‘Brown’ review: Gripping series overcomes plotting holes through memorable characters

Once upon a time, cops were cops. They carried out their duties. They extended greasy palms. They winked at vigilantes. They became vigilantes.

At some point, they were infected by angst, never to recover. They drank and snorted and lashed out. They were Troubled, their Anxieties Capitalised. Rita Brown is one such exemplar of the Troubled Cop.

The heroine of the ZEE5 series Brown is an ace investigator as well as a functioning alcoholic – one has collapsed into the other. Rita’s skills are prized, even though she isn’t. Of tangled hair, furrowed brow and brusque manner, Rita laughs out loud but once – all the way into the fifth of seven episodes.

Rita is played by Karisma Kapoor, who pleasantly shocks every now and then. In Brown, Karisma Kapoor is shorn of make-up, never mannered or over-the-top, and hugely compelling as a butcher’s dogged hunter.

The show’s source novel, Abheek Barua’s City of Death, is set in an unnamed city that is clearly Kolkata, which Barua describes as having “overflowing sewers” and “rutted streets” with houses covered with “dirty green moss clumped together”. In this necropolis, Sohini Sen investigates the beheading of two young women.

Among the key changes in the series is the reculturisation of Sohini Sen as an Anglo-Indian and the depiction of Kolkata as a cosmopolitan, vibrant city that doesn’t have a monopoly on death.

Rather, director Abhinay Deo, creator Suri Gopalan and writers Diggi Sisodia, Sunayana Kumari and Mayukh Ghosh dig into inner lives. Loss and betrayal have muddied the waters for the individuals in Brown, leading them to questionable decisions or outright derangement.

Ahana (Vaibhavi Malhotra), the daughter of Kolkata fat cat Dhiraj Jaiswal (Ajinkya Deo), has been brutally killed. Dhiraj has a direct line to the ponytailed chief minister (Arijit Dutta) and every intention to close a case that is drawing unnecessary attention to himself, his second wife Nonnie (Meghna Malik), his hothead son Sanjay (Paresh Pahuja) and Sanjay’s disgruntled wife Ananya (Pamela Bhutoria).

Ahana’s psychiatrist Sandip (Jisshu Sengupta) alerts Rita and her colleague Arjun (Surya Sharma) to the victim’s fragile state. Ahana’s best friend Shefali (Ahalya Shetty) and ex-boyfriend Saikat (Aryann Bhowmik) are among the suspects. So is Sanjay.

Both Rita and Arjun have Back Stories – this too is capitalised – that unfold alongside the investigation into Ahana’s death and another copycat murder. Rita has visions of her dead lover Nitin (Shaan). Rita’s mother Janice (Soni Razdan) and aunt Bertha (Helen) are the normal spots in Rita’s life that the hard-drinking cop chooses to ignore. Arjun has a tragic past and an ailing father (KK Raina).

The changes from the source novel take Brown away from one set of cliches about a perpetually atrophying Kolkata towards another set of cliches about neurotic cops confronting their demons even as they chase psychotic killers. While Brown follows the beats of crime thrillers to a fault, it benefits from well-written characters with defined arcs and solid scenes.

The show is well-produced, appropriately grim-looking and gripping. The dialogue is mostly in Hindi with lashings of Bengali and English.

Brown is fleet too, except when it comes to the killer, who is all but waving a placard that says, “I Did It!” but is bizarrely invisible to Rita and Arjun. This serious plotting drawback especially throws a pallor on Rita’s much-vaunted sleuthing. While we wait for the tubelights to come on for Rita and Arjun, we bask in the glow of the company they keep.

In a refreshing change, Rita and Arjun aren’t rivals but equals amicably travelling towards the same destination. Arjun has a touching concern for Rita’s health, while Rita is more attuned to Arjun’s career prospects than she lets on.

They navigate pressure from their bosses and Dhiraj’s meddling. They are supported by helpful colleagues – Kharaj Mukherjee’s forensics expert Durga is noteworthy. Rita’s informer John John (Kenny Basumatray), described as the “Wikipedia of Kolkata crime”, is clearly being kept in reserve for a second season, as is the ace hacker Lisa (Leena Lal).

There are lovely scenes between Rita and Janice and Janice and Bertha. Soni Razdan’s endearing Janice is concerned over her daughter’s drinking but also cool enough to let Rita be. Helen’s Bertha is the instigator of the one time that Rita visibly relaxes.

Abhinay Deo creates a convincing setting for the show’s themes of warped family dynamics, the secrets that exists between parents, children and siblings, and the violence that discreetly seethes within homes. Even as Brown increasingly feels overly familiar, it takes care to create emotional investment in its characters.

Rita appears benumbed at times, but she cares deeply, evident in her reactions to Ahana’s corpse or a confession of familial abuse. Karisma Kapoor correctly orients her skillset towards a walking contradiction of surface professionalism and simmering anguish. The English dialogue especially helps Kapoor, Razdan and Helen relax and better portray members of one of Kolkata’s most distinctive communities.

Surya Sharma is admirably contained as Arjun. Although Arjun’s sub-plot feels superfluous, Sharma continues with the restraint he displayed in The Naina Murder Case (2025), resulting in several strong scenes.

The killer too turns out a suitably sinister performance. The most obvious suspect but the last one to be identified, the beheader has fun while it lasts.