Just a month ago a new show came out on Netflix titled Khakee: The Bihar Chapter. This seven-episode crime drama revolved around an Indian police officer named Amit Lodha who pursued and eventually captured a notorious underground criminal named Chandan Mahato.
While showing the growing tension between cop and criminal, the show was also highly creditable to all audiences and did its best to keep more mature themes out of the picture. Khakee is great on its own, but there is a recently released Indian political thriller on the scene titled CAT which upsets this golden rule.
Be a CAT, but don’t get caught
Being Netflix’s first series in Punjabi and releasing on 9th December 2022, CAT presents Chris Hemsworth Extraction (with a sequel in the works) stars Randeep Hooda in the series lead role. The 46-year-old actor plays angsty and desperate, who after living his life in witness protection since his teenage years, must once again step into the shoes of an informant for the Punjab police in a life-changing job . in return, protect his brother from prosecution for drug trafficking.
What’s unique about Hooda’s Gurnaam Singh is that the show doesn’t stray away from showing the emotional turmoil Singh goes through after all the dramatic events that occur. Much like the men and women who choose to watch this whole adventure unfold on the small screen, the character is reserved and cool when needed, but lets his emotional cracks widen when he steps into a safe space.
Whether it’s being undercover around dirty cops, corrupt politicians, or just influential men with abusive tendencies towards their wives and children, CAT is not at all afraid of constantly hitting the viewer with dark scene after dark scene which definitely helps set the real scene of what is happening in modern Punjab. Just like in the United States and magnified by modern films like the Sicario franchisese and classic franchises like scarface with Al Pacino, drugs are unsurprisingly rampant in other countries as well and the show’s producers, Rupinder Chalal and Bilwinder and Jimmy Singh want to make sure that audiences, wherever they are in the world, are very aware of this epidemic. In addition to this ubiquitous connection in the present day, CAT provides plenty of shocking twists at every turn.
In addition to doing their best to incorporate real-life issues and themes into CAT, viewers can see throughout the episodes that the attention to detail regarding the overall creative camerawork and cinematography. If someone is going through a dark or emotional moment (which there is a lot in this series), you will absolutely see those inner feelings come to life thanks to the narrow background lighting or the distance between the camera and the topic. These effects not only help convey the appropriate feeling for the scene, but also provide additional support to show how the character in question is feeling.
The celebrity cast behind CAT
The widespread themes of betrayal, revenge, and redemption couldn’t have been brought to the fore any better than with this focused and hard-working cast. As named earlier, Hooda is iconic in Hindi cinema, featuring hits such as Unfair and charming of 2021 and the tv show Inspector Avinash. Playing Randeep’s confidante again, Hasleen Kaur stars as Babita, a fellow Punjabi police officer who never wavers on the right side of the law, even if she has to deceive others. Ms Kaur was also a former Miss India Earth in 2011. Punjabi expert actor Suvinder Vicky took on the role of Sehtab Singh, the boss of Gurnaam in the Punjabi police agency who lies and cheats just as much as the serial criminals. Just like Ms. Kaur, Mr. Vicky has had a long and historic career as an Indian actor, working mostly in the supporting cast of TV shows and movies.
Neither the exquisite crafting of camera shots to emphasize emotion nor the superior cast choices would have been possible without the two production companies behind CAT, Movie Tunnel Productions and Jelly Bean Entertainment. Cementing itself on its website as India’s leading women’s agency, Jelly Bean is a talent recruitment agency based in Mumbai, India, specifically. They are responsible for over thirty names in the Indian film industry including bringing the super talented Hooda, Coral Bhamra, Raman Deep Yadav and others to CAT. To be a little younger on the Indian production scene and release its first showcase film in 2022 with the previously named younot fair and lovelythey have already made quite an impression with streaming audiences with CAT on Netflix.
Next time you’re making a plan to watch an international crime drama, aim for the Netflix platform and hit the play button on CAT.