Killer Soup Review: Is The ‘Paya’ Soup Potent Enough To Serve A Feast?
Killer Soup, the 2024 web series, directed by Abhishek Chaubey sets the expectation of a dark comedy thriller and the rich star cast including Manoj Bajpayee, Konkona Sen Sharma, Nassar and Lal feels like the ‘caramelised onions’ that adds to the kick of the hot ‘paya’ soup. With all these rich garnishing visible on the soup and the viewer’s cravings on its peak, the serving remained one of those fancy appearances of commercial ads for products but didn’t hit the real expectations, rather just brewed occasionally then and there.
The context is set in Mainjur, a small town near Madurai which seems most appropriate for a dark comedy tale, involving characters speaking Hindi as well as Tamil and sometimes a mix of both. The opening scene resonates with the overall expectations set by the trailer in the audience as it shows the brewing soup, which in its appearance looks delicious and tempting with the ingredients and the colour. But gradually all those fancy impression about the ‘paya soup’ volatiles into air in the subsequent scenes, very much analogous to what audience feels from the trailer to the episodes. The couple in the centre of the story, Swathi (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Prabhakar/Prabhu Shetty (Manoj Bajpayee), the husband and wife, amidst the struggles of fulfilling their dreams, fooling each other to cover up for their disloyalty and lack of trust for each other, tries to follow their heart when it comes to their ambitions. And Swathi’s passion to nothing else but the ’paya’ soup of all the cuisines on this entire universe is an open-ended question left to the viewers.
The plot also has Prabhu’s elder brother, Arvind Shetty (Saivaji Shinde) , the foul mouthed authoritative brother who tries hold the strings of other family members and the family accounts; Arvind’s smart, bold and sensible daughter Apeksha/ Apu (Anula Navelkar) who got entry to one of the top fine arts schools in France, but being constantly been pushed to the muddled pond of family business; and Lucas (Lal) the subtle seasoned key to secrets; Umesh Pillai (Manoj Bajpayee, in a double role), an expert massager cum Swathi’s paramour, the least confident guy on earth who always messes up things and turns up then and there for all the wrong reason; Kirtima Kadathanathan (Kani Kusruti) the all sacrificing, destined to meet the real tragedy at the end; inspector Hassan (Nassar) and his team with energetic constable Asha (Shilpa Mudbi) and fresh, enthusiastic and over smart Thupalli (Anbuthasan) who spices up the broth, giving the anticipations of a thriller brewing up.
The series of unintentional murders happening and with many mysteries to be solved — about the burkha woman, the private detective and his camera, and the grave — are perfect elements for a pitch-dark comedy thriller.
Abhishek Chaubey along with Unaiza Merchant, Anant Tripathi and Harshad Nalwade have worked loosely on a real crime, that took place back in 2017 where a woman killed her husband, conspiring with her lover whom she makes over as her husband by tossing acid on the lover’s face, which was caught finally. Abhishek’s attempt to boil the Killer soup with some shadows from Macbeth could not give that real explosion of flavours in the viewer’s mind instead kept it at a superficial visual experience complimented with the frames, colour tones and the brilliant acting by each of them.
