How Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer succeeds in dissecting the making of a criminal in an unjust society

In the second episode of _Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer_ , Netflix’s latest true crime offering, a character talks about the obstacles to justice embedded within India’s law enforcement system. He takes a stab at both the police force and the country’s judiciary, adding that the cops violate human rights for a day but by ensuring cases go on for decades, it’s the courts that end up violating human rights for long periods of time. The indictment is powerful not only because it comes from someone who belongs to a lower caste but more so because the character in question is Raja Kolander, the man accused of brutally murdering and dismembering 14 people, including a journalist a decade ago. In the next scene, Kolander talks about the inhuman treatment he has been subjected to while filing appeals for his case and during court appearances. “If you file any application, they don’t pass a clear verdict,” he tells the camera point-blank. This alone situates the three-episode true-crime series in an unique position among all of the streaming platform’s Indian true-crime outings. For one, it’s the only series that seems to have managed to access the perpetrator it chronicles in its narrative. By doing that, it invariably becomes equipped to look at a criminal through his crime as well through the hierarchies of societal discrimination that breed criminal intent. That the series dedicates time in dissecting its criminal as much as his crimes proves to be a fruitful excursion, resulting in a thorough, accomplished journalistic portrait that goes out of its way to examine heinous serial killings by putting them in context to Indian society. Directed by Dheeraj Jindal and produced by India Today, Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer is economically constructed (not one talking head feels out of place unlike the last installment of the Indian Predator series) and the narrative is tightly-wrung. The show opens with the murder of Uttar Pradesh journalist Dheerendra Singh who went mysteriously missing in December 2000. His dead body was recovered naked — the killer chopped off his genitals and beheaded him. Recovered call logs of the victim led the police to the doorsteps of Raja Kolander and his wife Phoolan Devi ; the couple lived in the same village as Dheerendra. Once the police kickstarted their investigation, Kolander and his brother-in-law admitted to murdering the journalist although Kolander kept misleading the cops about the motive behind the killing. The case against Kolander became murkier when the police stumbled upon a diary during a routine search at his house. Titled “Raja’s Diary,” it contained a list of 13 names with Dheerendra’s name being the 14th. The police instantly acted on the assumption that these 13 people could have been Raja’s victims and upon further questioning, Kolander is said to have made even more horrifying revelations. Not only did he reportedly lead the police to the remains of many more victims but it also came to light that Kolander, who would carry out most of his killings at his remote piggery farm, might have cannibalistic tendencies. After beheading some of his victims, Kolander is said to have taken their brains out — intestines in one case — and then boiled them to make a stew which he would eventually drink. Throughout the episodes, the police claimed to have recovered several dead bodies from his farm, finding even more body parts scattered around the borders of Uttar Pradesh as per his tip. Given the extent of the findings against Kolander, the makers (Pratham Mehta’s camera crafts hanting imagery of the murders through the show’s recreations) direct their gaze toward uncovering the origins of the serial killer in the man. It’s perhaps why despite the gory nature of his crimes, Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer seems invested in looking for something beyond the display of brutality. What the series evidently tasks itself with is reading his criminal brutality as an entry point into the method behind the madness. Through archival footage, extensive interviews with his children, relatives of his victims, almost-victims, cops, and fellow inmates, Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer paints a vivid portrait of a serial killer from various — often contradictory — vantage points. Like Kolander’s own testimony, his daughter and son keep denying his involvement in all murders, appearing angry even at the suggestion of his cannibalism and maintaining that he might have been framed. The testimony of everyone else points toward Kolander being a predator — someone who derives pleasure from his crimes and sees them as a way of dispensing justice. These back-and-forths are integral to the construction of Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer for it helps the makers to present claims as well as dispute them. For instance, Kolander’s claim of being a vegetarian is swiftly disputed by his kids who admit that he frequently ate meat. Similarly, his claims of having never met Dheerendra is proven to be false when his brother-in-law and son attest to him having met Dheerendra often. In that sense, it’s in the decision to underline these varying complex threads of the case that Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer stands tall. Unlike most Indian true-crime outings, the show doesn’t jump to conclusions, believing instead in spotlighting every perspective possible. It’s in that attempt that the show includes interviews of an anthropologist and a social activist, both of whom have in the past worked for the rights of marginalized communities, including Dalits and tribal communities. It’s their presence that aids the show’s pursuits of inspecting Kolander’s crimes through a socio-political lens. A criminal is after all, a product of his circumstances — Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer is intelligent enough to realize that. In that, the show dedicates much of the runtime of its last two episodes into delving deep into Kolander’s tribal origins, explaining in a way the circumstances that led him to see law and order as an obstacle to his assertion. The show traces his criminal being to displacement, the dicrimination faced by tribals (Kolander for instance technically belongs to a scheduled tribe but his community has been erroneously classified as a scheduled caste), and the mental trauma of being rendered powerless in a society that neglects people like him. It’s hard coded even in the names he’s given his kids — Zamanat (bail); Andolan (protest); and Adalat (courtroom). It’s remarkable how the show draws these parallels, in particular contextualizing it with the political uprising of the marginalized in Uttar Pradesh. It’s for that sheer reason that the show feels so embedded into the health of society, refusing to see criminals and their crimes in isolation. By centering Kolander’s resentment in his own voice (the parts the feature him account for arguably, the most chilling moments of the series), it sidesteps the glaring flaw in most true-crime formats, that seeks to identify predators rather than understanding their very being. Put simply, Indian Predator: The Diary of a Serial Killer is an achievement in both humanity and human behaviour. Poulomi Das is a film and culture writer, critic, and programmer. Follow more of her writing on  Twitter. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram