Kaala Paani review: Handsomely-produced and well-performed, Netflix series works as a cautionary tale

There’s so much going on in ‘Kaala Paani’, a slightly futuristic (2027) survival drama set in the Andamans, that its first episode runs an hour plus. And it is barely enough to contain the multiple strands of information that come flying out at us, in rapid succession: a lethal disease threatening to spread like wildfire amongst residents and the hundreds of tourists gathered for a big festival, an administration flailing about, a greedy corporation with too much money and too little conscience, a medical team fighting against tremendous odds to keep death at bay, the dark jungles where the original people of the islands have carved out precarious spots for themselves, the whole surrounded by the spectacular blue of the ocean, which is as much boon as bane. It was called kala pani because it was impossible to escape from the Cellular jail in Port Blair: will these frantic, desperate people be able to get away in time?

A couple of things strike you as soon as the seven episode series, created by Sameer Saxena, written by Biswapati Sarkar, and directed by Saxena and Amit Golani opens: the first is that ‘Kaala Paani’ has the courage of its very ambitious convictions, taking time to build its big themes up despite its evident hurry to get going, necessary for a story like this in which humans seem to be just one step away from doom. When you destroy nature and wantonly pilfer its natural resources, you are asking for it, and ‘Kaala Paani’, unusually for an Indian series, doesn’t shy away from showing just how high the stakes are. The body count starts rising from the beginning. No beating about the bush, just bam, a life is snuffed out. It startles you, but it also tells you that the story-tellers are serious about their intent, that there will be no waffling, just cutting to chase.

This willingness to sacrifice even some of its most sympathetic characters runs right through the series, though I am definitely going to quibble about the too-early bowing out of a primary character, who makes you want to know more about what must have been a complicated past. But the mix of known and unknown faces playing characters with a degree of complexity keeps our interest high: Mona Singh as a dogged public-spirited doctor who has an inkling of just how terrible the coming pandemic can be, Ashutosh Gowariker, as the unctuous LG of these stunningly beautiful islands, makes you want to see more of him as an actor, Sukant Goel as a local taxi-driver who loves his land even as he betrays it, Amey Wagh as a cocky cop whose only desire is to look out for himself, Vikas Singh as a stranded tourist who learns the Darwinian rule of the survival of the fittest in a most cruel manner, Chinmay Mandlekar as the doctor who is a stickler for protocol, Radhika Mehrotra as the newbie researcher who has vital knowledge, Virendra Saxena as an eccentric old man who holds a crucial key, Arushi Sharma as a nurse who circles back to a lost love. There are a few other characters who make us watch as well.