Against the Stream

Bengali OTT entertainment has taken off, but it sadly remains a prisoner of its own predictability

- Malini Banerjee

It was Leo Tolstoy who had famously said, “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” The Russian master seems to have described perfectly modern Bengali entertainment—films and shows that stream on OTT platforms such as Hoichoi, Klikk and Addatimes. There is one problem, however: Not all that streams is “great”.

When Anirban Bhattacharya’s directorial debut Mandaar released on Hoichoi last November, it was rightly lauded as “pathbreaking” and “stunning”. Set in a coastal town in Bengal, there was something compelling about his take on Macbeth. Though it followed the usual web show recipe—sex, violence, cuss words—its fish eat-fish world also exceeded these tropes. The same, sadly, cannot be said for other Bengali OTT thrillers.