Kaala Paani

Kaala Paani is an Indian Hindi-language survival drama thriller television series for Netflix, which was first streamed on 18 October 2023. It was created by Sameer Saxena and written by Biswapati Sarkar, Nimisha Misra, Sandeep Saket, and Amit Golani for Netflix. It stars Mona Singh, Ashutosh Gowariker, Amey Wagh, Vikas Kumar, Chinmay Mandlekar, Sukant Goel, Arushi Sharma, Radhika Mehrotra, and Poornima Indrajith in lead roles.

Premise
When a mysterious disease comes down upon the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a desperate effort for survival collides with a race to discover a remedy laced with human connections and the tale of love, loss, and despair.

Episodes
The first season of Kaala Paani comprises seven episodes, each approximately one hour.

Production
The series was announced by Netflix on 14 July 2023. Set in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the first teaser of the series was released on 20 September 2023. Filming of the series was concluded in early 2022.

The trailer of the series was released in early October 2023. Netflix renewed the series for a second season in November 2023.

Release
Kaala Paani was released on 18 October 2023 on Netflix.

Critical reception
Joel Keller for Decider wrote "Kaala Paani moves along nicely enough that it should keep viewers on the edge of their seats".

Shilajit Mitra of The Hindu wrote "The grim ecological backdrop of Kaala Paani is both leavened and reinforced by the small human moments in the fore, with its middle-class characters fuzzing over wafers and nicknames in the face of looming tragedy."

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV stated "Kaala Paani situates numerous significant stories, contemporary and historical, in the collective and the personal in search of an answer to that question."

Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express stated "Kaala Paani startles you, but it also tells you that the story-tellers are serious about their intent, that there will be no waffling, just cutting to chase."

Reviewing for Rediff.com, a critic Deepa Gahlot wasn't impressed by the series and stated "Kaala Paani has a lot going for it -- the scenic locations, the cast, and a problem of modern-day apathy towards the environment, that is putting all of humanity on a power keg waiting to explode".

The Free Press Journal opined "Effectively written by Saxena, Golani and Biswapati Sarkar, Kaala Paani stands as a fitting metaphor to a similar predicament that we all were in for a brief period."

Lachmi Deb Roy of Firstpost rated the series 4 out of 5 stars and stated "The script, the story, the editing is sharp and the screenplay is engaging. The back and forth storytelling makes Kaala Paani all the more engaging."

Pinkvilla praised the series and wrote "There's nothing in Kaala Paani that doesn't work. The show is a masterpiece and deserves to be watched by one and all."

The New Indian Express stated "Resultantly, Kaala Paani feels wonky in instances, taking too much time to arrive at a predictable point."

The Quint wrote "Kaala Paani could allude to a lot – to the name the Cellular Jail often goes by, to the murky waters that surround the islands, and even to the way seemingly dangerous water becomes a leitmotif in the film."

Scroll.in stated "Kaala Paani has some virtuous notes and themes, but overstuffing the series, and some illogical swings in the story, dissipate the thrill of a survival drama."

A critic from Zoom TV wrote "The most compelling aspects of Kaala Paani are the stories of resilience and survival."

Viewership
Kaala Paani debuted at number 8 in the Netflix Global Top 10 for Non-English TV with 11,700,000 hours viewed and 1,600,000 views.