of a post-apocalyptic thriller, with a loner character, living in a bunker, realizing the importance of living for others. It also has themes of an eco-drama with a multinational company exploiting nature for its greed. But when the bushes part, Kaala Paani, is what all stories should ultimately be, of humans and of change.
The series explores the story of a crisis through the tales of different people. A tourist family which gets separated, two childhood lovers who still have feelings to share, a crafty guide who gets on the right path, a young, Dalit doctor who questions her abilities. Each character is a living, breathing human whose needs and motivations are told in flashbacks. All arcs come full circle. This although enriches the narrative but also overloads the plot. Resultantly, the series feels wonky at instances, taking too much time to arrive at a predictable point.
But the lags and lacks are made up by Biswapati Sarkar’s masterful writing and deep understanding of human emotions. There are no loose ends. Even little, innocuous details unwrap themselves to leave a lasting impact. A character parts ways with his tour guide, after realizing that the latter smuggles tortoise eggs. Later, trapped in a deep pit, he has to kill a snake and feed on its eggs to survive. Cop Ketan’s disdain towards the islands is expressed through his inability to find his preferred chips flavour. He spots it, while getting beaten to pulp by the bodyguard of the capitalists he initially scratched the backs of, but ultimately deceived. It’s a moment that is comical yet cathartic.
At frequent instances, without verbal expression, Kaala Paani asks: What makes us human? It is also filled with philosophical conundrums. Is it ok to kill one to save five? Can we outrun our nature? Can we let go of our generational baggage? Is murder justified if it is for survival? The series provides a Darwinian answer. The base on which all of humanity and all their tales survive. Evolution is imperative. Change or perish. Survival of the fittest.
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