Latest news with #Mahabal
India Today
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
How ‘Black, White & Gray' raises the crime saga bar
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated May 26, 2025)An intelligent filmmaker knows that all stories have been told already, and a fresh story means fresh storytelling. Case in point: the new Sony LIV Hindi series Black, White & Gray—Love Kills. Written, directed and edited by Pushkar Sunil Mahabal, the Rashomon-like six-episode series is part true crime mockumentary, part chase thriller, and full metafiction. What could have been a straightforward crime story is explored as a fake documentary looking into the aftermath of the crime, juxtaposed with its dramatic re-enactment. This style coaxes us to question the ethics of the true crime genre, and the intersections of caste, class and gender across which crimes A politician's daughter and the son of the politician's driver sneak out one night to have sex in a hotel. Later, CCTV footage suggests that the man has killed the woman and escaped with her body. The police allege that the man goes on to murder a cop and two others in his killing spree. The man has been absconding for two series is framed as a project by a western filmmaker visiting India. His mockumentary features interviews with friends and relatives of the victims, while the dramatic re-enactment shows what could have gone down between the man, the woman, and the three other victims. The filmmaker reveals his trump card at the end of episode one: he has tracked down and interviewed the of the most innovative Indian series in a long time, Black, White & Gray... is true gonzo filmmaking. At a time of despair in the Mumbai film industry over its products' staleness and commercial failures, Mahabal proves that imagination is all it to India Today MagazineTrending Reel
India Today
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Why Pushkar Mahabal's ‘Black, White & Gray' is a killer crime-thriller
Writer-director Pushkar Mahabal is on cloud nine these days, basking in the adulation for his debut series Black, White & Gray: Love Kills on SonyLIV. Taking an ingenious approach to a crime thriller—part documentary with talking heads, part fictional re-enactments with clever use of found footage—the series has gained currency through word-of-mouth publicity.'It's overwhelming,' says Mahabal. 'I was sure we won't get negative reviews because we knew it wasn't a bad show. What surprised me was how people have picked every single beat and minute detail.'advertisementTracing the bloody footprint of a serial killer, the show, through the course of six episodes, leaves viewers with multiple perspectives of the crimes. It does so by featuring voices of multiple individuals—the accused and his parents, the victims' friend and family, police officers, an assassin, to name a few. By the end of it, viewers are left to wonder who's telling the truth and what truly saas-bahu TV shows and a little-seen film to his credit, Mahabal had his share of struggles to find a taker for his series. SonyLIV came to his rescue. 'From the first meeting with SonyLIV we knew we were at the right place,' says Mahabal. 'Saugata Mukherjee, [head of content, SonyLIV,] felt it was well thought out. Rarely does it happen that a platform says we will give you feedback but you make the show you want to make.'advertisement It helped that Mahabal had gone with bound scripts for all six episodes rather than a traditional bible that outlines the story. It's a unique approach and a risky one too, but was worth it. 'Entering this field is gamble enough,' adds Mahabal. 'Why not go one step further and follow one's gut?'The opportunity also came at a time the streaming industry is going through a creative churn, with writers and creators finding it tough to get projects going with streaming platforms. 'It's a systemic problem, not one to pin on an individual. Everyone will have creative interpretations and clashes, back and forth will happen, and feedback will be taken negatively,' says Mahabal. 'I want to invest my time in writing a show that I believe in. I don't want to get into development phase with a network because that doesn't work.'Mahabal came to Mumbai from Nagpur, harbouring a passion for music. He started by composing for Marathi films. Six years on, he pivoted to direction, scoring his big break with the TV show Manmarziyaan. 'After that, I did a lot of regressive work; the more regressive it was the more money I made. I have done even close-ups of sindoor,' he says stint in TV helped forge many friendships and taught him many lessons. 'TV gave me an idea that I should only write things that I can produce should I not find a producer,' he wasn't long before Mahabal and his two friends, writer-producer Ankita Narang and cinematographer Saee Bhope, banded together and decided to get out of their comfort zone to make a film, investing their own savings and taking loans. The result was Welcome Home, which found home on SonyLIV. 'We launched ourselves because nobody else would give us the opportunity,' he says.A fan of true-crime documentaries and an ardent watcher of shows such as Forensic Files, Mahabal describes Black, White & Gray as a true-crime doc that he wanted to see. Having heard interviews of American serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer and seen Netflix docs Night Stalker and Don't F*** With Cats triggered the idea. 'I was envious because I felt I didn't have the patience or the resources or the skills to make a true-crime doc. I thought if I can't make a real one, let me just fake one,' he also felt the saturated market of OTT crime thrillers needed a fresh outlook. 