'Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein' Is The New Entrant Of Bollywood’s Fascination With Femme Fatales List

Bollywood is no stranger to femme fatales in movies be it Aitraaz, Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya or Gupt, where the female lead has an unhealthy obsession with the actor in the film and that leads to deadly consequences.?

Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein, the newest addition to Netflix’s crime thrillers is set in the heartland in the fictional town of Onkara, a subtle homage being paid to Vishal Bharadwaj.?

The series opens with Shakespeare’s quote from ‘Othello’ – For she had eyes and she chose me. Narrated by Vikrant (Tahir Raj Bhasin), it opens to a love story between Vikrant and Shikha (Shweta Tripathi), in Onkara a lawless town run by a gangster politician Akheraj (Saurabh Shukla). Vikrant is an engineering passout and his father (Brijendra Kala) wants him to work for Akheraj, much at the reluctance of Vikrant. He soon finds himself working as an accountant for his daughter Purva’s (Anchal Singh) Zumba classes.?

However, Akheraj has sinister plans and wants Vikrant to be one of his henchmen. Interstingly, Purva’s plans for him aren't vanilla either. She has been long obsessed with Vikrant and wants him at any cost. Soon begins a tale of obsession, manipulation with each trying to outsmart the other and people falling dead like flies in a quest to have power and wealth on their side.?

Netflix

Love, obsession, murder and a seductress at the bottom of it all has happened in Bollywood far too many times.?

That and the gruesome love stories of star-crossed lovers in heartlands and their fate being sealed by Shakespearan villains is all too familiar a territory. Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein too has a similar plotline. Our hero Tahir Raj Bhasin is caught between his love for Shikha and also worried for his life when a obsessive seductress/politician's daughter Purva makes him her puppet.

She will do whatever it takes to make him stay in her life and he ensures he leaves no stone unturned in getting rid of her.?

All this in the backdrop of dirty gang wars and politics in the heartland is a bit too cliched.?

However, what really makes the story stick is the fact that the cast has simply outperformed themselves even when presented with a staid story.?Our vamp Purva, doesn’t wear black sarees or cockroach shaped bindis.?

She is ethereal in salwar kameez and anarkalis and is a Zumba instructor. But is equally lethal when it comes to manipulating the man she loves. ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein’ is a name inspired by a song featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol from Abbas-Mustan’s Baazigar, a movie that also dealt with obsessive love.

Netflix

But in this story our obsessive stalker is a woman and not a man. Tahir Raj Bhasin who plays Vikrant brings a lot of vulnerability as well as determination to his character. You can relate to his frustration of being stuck in marriage to a crafty woman and trying his best to outwit her at her own game.?

His love for Shikha and their will-they-wont-they love story keeps you on the edge of your seats till the end. Shikha, played by Shweta Tripathi is a character of a girl-next-door, who finds her voice and strength when cornered by a known enemy.?

Brijendra Kala plays Vikrant’s father who clearly doesn’t have Vikrant’s best interests at heart. Saurabh Shukla, plays the main villain Akheraj and is underutilized and we feel he could have gotten more screen time, knowing what a consummate actor he is.??

While the process to reaching the climax maybe predictable in bits and pieces, it is the process itself which is intriguing. There’s loads of black comedy added to the series to keep the audiences interested enough rather than feed them with the usual gore that is shown in a lot of crime thrillers.?

There are a lot of coincidences and a cliff-hanger ending which means that the series has a possibility of coming back with a season 2.?

Netflix

Directed by Sidharth Sengupta, who’s also directed shows such as the famous Balika Vadhu and Undekhi, ensures that the audiences stay glued to their screens till end. The screenplay also written by him is fast paced. Adding comic relief to an otherwise dramatic show is the brainchild of Varun Badola, who has written the dialogues. True, the series turns a bit slow after the first three episodes and some sub-plots are unnecessary and make you question the logic behind adding them. But the performances are so compelling in the series that it makes you forget all about it.?

Netflix

Our final verdict would be with all its flaws, ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein’ still makes up for an interesting watch and that it should be on your to-binge list.?

We are most certainly looking forward to a season two and we would love to see how the cliffhanger and the mystery gets solved. There are one or two hunches we have about a certain character in the series, but we will have to wait till Season 2 drops.

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