There’s something deeply perverse about watching a series called, ‘Killer Soup’ whose opening scene depicts a soup being cooked. Who knows what’s in it? A barbaric, even cannibalistic element seems inevitable. Surprisingly, that’s not the case, and the serene glow of a homey lifestyle offsets these criminalist themes explored in the later parts of the series.

Initially, it seems like Swathi (Konkona Sen Sharma), an aspiring cook, is looking towards an uplifting future with a potential restaurant bought by her businessman husband, Prabhu (Manoj Bajpayee).

But things look dubious from get-go: her hot-tempered husband seems to be talking about her restaurant in duplicitous tones, and shows nothing but scarcely hidden contempt for his wife’s cooking (which you later discover is a universal reality), his business is going down the drain of fraudulence, and the catastrophic catalyst that sets off the chain of chaotic, murderous events of the series: Swathi is having an affair with her husband’s look-alike, Umesh Pillai.

‘Killer Soup’ doesn’t take itself too seriously most of the time. The premise tells you the absurdity of the plot, and for the most part, the show handily utilises the reins that comes with a story that it is not seeking to be too realistic or serious. Abhishek Chaubey, whose directorial features include the widely acclaimed ‘Udta Punjab’, and the critically acclaimed, ‘Sonchiriya’, finds himself experimenting with the complexities of a black comedy drama that hinges on the stakes the morally dubious main characters are willing to go to mask their crimes.

Chaubey and the writers balance the criminal aspects of the show with its dramatic ones. Every step of the way, Swathi and Umesh are met with hurdles that threaten to unravel their crimes: the accidental murder of Swathi’s husband, Prabhu.

We have the headstrong ASP Thupalli, who nearly thwarts the antics of the criminal couple before he accidentally falls to his death from a cliff—emphasis on the word ‘accident’ because you soon realise that it is a main theme of the show. There is Arvind Shetty, the hot-tempered brother of Prabhu, for whom being swindled by Prabhu poses great trouble. And there is Kirtima (Kani Kusruti), Prabhu’s secretary who he had been having an affair with.

What binds all of these characters is Swathi and her accidental destructive tendencies. These start off when Swathi accidentally kills her husband in a scuffle when he catches her with Umesh at their house. In a bid to hide her crimes, she transforms Umesh to look like Prabhu. (Umesh does look exactly like Prabhu except for a squint-eye.) Her lies and destruction only mount from there on. This is just the start, as Swathi goes on to cause the accidental deaths of everybody around her.

When ASP Thupalli discovers Swathi at the scene of the hidden crime—where Prabhu’s body is hidden, he accidentally falls to his death from a cliff, when Swathi is almost about to surrender. Following a botched attempt at ransom from her own brother-in-law, Arvind, the man is accidentally shot to his death. And Kirtima, the only person she attempted to kill of her own volition, comes severely close to out manoeuvring her, in similar fashion, falls to her death after tripping. Swathi may not be outwardly criminal at first, but she rapidly progresses into one to hide her lies, and this devolution is a significant aspect of the show that keeps it interesting.

It’s hard to glean just how ruthless the writers intended Swathi to become, as her increasing irredeemability makes her a protagonist you cannot root for. Sharma, who is playing Swathi, holds the story together, as the disillusioned imposter tries everything in her desperation to shield her crimes.

You see everything in Sharma’s expressions: Swathi’s ruthless tenacity, the deeply embedded sense of self-loathing that has given way to her desperation for a better life, the burgeoning lack of empathy for her victims, her anger towards her husband and the misplaced ones to those around her, and the feeling of being on the brink of insanity. Swathi’s alienation from everything she’s willing to put on the line, and her subsequent actions, results in a kind of unique position where you, as the audience, root for Swathi’s actions to face their due punishment.

The same can be said of Bajpayee’s portrayal of the committed yet worn out Pillai. Pillai is constantly swayed by Swathi, and goes along with almost everything she says in the name of a happy future. At times you almost believe that the love he has for Swathi is genuine, but he too suffers similar devolution, as he slowly but surely turns into another Prabhu: uncaring and unfaithful, internalising the mask he’s wearing. He holds nothing but resentment towards the real Prabhu, but goes back on his words when he sleeps with Kirtima, the woman Prabhu was having an affair with.

This exemplifies Swathi and Umesh’s frivolous ‘love’; were it not for Swathi’s anger towards her husband, or Umesh’s declining financial situation, and the ensuing chaos that occurs following Prabhu’s death, these are just two selfish people who can barely see anything beyond their own gain. This holds even more weight when Swathi and Prabhu’s son calls him out on his fake father’s behaviour, “Dad, you have not changed at all.”

Only positive cannot be said of this show—certain storylines and characters feel forced in their motivations. This is mainly true for Inspector Hassan, astutely portrayed by Nassar, but falling short in the character’s depth and motivations.

Following the death of Thupalli, Inspector Hassan is guilt-ridden and burdened with a sense of responsibility, which leads him to a series of hallucination spells that ultimately leads him to the truth about Swathi and Umesh. ASP Thupalli literally comes to haunt him after his death, while narrating poetic monologues to guide him through the convoluted web of murders.

Despite the often far-fetched nature of the series, Hassan’s character both crosses the line when it comes to the guilt-ridden psyche it’s trying to portray, and somehow feels stereotypical when it comes to its depiction of a hardened police officer. Instead of being seamlessly blended with the rest of the series’ ragtag group of characters, Hassan feels like a character of convenience—the story needed a person of authority to bring Swathi down, and there he was.

After cultivating a convoluted storyline filled with too many characters, ‘Killer Soup’ also finds itself grappling with the responsibility of giving a coherent ending which it fails to do so. Everything just becomes too messy—the series could’ve cut down its last few episodes, instead of going around circles of attempted kidnapping, fraud, countless more deaths, Swathi and Umesh’s tiresome fights and more. The end isn’t nearly as thrilling as it could’ve been, and does justice to neither of its antagonistic protagonists, and its truth-seekers. Umesh comes around, and seems to achieve some sort of agency away from Swathi’s cataclysmic decisions, but ends up landing right where he started.

However there is something to be said of Umesh’s commitment towards Swathi’s farce—he drinks from Swathi’s distasteful bowl of soup in excess to prove his undying dedication, only for it to be the cause of their downfall. Early on at the start of the series too, Umesh pours excess acid on his face to supposedly help Swathi in the makeover to turn him into Prabhu, only to backfire. If Swathi is an invitation of destruction to those around her, Umesh is the catalyst of hers; and together they only continue the cycle of destruction they laid the foundation for, leaving ashes behind.

Swathi’s devolution is natural, and despite her actions finally catching up with her, it all comes crashing down in a fairly anticlimactic and cliched end. The one thing that remains constant is Swathi’s killer soup, or lack thereof, because we soon find out that Swathi is hopeless when it comes to cooking. The soup itself could serve as an extension of Swathi’s distasteful personality, and her equally distasteful fate.

Killer Soup

Director: Abhishek Chaubey

Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Manoj Bajpayee, Nassar

Released: 2023

Episodes: 8

Available on: Netflix