Rating: 2 stars on 5
When an American series is adapted to Indian sensibilities, and especially when it is a revenge drama, one expects some fiery fireworks. ‘Karmma Calling’ is the adapted version of the successful US series ‘Revenge’, which ran from 2011 to 2015, and director Ruchi Narain has tried to serve the audience here a slice of that tasty dish. Produced by Ektaa Kapoor, ‘Karmma Calling’ released on Disney+Hotstar on January 26.
The seven-episode series is set in Alibaug (as compared to the Hamptons in the US series) and sees Raveena Tandon play Indrani Kothari, the Queen of Alibaug. Indrani, a former Bollywood star, is the one who controls everything that happens in the elite society there, which includes her friend Dolly (Waluscha De Souza), a financial wiz (Mohan Kapoor), a rising politician (Shataf Figar) and a psychic healer (Alpana Buch). Suddenly, the social equilibrium is upset when young Karma Talwar (Namrata Sheth) buys a huge mansion next to Indrani’s and starts making waves in the elite society. Indrani is intrigued and suspicious about Karma who ends up getting engaged to her son. Karma comes with her own baggage and is out to get revenge with the help of a super-rich security consultant-turned-friend Zane Khan (Viraf Patel). The series narrates what has occurred over the last six months since Karma’s move into Alibaug and is filled with conspiracies, manipulation, betrayals, adultery, mystery, murders and more.
‘Karmma Calling’ had a great plot of two women pitted against each other but sadly it bites the dust. At the outset, the series is written and executed exactly like one of the Hindi soap operas – garish costumes, excessive makeup, a lot of close-ups, slow narration, repetitiveness, verbosity, and so on. It is not a patch on the US series. One wonders of this is because it is an Ektaa Kapoor production or that was how Ruchi Narain had envisioned it.
Raveena Tandon is the highlight of the series and is really good as Indrani Kothari. Unfortunately, none of the other actors – including the other protagonist Namrata Sheth – deliver a standout performance. The acting is below par and not engaging enough to hold your attention. Namrata Sheth, in fact, seems to be a miscast for this role. ‘Karmma Calling’ would have been better off on television than OTT – this saas-could be bahu drama is just another TV soap.