Rating: 3 stars on 5
Swathi’s (Konkana Sensharma) dream is to open a restaurant and she makes paya (mutton soup) day after day in this endeavour. Her husband, Prabhakar aka Prabhu Shetty (Manoj Bajpayee)’s dream is to build a fancy resort. But he is in business with his elder brother, Arvind Shetty (Saiyaji Shinde) who calls all the shots where finances are concerned. The husband and wife, who reside in a small town in the hilly terrains of Tamil Nadu, are constantly at loggerheads as a result.
Prabhu is conjuring up a way to swindle his brother of crores while Swathi is up to some no good herself. The scheming, loser husband is indulging in exhilarating massages by Umesh Pillai (Manoj Bajpayee), interestingly a Prabhu lookalike, with his brother in an attempt to convince him to part with his money. But foul-mouthed, crass but shrewd Arvind is in no mood to consent. Suddenly comes into the story a private detective, blackmail and murder, and tremendous chaos ensues. Bodies start dropping like flies and killer/s are on the loose. Will Inspector Hassan (Nasser), constable Asha (Shilpa Mudbi) and Thupalli (Anbuthasan) crack the case?
Director Abhishek Chaubey’s dark comedy, Killer Soup, has everything that is required to spice up this mutton soup i.e. blackmail, shady photos, extra-marital affairs, murderers, private detectives, cover-ups and more. Manoj Bajpayee and Konkana Sensharma stand out in their roles and are aided by fine performances by veterans Nasser and Saiyaji Shinde. The effortless chemistry between Manoj Bajpayee and Konkana and their natural interaction on screen keeps you invested. Nasser, however, is the one that gets you hooked with the about-to-retire cop character.
The story may be set in Tamil Nadu but the characters speak Hindi, Tamil, Dakhini and English liberally, which makes the series more engaging. The nuances of each language are different and coupled with the desi accents of the diverse characters add tremendous flavour to the story. Kudos to Chaubey for such detailing.
So, how engaging was this first web series by Kaminey and Ishqiya director Abhishek Chaubey? Killer Soup is a good watch for the most part but somewhere one feels that a little more punch was required to make it Michelin-starred. There are clear shades of Chaubey’s earlier works in this eight-part series that is streaming on Netflix. In another aspect, this series is a cop drama too, or more accurately, a small-town whodunnit with a plethora of characters flitting in and out to take the story forward.
Though Killer Soup may not be the best black comedy series, it is a fun watch with good performances.