Tiktiki is a Bengali thriller TV series directed by Dhrubo Banerjee and stars Kaushik Ganguly and Anirban Bhattacharya, alongside other cast members. The series is 6 episodes long and each has a runtime of around 30 minutes.
Hoichoi describes the series as:
When a man accepts the invitation to spend an evening with his lover’s husband, what starts as a series of mind games quickly turns into a deadly game of revenge, murder and more.
– Tiktiki review does not contain spoilers –
Tiktiki is such a weirdly funny show. No, don’t get me wrong, it’s fricking horrifying watching Mimi’s husband and lover get together for a night of drinks and games. However, the way these two interact in the most casual way in the most unusual circumstances is absolutely delightful. You know what’s going on is unusual, almost chilling. But you can’t stop laughing at the absurdity.
Along with what’s going on on-screen, the dialogues between the two and their mannerisms are both extremely funny and scary. With such a short runtime, that’s a perfect combination. The series essentially takes place in one location – in Soumendra Krishna Deb’s sprawling mansion. At first, you think that he’s the one calling the shots. Milan seems like an innocent child in that regard, but we all know that thrillers hardly ever go that route. The little quips that the two engage in are light-hearted with an undertone of threat and violence.
Tiktiki will constantly give you the impression that everything is fine and dandy, especially because Soumendra seems a bit too calm and loving for a man who’s talking to his wife’s lover. Something’s definitely up, but you aren’t given a hint of what. Is he trying to subtly murder Milan? Is he trying to put him in jail? What’s his end goal? These are some of the questions that will come to your mind while watching the initial few episodes.
However, as we cross the mid-point, the series gets a bit confusing. The incoming of the potbellied police officer who seems to know too much and his eventual reveal feels a bit melodramatic, with not much bearing to the plot. It would’ve made more sense had the ordeal lasted one episode less, but with two episodes down the drain, it feels a bit much to sit through. At one point, you wonder whether this was done to simply pad the runtime. It’s definitely a possibility; one that we could’ve done without. As the series comes to an end, the interesting and almost fun storyline turns somewhat confusing, simply because it doesn’t follow the traditional route.
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As Milan delves deeper into the craziness of his own, you wonder who is the more bonkers of the two. There’s a little too much going on in the show at this point which can constitute as thrilling. It’s confusing, sure. But the thrill doesn’t stem from that. It’s a dark show if you can think deep enough into it but the way the show comes to the conclusion, in the end, can come up to be stretched out and boring, somewhere. I think I liked how confused I was with the last episode – a deeper delve will make you realise the end is worse than what we could’ve expected, which is always a plus.
The performances in Tiktiki are its strongest suit. Kaushik Ganguly and Anirban Bhattacharya are both fascinating in this cat and mouse game. Both feel like the cat and the mouse in different intervals, depending on who has the reigns and the sick games that they play are nothing short of cruel and over-the-top. The dialogues and delivery are great as well and although the humour fades out by the end, there are still hints of it towards the fag end, where the darkness overpowers everything else.
Summing up: Tiktiki
Hoichoi’s Tiktiki is an interesting watch. With 6 short episodes, it will keep you wondering. Although there are entire episodes that could’ve been consolidated to create something more compact and interesting, I think the open-to-interpretation ending makes up for the overlong parts, somewhat. All in all, it’s definitely worth a watch, if for nothing else but for the performances.
Tiktiki is streaming on Hoichoi.
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Last count didn’t actually meet the rhyme it was flowing through.
Commercial production should not leave its audience to quagmire.
To my considered opinion, it may not sail through.
it is an adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s 1970 play ‘Sleuth’. It was made into a film in 1972 with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine and remade in 2007 with Michael Caine and Jude Law. Saumitra Chatterjee translated the play and performed it with Kaushik Sen on stage and then it was made into a telefilm. The potbellied police officer is part of the original play and possibly one of the greatest twists in a twisty play about games.
This is a addopted movie. Both actors’ are brilliant, costume very nice, prosthetics good and art direction is very good. Sometimes I felt that Anirban acted like a theater. Also, some sequence of movie were not matched like Milan’s is a electronics shoper and his family background is not well but he rented a banglo and he has a car, which is not suitable with his financial condition.
Moreover, I was confused which time era they want to showed. If it is current time so how a police officer’s speak with a bangal accent. Also, one thing was odd the dinner of Soumendrakrisna Deb, he was eating like English dinner which was very odd at the Garh Ponchokot area where as he hadn’t any connection of stayed in foreign country. Director tried to change the climax but it was too melodramatic like 90’s movie. This movie should be contextulised according Indian context.