Kaala, Trailer launch: Reverse osmosis – turning white money into black

There has been an ongoing illegal operation conducted in India over many a decade: it is called the generation and circulation of ‘black money’. ‘Black money’ is unaccounted wealth, on which no tax has been paid. Most black money transactions have been conducted in cash, to avoid leaving any trace. There is no record of the amount of money that has been floating in the market, as black money. A campaign was launched by the Indian government almost a decade ago, to demonetise certain currency notes, with the intention of drawing possessors of black money to banks, to exchange it for white money. This would unearth a huge amount of black money, it was felt. Unfortunately, the idea did not work. Legalising black money, by converting it to white (accounted, tax-payed) money is called money laundering. But Kaala has at its core the conversion of white money into black! Sounds irrational, illogical, doesn’t it? Nothing more was revealed at the trailer launch of Kaala, a Disney+ Hotstar presentation, at the T-Series office, in Andheri, Mumbai, on 31^st August. This is T-Series’ maiden foray into OTT territory. Hitherto, it was known as a film production and music marketing giant.

Present on the occasion were creator, director and co-producer of the series, Bejoy Nambiar (Shaitan, David, Taish), dressed in a lungi (they probably call it a mundu down South), and members of the cast: Avinash Tiwary (Qais/Majnu in Imtiaz Ali’s Laila Majnu), who plays an Intelligence Bureau officer, Taher Shabbir, who plays a powerful businessman, Hiten Tejwani, Jitin Gulati, Rohan Vinod Mehra and Elisha Meyer. Also in the cast is Nivetha Pethuraj, who was not present. Producer Bhushan Kumar made a guest appearance at the beginning of the proceedings.

They shared the casting and auditioning process and the single-minded devotion of Nambiar. Nambiar, now 44, agreed that most of his work was in the dark zone, but the only award he won for writing was for a sentimental film, directed by his wife. Nevertheless, he will examine the possibilities of making some emotional dramas in the future. Everybody was tight-lipped about the plot of Kaala, and even when they spoke about their characters in the crime thriller, they gave the barest of detail. However, it was clear that the theme is the use of white-turned black money in funding heinous crimes: terrorist funding, illegal weapons and drugs, another tale of criminals v/s law enforcers

This writer put two questions to Nambiar. 1. We saw a fleeting glimpse of veteran Mita Vashisht in the trailer. Are there more senior actors in the series, which has a largely youthful main cast? 2. How much importance does he attach to emotions as a balance to action, since action seems to dominate his work. Replying to the first question, he said that there are indeed other senior actors in the series. Shakti Kapoor was seen in the trailer (I could not spot him) and there are many more. But he would like to keep their names under wraps, for now. On the second question, he had this to say, “Any action without emotion will be ineffective. My guru, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, told me long ago that even if you show a car being blown up, it will be meaningless without an emotional connect. So, I always make it a point to connect action with emotion.” I learnt later that Shakti Kapoor is sharing screen space with Taher Shabbir (Fan, Naam Shabana, Guilty). Just as an aside, Taher’s surname is Mithaiwala and the family actually runs a candy/sweetmeat shop in central Mumbai.

Asked whether his work bears the stamp of Mani Rathnam, his current guru, he revealed that he still acknowledges Rathnam as his mentor and continues to work with him as assistant director for several years now. But he makes no conscious attempt to imitate his guru. “If you do find some shades of my master in my work, it is a compliment. After all, I belong to his school of film-making.” An interesting fact shared by him was that at the last minute, there was a dates problem with Avinash Tiwary, so he asked another actor to prepare for a change of role, but luckily it was all sorted out, just in time.

This was the first time I visited the basement of the T Series building, which is quite large, and for a unit of 8-10 persons to sit comfortably, it was just right. The trailer was screened earlier, at their 13th floor preview theatre. It was a hard-hitting, rocket-paced trailer, with cars going a-tumbling, but gave little away.

Seven episodes of the series have already been canned and the eighth and final episode is likely to be shot over the next few days. Kaala is scheduled to start streaming on 15 September, on Disney+ Hotstar, when the reverse osmosis begins.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/j7kXbtmhxxc