'I was bored of watching the same things, sometimes shot badly or sometimes in a brilliant manner. No one was playing with non-linear screenplay. There was no experimentation in the genre,' he recalled a friend's brief misadventure in Goa where his girlfriend lost consciousness, briefly leaving him panicked if she was dead and how to contend with the situation. 'I thought it would be a funny dark comedy and did write it, but then left it midway,' he recounts. By 2022, he was revisiting the anecdote and giving it a new of Black, White & Gray's appeal is how Mahabal uses the talking heads to infuse his socio-cultural worldview on issues such as misogyny, class disparity, state of TV news, taboos around love, and so on. Even as viewers become aware of his narrative ploy, the Rashomon way of storytelling ensures one's following the story. That's largely due to the compelling faces casting directors Trishaan and Shubham find for the interviews and the way Mahabal directs More (of Kota Factory fame) is the most familiar face in the cast, but the scene-stealer here is Sanjay Kumar Sahu, who plays the accused. The FTII-trained actor and acting coach commands every scene, playing an ordinary man caught in the most extraordinary of circumstances and one whose moral compass is hard to the show is a breakthrough moment in his career, the filmmaker is not letting the attention get to him even as he contends with the expectation that comes his way. 'I have to be careful. I have been getting messages 'Tum uss jaise (filmmaker) mat ho jaana'. So, I am a bit scared also. I am doing a very small Hindi film right now. I just want to focus on it. I don't want to fall into a trap where everyone is like—do something big,' he to India Today Magazine
Scroll.in
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
‘Black White & Gray' review: A gripping dissection of the true crime genre
Pushkar Mahabal, the director of the terrifying thriller Welcome Home, turns his unsparing gaze on the true crime genre for his new project. The Sony LIV series Black, White & Gray – Love Kills is a meta-fiction narrative with two intertwined strands: a mockumentary about a crime that is supposed to be real, and the restaging of the crime. A young man from a working-class background is in hiding after being accused of four murders. Two years after this headline-grabbing case, an unseen filmmaker is meeting people who knew the victims. The filmmaker reveals the rabbit in his hat: he has an interview with the alleged perpetrator (Hardik Soni), who not only denies his involvement but also provides an entirely different sequence of events. On a parallel track, actors recreate the murder trail. The dramatisation identifies the principal characters as the Girl (Palak Jaiswal) and the Boy (Mayur More). Only the individuals who feature in the documentary are named, such as the driver Sunny (Hakkim Shahjahan) and the police officer Chauhan (Tigmanshu Dhulia). The Girl is the daughter of a politician (Anant Jog); the Boy is the son of the politician's driver (Jairoop Jeevan). Separated by economic class, social status and possibly caste, the Girl and the Boy nevertheless fall for each other. A date night leads to disaster. The Girl disappears, the Boy is on the run, and the bodies are piling up. Formally, Black, White & Gray is one of the boldest series in recent times. Created by Mahabal and Hemal A Thakkar and written by Mahabal, Black, White & Gray is an ambitious attempt to deconstruct true crime while mimicking its stylistic elements. Although the Hindi series is entirely a work of fiction, it uncannily reproduces the devices used by true crime shows – grainy CCTV footage, emotional interviews with people who knew the victims, the confident assertions of police officers about the accused's guilt, the blanket media coverage. The series takes viewers through a warren of half-truths and self-serving lies, reminding us of that murkiness underpins assumptions about innocence and complicity. During the process of analysing the claim of the true crime genre to expose the hidden truth behind shocking crimes, Black, White & Gray smuggles in themes of biased policing, confirmation bias and the public perception of ideal victims. The camera lies too, and often in ways that are hard to spot. There is a lot to take in, with the first couple of episodes demanding intense concentration. It's a measure of Mahabal's understanding of structure – he has also edited the series – that Black, White & Gray is never confusing even while following two strands side by side. The performances closely follow Mahabal's dual-weaving approach. The actors in the mockumentary behave as they might in an actual documentary, speaking plainly or angrily contradicting the filmmaker. Hardik Soni's murder accused is bereft of emotion as he tries to make a case for himself. The dramatised portions are heavier on emotion, with the characters played by Palak Tiwari and Mayur More driven to despair by their circumstances. The cast includes Deven Bhojani as a mysterious enforcer. Black, White & Gray is intense and involving for the most part, unpeeling its many layers with dexterity. The performances are excellent. Saee Bhope's camerawork deftly captures the show's double-headed quest to make viewers question what they are watching. But Mahabal overplays his hand, piling on the agony felt by the Girl and the Boy and indulging himself while juggling his meta-fiction. In this aspect too, the six-episode Black, White & Gray resembles a true crime show that overstates its case and doesn't end when it should. Play
