Brown Series Review:
There has been no dearth of investigative thrillers in the past few years, especially those led by a female cop protagonist. However, what Karisma Kapoor achieves in Brown, her comeback project where she plays the lead figure, is nothing short of stupendous. There is a distinct gravitas the actor brings to the proceedings. The performance is not showy in any way — Karisma is impressively minimal in how she captures the protagonist’s exhaustion and emotional baggage. Rita doesn’t have to say much for you to be able to sense her inner turmoil. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Karisma single-handedly carries the series on her shoulders.
Directed by Abhinay Deo, Brown largely revolves Rita (Karisma Kapoor), an emotionally struggling cop who is assigned a high-profile murder case of Ahana Jaiswal (Vaibhavi Malhotra), the daughter of a powerful tycoon. Rita’s struggles don't merely pertain to her investigative pursuits — she is also navigating a machiavellian political nexus that wants quick-fix solutions and won’t think twice before making her a scapegoat, while dealing with a tainted past that refuses to leave her. Very admirably, the series gives considerable attention to Rita’s subordinate, Inspector Arjun Sinha (an impressively subdued Surya Sharma) where we get a glimpse of his life beyond his job, a life which is uncannily similar to Rita’s in many ways.
Director: Abhinay Deo
Cast: Karisma Kapoor, Surya Sharma, Paresh Pahuja, Jisshu Sengupta, Soni Razdan, Helen, KK Raina
Streaming on: ZEE5
Brown has many things going for it. The grimness isn’t merely in the emotional baggage of the characters, or the themes explored — but in the overall visual design itself. The city of Kolkata feels alive in a macabre way. Every episode begins with a brutal sliver from the past that informs us as much as it intrigues us about the central mystery. The more Rita and Arjun travel within city, the more facets of the city and its murky present we get to explore.
However, after a point, it becomes difficult to stay invested if the makers’ ambitions are limited and generic. Brown doesn’t leave a lasting impact because the tropes and devices are all too familiar. The narrative plays within a worn-out template — there is very little attempt to break new ground. After the impressive world-building in the initial episodes, the staging too gets increasingly banal. Once you keep aside Karisma’s intensity and the occasional brilliance of atmospherics, the thriller has very little novelty to it.
As it goes with any investigative thriller, each episode attempts to expand its universe a little, introducing a new set of characters who unravel a new facet to the universe. However, the makers of Brown aren’t sure how to tie these personal strands together with the overarching grim universe its set in. The way the narrative integrates other characters and their influence on the proceedings, or how Rita gets further burdened in her challenges by the political authorities around her, doesn’t add enough intrigue to the plot. Be it Ahana's relationship with her brother Sanjay (Paresh Pahuja), or a quietly developing bond between Arjun and Sanjay's wife Ananya (Pamela Bhutoria), many of the threads are left hanging loose. And as poignant as they are, Rita and Arjun’s personal travails do not blend satisfactorily with the central conflict. Towards the latter part of the series, there is a scene where Rita’s mother (Soni Razdan) is quietly bemoaning the reality that they belong to a fading community. While an interesting detail about Rita’s life in Kolkata, it ends up being merely an embellishment to a narrative that struggles to keep us engaged.
When everything else fails, we have no choice but to return to Karisma, who is consistently impactful in her act. At the end of one of the episodes, Rita finally summons the courage to battle one of the ghosts haunting her present — her alcoholism. In a show driven by gore and mystery and scandalising themes, it’s a rare moment where the makers promise to explore the personal turmoils of its protagonist with the attention it deserves. Alas, Brown returns to playing with cliches, never rising above their weight.
