Kaiser: A must watch with some hiccups

Jokes are funny. But when they come with a package consisting of vivid explanations, it can’t be any unfunnier. After all, who likes to get the feeling while watching a TV show that the director is not quite confident of his audience’s intelligence?

And that’s where filmmaker Tanim Noor (known for the series ‘Money Honey’, ‘Ekattor’ and ‘Contract’) makes the first mistake in his latest web series ‘Kaiser’, now streaming on Hoichoi.

At times, it looked like Noor was trying to shove his intellect down the spectator’s throat, whose primary motivation is to enjoy a story on screen, and not recognise the storyteller’s superiority.

Meanwhile, paying homage or tribute is all right, until it becomes too repetitive. And to add insult to injury, why should that tribute be so inconsistent and devoid of reality?

The protagonist’s school-going daughter Nikita has already finished the full Kakababu series, but hasn’t even started reading the first story of Feluda series, namely ‘Feludar Goyendagiri’. And guess what, she has not one but two fathers, who are obsessed with ‘out boi’!

One might wonder, was she waiting all this time for Srijit Mukherji’s Feluda to arrive on Hoichoi, while all three Kakababu adaptations so far by the same director had already been available on the OTT platform for long?

And now an even bigger nuisance that seemed extremely problematic to me: why would a girl — who is well aware of different fictional characters from West Bengal, and has also heard of Agatha Christie’s works and cliches — be not familiar with Bangladesh’s very own Rakib Hasan or Tin Goyenda?

Maybe Tin Goyenda has lost its charm lately, but Seba Prokashoni still reprints the early volumes and they do sell like hotcakes. And even though Rakib Hasan’s face is not as recognizable as that of Muhammed Zafar Iqbal’s, his books appearing on the banners of different publications are very popular to this date, and juvenile magazines like Kishor Alo also feature him and his stories regularly. So it is not very tough for Bangladeshi kids of today’s age to know about Tin Goyenda and Rakib Hasan in detail if they are into books.

The only logical reasoning could be that the director is portraying a Dhaka kid, but keeping in mind the regular Kolkata residents who hardly get in touch with Bangladeshi literature penned by authors not named Humayun Ahmed.

However, it is very unfair of me to be so critical, because, with some massive flaws, I found the dialogues of ‘Kaiser’ wonderfully witty. This is the kind of humour I crave but hardly get from our contemporary local shows. So I must give Kaiser a letter grade in that regard.

The screenplay is not as messy as I had suspected beforehand. Sticking to a linear narrative was the best decision for a story of this kind. The number of flashbacks was kept to a minimum. Had the makers taken the nonlinear route, the old-school murder mystery essence would have evaporated.

The character of Kaiser is very nicely written. Half of the story was dedicated to his proper build-up, and hence the character never seemed out of place. Perhaps the runtime of every episode became longer than usual (as noticed in most Bengali web series), but it should not be that big of a problem for an audience already invested in the proceedings of an intriguing, slow-burn thriller.

Unfortunately, the rest of the characters were far from perfect. From Amlan to Shirin to Abed, every single primary character except for Barrister and Chief demanded further details about themself, and eventually, the onlookers were left wanting more.

Tanim Noor’s direction is smart and ambitious. It is highly appreciable that he tries different shots to give the narrative a better visual treatment. But apart from the match cuts (which were recurring to the extent of irritation), no other attempts stood out. Especially the arc shot during the face-off between the hero and the villain looked so childish and forced that it failed to add any icing on the cake whatsoever.

The director’s endeavour to crack some ‘gay jokes’ in the guise of repetitive ‘partner/gaming partner humours’ also fell flat on its face. It looked even more inappropriate because the story was trying to reflect on another relevant homosexual tension as well, but the lack of sincerity from the director came of no good. It was also unnecessary to take a dig at K-pop.

Maybe the director can make an argument about not caring much to be politically correct, but sometimes being politically correct has its perks, and Kaiser misses out on that.

I loved Afran Nisho’s performance as Kaiser. He had the most screen time but somehow managed to remain interesting throughout the series. He was at his very best during one particular sequence, where he went to his friend’s house for some assistance, was emotionally blackmailed to join in a birthday party, and eventually found himself indulged in a very dirty verbal battle with his ex-best friend and ex-wife. The intensity Nisho brought in these scenes deserves praise.

Others including Mostafizur Noor Imran, Reekita Nondine Shimu, Shatabdi Wadud, Imtiaz Borshon also did a decent job. But I have some reservations about the accents of Mugdhota Morshed Wriddhi and Deepanwita Martin, who played the roles of Nikita and Munira, respectively.

Music used in the series including Eida’s ‘Night driver’, Petty Never Grew’s ‘The Pink Song’, Arekta Rock Band’s ‘Eden’ and ‘Chaap’, and Karnival’s ‘Control Room’ were top-notch. It is a nice gesture by the show-runners to Overall, ‘Kaiser’ is not a must-watch, but very watchable. It is not a masterpiece, not one of the best Bangladesh has to offer. Still, if you are a follower of the Bangladeshi digital content wave, Kaiser can be a perfect case study of which direction things are heading.