Srikanto is drama TV series directed by Sani Ghose Ray and stars Rishav Basu, Sohini Sarkar and Madhumita Sarcar, alongside other cast members. The series has 9 episodes, each with a runtime of around 30 minutes.

Hoichoi describes the series as:

Srikanto and Rajlokkhi’s sensual yet sporadic love transcends space and time. At a time of heartbreaking separation between the two, Abhaya enters Srikanto’s life even as his passionate fascination with Rajlokkhi strives for closure. Srikanto is the musical retelling of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s eponymous novel and presents a modern take on the relationship of Srikanto-Rajlokkhi.

– Srikanto review does not contain spoilers –

Srikanto is a retelling of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic. The series takes a bit to get to Srikanto and Rajlokkhi’s torrential relationship and jumps back and forth between the past and present quite a lot. Even with taking its time, the series gets quite delicious during these moments, setting up the present with the help of their past.

As the childish pranks and crushes of childhood give way to smoking weed and lamenting about said past, the series gets a bit repetitive with Srikanto walking around high out of his mind. The past sequences, with their kiddish behaviours and stupid crushes, are, actually, sweet. I enjoyed watching the young Srikanto running around with a look of disbelief on his face whenever it came to his dear Rajlokkhi.

But the series falters in anything other than the past. The present feels directionless and haphazard and unfortunately, you don’t connect with the characters either. For a show whose past characters seem so relatable, they really didn’t try to make these characters likeable or believable in the present. The mystery surrounding Rajlokkhi, or Piyali’s, present seems unnecessary since you already have an inkling of what she does. They don’t try to keep it a secret, but it is also a secret somewhere. It’s a bit confusing.

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Piyali and Srikanto’s interactions seem stale and there’s no zing between them. That’s not to say that there are absolutely no sweet moments; there are some. But it’s not enough and it’s not consistent for us to care about. The leads also don’t share enough chemistry to make this the sensual watch that it is supposed to be. The music, which is an important part of the show, misses out on a lot as well. Again, there’s that missing factor that fails to make this magical.

When it comes to the characters, I feel like Piyali’s character never really grew up from her childhood. I understand where she is coming from, but the immaturity doesn’t suit her, considering everything. Or, maybe, she goes back to her childhood days when she is with Srikanto? Either way, none of these characters are good people and thus you don’t feel any sort of bond with them. They feel half-baked and made-up and don’t seem like real people in any way, shape or form.

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Also, why are all the women vying for Srikanto’s attention? Is he some sort of catch or maybe the pheromones just get to all the women. Either way, Annie’s sexual harassment isn’t cute but what is worse is the dialogue. Good god, it’s difficult to sit and listen to this coming out of the actors’ mouths and wonder whether anyone actually talks like this in real life… or in this way. The acting goes hand-in-hand with the atrocious dialogue and the two coupled together make this a difficult watch, and in the worst ways possible. Sohini Sarkar is the only good thing here, but even then it’s impossible to take this show seriously.

Summing up: Srikanto

Srikanto tries to ride high on the beauty of its source material but tries too hard to be something that it is not. Apart from the blasts from the past, the series fails to make much of an impact and you fail to feel that passion that the two are supposed to have. Moreover, things just happen all of a sudden without much forethought and problems are solved too easily for you to have any sort of connection with the characters. All in all, it’s a bit boring, in spite of the… “intense” scenes.

Srikanto is streaming on Hoichoi.

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