A severed head in a bag is a surprise gift. A charred body is found amidst mountains of garbage. The politicians are corrupt and manipulative. Ambitious and ruthless crime bosses are engaged in an endless battle for power. The third season of Mirzapur, the much-awaited crime drama series streaming on Amazon Prime, is, expectedly, an offering with non-stop action. Some viewers might be partly disappointed for various reasons, such as the near-complete absence of a ruthless don, or since a couple of subplots seem like distracting appendages that don’t contribute to the main story. What is certain is that the latest season of Mirzapur will work — and a fourth season will be made someday.
Although all crime dramas and thrillers haven’t been able to match the popularity of Mirzapur, why are so many of them made for OTT platforms? Several such series have attracted viewers, encouraging more makers to explore these genres. Variety is on offer, however, with dramatic twists a frequent selling point. After all, what can be more exciting than an episode coming to an end after raising the intriguing question: what next?
A sprawling crime saga on Netflix, whose first season began streaming in 2018, Sacred Games is much more than a cop-and-criminal story. The world depicted in the series is alarmingly bizarre, and the highlight is consistently inventive storytelling. Many characters, with the cop and the criminal at the centre, live on as unforgettable memories despite the release of numerous web series later.
Sacred Games and Mirzapur, whose first season was also released in 2018, earned the viewer’s applause. Since then, we have grown accustomed to the creation and presentation of all kinds of stories in the genre. The much-acclaimed police procedural crime drama Delhi Crime’s first season (2019), which premiered on Netflix, takes us deep inside the aftermath of the 2012 gang rape case that shocked India and is usually referred to as the Nirbhaya case. Released in 2022, the second season’s story originates from the activities of the Kachcha Baniyan gang, which unleashes violence on elderly citizens in Delhi after years of inactivity. The web series looks beyond acts of crime to talk about the personal and professional lives of cops, discrimination and hierarchy in the police department, the role of the media, and much more, which is possible because of the episodic nature of the show.
Creators try to generate ideas with a difference even if they attempt to make serial killer thrillers. And, some of them deliver great outcomes. Kalkoot (2023), a police procedural crime thriller on JioCinema, revolves around a rookie cop who has been assigned a case of an acid attack. The show covers several other subjects, among them female infanticide, corruption in politics, homophobia and cybercrime. How these themes have been interwoven to create a gripping web series is truly commendable. A police procedural crime thriller set in Punjab, the much-acclaimed Kohrra (2023) on Netflix is, at the surface level, the story of a murder investigation. As the two cops conducting the probe proceed with their assignment, the story widens its focus to portray the worrisome problems of a deeply flawed society. Every suspect seems as guilty as the other in the engrossing mystery, whose appeal is enhanced by its portrayal of the place in which the story unfolds.
Incidentally, Kohrra’s co-creator is Sudip Sharma, who created the fascinating Paatal Lok (2020), the widely watched crime series on Amazon Prime revolving around a disillusioned beat cop who is asked to investigate the high-profile case of a murder attempt on a TV anchor. Although the series is a crime thriller, it also exposes the rot and filth that exists in society. How it does exactly that — helped by characterisation, plotting, direction and performances by appropriately cast actors — results in a memorable experience for the viewer.
A brilliantly knit psychological crime thriller, Asur (the first season premiered on Voot in 2020, the second on JioCinema in 2023) focuses on a forensic expert and his team, who pursue a ruthless serial killer. How the plot merges mythology with modern-day realities makes the series particularly memorable.
Some makers choose real-life happenings as the source material for their crime dramas. Selecting a real-life happening as the basis of the web series is a challenge, mainly because countless acts of crime have taken — and continue to take — place in our society. How to write the story after the source material for the central plot has been identified is equally if not more important.
A Netflix crime thriller, Khakee: The Bihar Chapter (2022) based on IPS officer Amit Lodha’s book ‘Bihar Diaries – The True Story of How Bihar’s Most Dangerous Criminal Was Caught’ tells two intertwined stories: that of an IPS officer and the other of a man who rose from being a truck driver to become a dangerous outlaw in Bihar. The relentless pursuit of the outlaw and his gang until they are brought to justice forms the essence of the action-packed plot. In Jehanabad: Of Love & War (2023), a SonyLIV crime drama, the main plot is inspired by the Jehanabad jailbreak in 2005 in which Communist Party of India (Maoist) freed their imprisoned comrades from the jail after fighting against security forces and killing incarcerated members of the upper caste militia. A lot of masala has been added to the story as it is shown, but that contributes meaningfully to make the web series watchable.
Those who watch crime dramas and thrillers are aware that many of them fail to rise above mediocrity because of their treatment of the subject matter. Because web series on OTT platforms started getting made in India not long ago, the number of good crime dramas and thrillers that have already been produced shows that OTT viewers will continue to enjoy quality content in the genre that will keep them engrossed from time to time.
The writer, a journalist for three decades, writes on literature and pop culture. Among his books are ‘MSD: The Man, The Leader’, the bestselling biography of former Indian captain MS Dhoni, and the ‘Hall of Fame’ series of film star biographies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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