Netflix's Kaala Paani: How Mona Singh thriller is the culmination of India's pandemic programming

In a hilarious scene from Netflix’s new survival drama Kaala Paani, Dr Soudamini Singh (Mona Singh) is treating an elderly lady and voices her suspicion—she thinks the lady, who stays at a senior home, has gonorrhoea, a diagnosis that draws gasps from her juniors. It also causes the affronted patient to ask Dr Singh if she has forgone any sense of ‘lihaaj’ (propriety). Without missing a beat, Dr Singh says that doctors can either do ‘ilaaj’ (cure) or ‘lihaaj’ but not both. The whole scene is reminiscent—in a good way—of a similar scene from the medical drama House MD, where a similarly grouchy doctor is hit on by an elderly lady who has syphilis. Dr Singh’s dictum—the simplest explanation is usually correct—is also reminiscent of Dr House spouting ‘Occam’s Razor’ (a philosophical framework that privileges simple explanations), as is her limp (she has a prosthetic leg). But the similarities end there, for Mona Singh’s brilliant performance and the show’s sharp writing make Dr Soudamini Singh a unique and unforgettable character. _Kaala Paani_ is an ambitious show, juggling several weighty themes and for the most part, doing an admirable job with them. Set in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the narrative imagines a deadly new communicable disease spreading through the region, showing us its impact on the lives of a group of disparate individuals — Dr Singh, the region’s administrator Admiral Qadri (Ashutosh Gowariker, seen in an acting role after a while), corrupt cop Ketan Kamat (Amey Wagh, excellent), tourist guide Chiru (Sukant Goel), communicable disease expert Ritu Gagra (Radhika Mehrotra) and several others. With crony capitalist MNCs lurking and the knowledge of the native Oraka tribe members (whose casting here is another departure from Bollywood norms) holding the key to a possible cure, Kaala Paani keeps you hooked until the last moment. Kaala Paani is, in a way, the logical culmination of Indian film and TV’s pandemic programming—over the last couple of years, filmmakers have tried to capture the complexities of a large-scale public health crisis in their own ways. And while nobody has been quite as successful as the makers of Kaala Paani, there has been a steady buildup of these themes and personas — stoic doctors holding the line, shrewd administrators negotiating the mass manic, Everymen trying to come to terms with the sheer scale of the tragedy and so on. Think of Mumbai Diaries 26/11, for example, where the lead character Dr Kaushik Oberoi (Mohit Raina) is the classic stoic man, ideally suited for a crisis. Or a pair of Nayanthara films from last year — O2 and Connect. In the former, she plays a woman trapped in a landslide, in a small enclosed area with very little oxygen, the catch being that she has to ensure her young son keeps breathing as well. In Connect, an exorcism film, Nayanthara’s character sees her husband, an ER surgeon, breathing his last during the first Covid wave, saying his goodbyes to his wife and young daughter over video call. A heart-wrenching scene, but one that was all too common in India during the worst phase of the pandemic. These were situations and characters clearly informed by the realities of the Covid pandemic in India. In Hotstar’s medical thriller Human last year, the story was all about corrupt government officials in cahoots with greedy pharma companies—together they engage in all sorts of unethical and illegal practices, like exploiting the bodies of the poor and the disenfranchised under the guise of ‘human trials’. SonyLiv’s show from earlier this year, The Jengaburu Curse, merged climate change concerns with the medical thriller. Set in Odisha, the story sees a mysterious illness spreading through a mining-heavy region in Odisha, thanks to the practices of an evil mega-corporation. They even throw in a Naxalite angle to keep the action grounded in recognizable, present-day political realities. All of these setups are essentially trying to do very similar things to Kaala Paani. What they’re aiming for is an authentic portrayal of paranoia, guilt and a kind of mob behavior that takes over society once more than a certain number of people are driven by panic. In a situation where you have to choose between human beings, you have to choose which life to save, how many of us are confident in our choices? Kaala Paani doesn’t always offer answers but it makes sure that the audience is invested in the right questions, and that might be one of its biggest achievements.

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