Abhimanyu Mukherjee’s mystery-drama (কলঙ্ক) stars Raima Sen, Ritwick Chakraborty, Srijla Guha, Gaurav Chakrabarty, Ambarish Bhattacharya and others in a twisted story about familial bliss, the consequences of one’s actions and picking up the pieces after a tragedy strikes one’s family. The series has 8 episodes, each with a runtime of around 25 minutes.
Different relationships work differently is a very interesting concept that most cannot wrap their heads around. Although most people realise this fact, they are unable to accept that every relationship doesn’t fall into society’s cookie-cutter idea of a happy marriage. Kolonko is a very odd web series that tries to showcase the messiness of relationships, but the way they showcase it is so on the nose that it’s silly.
We follow Chaity and Rangan as they try to navigate the ups and downs of their relationship. I get open relationships, but what I don’t get is why Chaity and Rangan need to push this “cool” open relationship shtick under the guise of always being truthful when both of them are uber-monogamous people who can’t keep their jealousies hidden. The storyline feels forced and silly because you don’t know where these two people lie in their relationships. They don’t grow up from their college-age mentalities, and there’s absolutely no growth to these characters that will make you want to root for them.
Most people watching won’t be able to determine what either of these two is trying to say or do. People are constantly contradicting each other, and it’s frustrating to watch this cat-and-mouse chase that really isn’t needed. Chaity and Rangan are both hypocritical; while the former, for some reason, isn’t able to tell the truth to her husband, the latter likes leaving cryptic clues for his wife. I think their dynamic needed more clarity because it feels very confusing. I understand projecting your issues and insecurities, but the web series is too convoluted to be enjoyable and too unrealistic to be believable.
The movie also breaks down every little thing in spite of letting the audience come to the conclusion themselves. There are scenes that the series introduces that give us a rundown of the character’s innermost thoughts that are extremely unnecessary. In shows like these, you need to give the audience the grace to understand the nuances of the characters; believing that your audience is smart enough is key. Unfortunately, telling us every little thing from every angle just makes it annoying after a while. Like, I get it – Piya is in anguish. Do I need to see this in a scene where she screams under a red light?
Last but not the least, Piya’s storyline is a little much. Meddling, hormonal teenagers are understandable, but Piya’s character is written like this psychopath who is too mature for her own good. Teenagers are gonna teenage, but why this odd twist to the tale? Extremely forced, totally unnecessary and nothing but insane! In the end, the story ends on a cliffhanger that made me laugh. You’ll get my disbelief when you see it.
Kolonko Review: Conclusion
In the end, this mystery-drama series is a confusing and extremely preachy watch that is too meta for its own good. I didn’t understand the point of the show, and neither did its extremely patronising tone make any sense to me. Imagining adults with children being so messy and selfish feels odd, more so for such convoluted reasons.
Kolonko is streaming on Hoichoi.