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Karagar (lit. 'The prison') is a thriller web series directed by Syed Ahmed Shawki, started streaming on the Bengali OTT platform Hoichoi from 19 August 2022. Hoichoi announced their upcoming new five web series, Karagar is one of them, Based on Bangladesh, the series features Chanchal Chowdhury, Intekhab Dinar, Tasnia Farin and FS Nayeem in the lead roles.

Karagar
Promotional poster
Genre	Thriller
Created by	Syed Ahmed Shawki
Screenplay by	Neamoth Ullah Masum Shuhan Rizwan Siddiq Ahamed Rasheduzzan Rakib Syed Ahmed Shawki
Story by	Neamoth Ullah Masum
Directed by	Syed Ahmed Shawki
Starring	Chanchal Chowdhury Intekhab Dinar Tasnia Farin FS Nayeem
Composers	Ruslan Rehman Adeep Singh Manki Anindit Roy
Country of origin	Bangladesh
Original language	Bengali
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7 (list of episodes)
Production
Production location	Bangladesh
Editor	Saleh Sobhan Auneem
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	Film Noir Film Syndicate
Release
Original network	Hoichoi
Original release	19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)

Premise

Akashnagar Jail is a prison in Bangladesh. Cell No. 145 of this jail has been closed from 1971. It is soon known that there is a prisoner inside that cell. Senior authorities broke the old lock of the cell and entered the cell. When asked how he came to be in this cell, the mute prisoner hinted that he had been imprisoned for killing Mir Jafar in c. 1771 and had been transferred to different prisons at various times including Kala Pani Jail.[1][2]

Cast

• Chanchal Chowdhury as the mysterious prisoner alias David Adam
• Intekhab Dinar as Mostak Ahmed, the prison warden of Akashnagar Jail
• Bijori Barkatullah as Panna, wife of Mostak
• Partho Sheikh as prisoner Sajib, son of Mostak and Panna
• Afzal Hossain as Humayun Kabir, IG Prison
• AK Azad Shetu as Abul Khayer, a prison officer
• Tasnia Farin as Maha
• FS Nayeem as Ashfaq, a officer of Detective Branch and friend of Mostak
• Shatabdi Wadud as father Alfred
• Jayanta Chattopadhyay as Gulzar, one of prisoners

Episodes

Series	Episodes		Originally released
1	7		19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)

Part 1 (August)

The first season of Karagar was released on 19 August 2022 with seven episodes. In the first season, Mostak meets the mysterious prisoner who claims that he killed Mir Jafar. Maha is the interpreter who interprets his statement to police.

No. overall	Episode	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	Resurrection	Syed Ahmed Shawki	Neamoth Ullah Masum	19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)
2	Black Sheep	Syed Ahmed Shawki	Neamoth Ullah Masum	19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)
3	Life and death	Syed Ahmed Shawki	Neamoth Ullah Masum	19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)
4	History and mystery	Syed Ahmed Shawki	Neamoth Ullah Masum	19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)
5	Light and shadow	Syed Ahmed Shawki	Neamoth Ullah Masum	19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)
6	Spirit and ghosts	Syed Ahmed Shawki	Neamoth Ullah Masum	19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)
7	Lost sheep	Syed Ahmed Shawki	Neamoth Ullah Masum	19 August 2022 (2022-08-19)

Part 2 (December)

On 21 September 2022, the Hoichoi authority announced that the second part of the web series will be released in December of the same year on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the establishment of their platform.[3]

Production

Neamoth Ullah Masum got the concept for it from "Kaktaal" (lit. 'Coincidence'), a Bangladeshi rock band from the Old Dhaka Central Jail, whose members are temporary and briefly defected to get out of the jail.[5] Before this web series, Syed Ahmed Shawki and Neamoth Ullah Masum worked in the web series Taqdeer. Neamoth suggested the director to make Karagar. The duo completed the web series concept in 3/4 months. The story of the web series was then written for a year. While writing the story, suggestions were taken from the crew and actors of the web series. The director had already decided that Chanchal Chowdhury would be cast in the lead role of the web series.[6] The shooting was done for two consecutive weeks. Chanchal fell ill due to continuous acting in the unsanitary environment of the prison.[7] The production team had to do a lot of historical research to write its plot.[1] In September 2021, Hoichoi announced the release of the Karagar web series to mark its fifth anniversary.[8] The two parts of the web series have been shot simultaneously. Most of its scenes were shot in Old Dhaka Central Jail which is currently closed for renovation work.[9] Atia Rahman did the make-up work of the actors including Chanchal, who tried to make his look realistic.[10] For the story, Chanchal and Farin had to learn sign language for three months. A sign language teacher was present on location during the shooting.[11] After the release of Part 1 on 19 August 2022, post-production work on Part 2 of the web series began in September 2022.[12]

Reception

After the release of part 1 of the web series, it and its performers received positive response from the audience.[6][13] The art and entertainment desk of The Daily Star called it a unique storyline web series. Poorna Banerjee of The Times of India rated Part one 4/5 and praised the performance of Chanchal Chowdhury, the lead actor of the web series.[14] Saykot Kabir Shayok of The Business Standard said about the web series, "If keeping the audience hooked from the beginning to the end was the only criteria for a show to shine then Karagar season one passed with flying colours".[15] Shadique Mahbub Islam of The Financial Express praised its plot and screenplay.[2] Jannatul Naym Pieal of The Business Post said its editing was average and it disappointed at the end of the first part, but he praised its background music.[16] According to Biswadeep Dey of Sangbad Pratidin, Karagar has managed to gain popularity in both Bengals.[17] Calling it a "ambitious production", Priyanka Chowdhury of The Daily Star doesn’t think that this unfinished web series is unsatisfactory. She thinks that the theological and mystical settings is perfect for the series.[18] Soumya Mukhopadhyay, the chief operating officer of Hoichoi, said Karagar has contributed a lot to its business growth in Bangladesh.[19]

References

External links

• Karagar on Hoichoi
• Karagar on Amazon Prime Video
• Karagar at IMDb

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