Killer Soup, streaming on Netflix, is a searing eight-episode thriller series determined to assess the sharpness of our brains through its perplexing twists and turns. Featuring Manoj Bajpayee and Konkona Sensharma as leads, the series starts with the accidental murder of a businessman. His wife attempts to conceal her crime as well as her extramarital affair from an experienced senior cop. Peppered with colloquial Tamil dialect, the series serves as an entertaining combination of dark humour and finely drawn complexities, keeping the viewers intrigued till the climax. While Manoj Bajpayee excelled in his dual role, Konkona moulded herself as the soul of the series, adding momentum and intensity to the story throughout its runtime. Be it for the convincing storytelling or the eye-catching cinematography, the series is an all-round winner. Glad to kickstart my year with a refreshing whodunit series. (I liked/didn’t like Killer Soup because... January 12)

Aayman Anwar Ali

South Indian noir always makes for a refreshing watch, thanks to the interesting ways it differs from Hindi mainstream productions as well as from noir films or series made in other countries. Killer Soup belongs to the genre of humour noir or black comedy with a bizarre plotline that puts the talents of some of India’s best actors to the fullest use.

What sets the series apart is the serendipity of the events. Konkona Sen Sharma is perfect as Swathi, an unscrupulous femme fatale who, for all her criminality, never actually commits a murder in the series. Rather, she accidentally brings about the death or mutilation of some people around her on her way to culinary glory and does her best to literally bury the evidence. Manoj Bajpayee’s double role is a treat to watch, though one of them is a rather short-lived one.

I found Swathi’s use of the burqa as a camouflage and its eventual outcome quite interesting, especially in conjunction with the grotesque character of Khansama, a rustic cookery teacher whose “khufiya nuska” of an exotic magical mushroom finally makes Swathi’s soup delicious and ‘killer’ in more senses than one. The plot often veers into the surreal with a ghost making appearances to give vital clues to the investigator, through English poems recited in a heavy Tamil accent. As Bajpayee and Konkona have said in an interview, Killer Soup is such a weird story that it is impossible to predict what happens at any point.

I liked the series for several reasons, one of them being the complexity of its characters, which comes through, notwithstanding the darkly funny, bathetic outcomes of their actions.

Dhee Sankar

The Netflix series Killer Soup is a black comedy crime thriller, starring Manoj Bajpayee and Konkona Sensharma. The screenplay is remarkable and the characterisations are subtle. The protagonist, Swathi Shetty (Konkona), aspires to open a restaurant despite having no talent for cooking. She falls in love with her husband’s doppelganger and resolves to replace her husband with him. The eight-episode-long series is taut, well-made and full of excitement. The use of magic realism in the first four episodes makes the series more captivating.

Olivia Dhar

Killer Soup's director Abhishek Chaubey has given us sensitive portrayals in offbeat stories earlier, like Ishqiya, Sharmaji Namkeen and Omkara. Though the story is set in South India, the subtitles are smooth and watching the episodes is hassle-free. Swathi (Konkona) is a housewife who desperately wants to open a restaurant of her own. However, her cooking skills are far from perfect. Besides, she is a married woman whose husband Prabhakar (Manoj Bajpayee) is neck-deep in debt. Swathi wants to learn cooking on the sly and also has an affair with a one-eyed masseur Umesh (Bajpayee in a dual role), who ends up accidentally killing Prabhakar. The only way out is for Umesh to masquerade as Prabhakar.

Both Konkona and Manoj reign supreme in this series. Mohanlal and Nassar, too, add to the brilliance of the cast. Its amazing twists and turns keep you hooked.

Pampa Paul

Abhishek Chaubey’s Killer Soup is a curious mix of dark comedy and suspense thriller with the Konkona Sen Sharma-Manoj Bajpayee duo proving to be the cynosure of all eyes. Set amidst the hilly, lush green imaginary town of Mainjur, the narrative unfurls in the affluent Shetty household where the husband, Prabhakar (Manoj Bajpayee), is an epicurean locked in a loveless marriage with Swathi (Konkona), who aspires to set up a restaurant even though she possesses no culinary skills. She wishes to cook the perfect ‘paya soup’ aided by the secret recipe carefully guarded by a bizarre chef. Swathi, an erstwhile nurse desiring to break free from the shackles of patriarchy, strikes up an illicit relationship with Umesh Pillai, a doppelganger and masseur of Prabhakar. Umesh accidentally kills Prabhakar and is subsequently sucked into the vicious cycle of deception, treachery, fraud and betrayal rampant in the world of the Shettys.

Swathi is over-ambitious and embarks on an overnight makeover of Umesh as Prabhakar to trick the others. She is like Lady Macbeth who goads Umesh into action and steers him to raise funds from Prabhakar’s brother, Arvind (Sayaji Shinde), to enable her to set up her restaurant. All hell breaks loose and the ‘floodgates of evil’ are let open. Swathi’s opponents are annihilated mysteriously without her direct involvement. Comic relief is interspersed in the narrative, offering us respite from the murkiness of the story. It is Konkona who helms the story with her performance, transitioning from a subdued wife preoccupied with prosaic daily matters to an entrepreneur smitten with sudden wealth syndrome. Her eyes and facial expressions become more eloquent than her dialogues most of the time. She’s the sentinel who propels the story to its climax wherein she successfully serves ‘paya soup’ to her guests and bowls them over. What ensues is complete pandemonium!

Suparna Ghosh

Initially, the title itself drew me to watch this series and when I started, I was glued to the screen. Kudos to the actors first — the trio of Manoj, my favourite Konkona and Sayaji Shinde — and the unpredictable script. A great story with excellent performances and cinematography, I watched a story like this after a long time.

Sandeep Kumar Agarwal

Killer Soup is not just a soup, it’s a complete platter with sweet, bitter, sour and hot tastes to savour. Director Abhishek Chaubey has hit the bullseye with a great ensemble cast. Pairing Konkona Sensharma with Manoj Bajpayee is his first trump card! Both actors are at their magnificent best in their respective roles. After a long time, it was a great pleasure to watch Konkona as Swathi. One never feels she is anyone other than Swathi. Manoj Bajpayee had to play Prabhu, Umesh and then Umesh as an imposter to Prabhu, and he excelled in each of the roles. The imaginary South Indian town of Mainjur added a beautiful background to this dark comedy-thriller, based on a headline in a newspaper. The powerful performances, along with great storytelling, make Killer Soup entertaining and worth watching.

Kakali Mukherjee

I liked Killer Soup a lot. Its suspenseful tale has in it many sudden and unpredictable twists and turns to surprise viewers. The mind-blowing performances by both Konkona Sensharma and Manoj Bajpayee made this black comedy a thrilling ride.

The eight-episode series was intriguing and entertaining from the start and remained so till the climax. Having enjoyed the series very much, I am now hoping for another season of this show and keeping my fingers crossed.

Sourish Misra