Mr. Kolketa (2023) S01

When history geek, Kolke, partners up Mr. Kolketa with his nerdy nephew Potai, and a quirky young girl, Jhelum, to uncover a lost treasure hidden in the underground tunnels of Kolkata, their expedition culminates in a gripping showdown beneath the city’s surface.

A security guard of a museum gets killed and one of the officials Amarendra Sen (Kaushik Chattopadhyay) gets arrested for murder and theft of an exquisite piece of ancient muslin. That piece of cloth turns out to be fake. His daughter Jhelam teams up with a history enthusiast and corporation staff member Kalokallol Dutta, aka Mr. Kolke (Ritwick Chakraborty), to find the real piece of cloth that has immense historical significance. Politician Jimut Basak (Kaushik Sen), Amadendra’s family friend, interferes and turns out to be a crooked villain. The cat-and-mouse game goes on through the nooks and corners of old Kolkata and its history. Mr Kolketa is a usual treasure hunt that we have been watching in Bangla for a while now. One smart history enthusiast man solves riddles and applies his knowledge to find treasures. Through this, they bring out the hidden historical treasures to the viewers. Those nuggets are sometimes genuine and sometimes, not so genuine but have been engaging so far. However, with the incessant use of this formula, that engaging bit has faded away. After Alinagarer Golokdhadha, Guptodhoner Sondhane, Tansener Tanpura, and so on, it seems we need something new and fresh. Mr Kolketa fails to offer that freshness. There are a number of high and low points in the show. First, the Ritwick-Rajnandini’s treasure hunt delves into our ancient skills of weaving. The tradition of our weavers seldom takes place in popular culture and that bit is surely engaging. Next is Rajnandini. If there is one bit that looks refreshing it has to be the presence of Rajnandini. Jhelum’s character is quirky and yet of a girl-next-door. She brings a whiff of fresh air on screen with her chic casualness. Then there are a bunch of witty dialogues. The screenplay got better in the fourth and fifth episodes before dropping again with overt sentimentality and outright predictability.