Logic and artistic sensibility both take the backseat in Hotstar’s latest Telugu series, Kobali. The show is all blood and testosterone and literally nothing else. The acting—barring Ravi Prakash, who plays Srinu—is underwhelming, the writing is poor and at times doesn’t make much sense, and even the action is quite dated. It’s not that the main story is bad; in fact, that’s the only thing Kobali has going in its favor. That also means a better, more engaging show could have been made from this base, with better execution.
Spoilers Ahead
What is the show about?
Old Sambaiah has lived his life bootlegging alcohol. His sons haven’t followed the same path, but other than Srinu—the middle one—they haven’t made much of themselves either. The younger, Ramu, mostly spends his days loitering in the village, hanging out with his friends, and playing cricket. Then we have Gopi, the elder one who has a wife and an almost adult son, Raju, but secretly he’s also married to Sujatha, who just so happens to be the sister of a murderous criminal, Ramana. Neither Gopi nor Ramu get involved in the household stuff; it’s Srinu who plays the role of ‘man of the house.’ He is both loved and feared by everyone, and his motto in life is simple—take care of the family no matter what, and if anyone tries to harm them, show them their place.
Kobali begins with some kind of local festival, where an enraged Ramu decapitates this guy, Kuyam, in front of the deity and screams—Kobali. It does look a lot like blood sacrifice, but that’s hardly relevant. Also, it establishes the fact that this is a lawless land—although there’s this character, SI Raghu, who does make an attempt to break the cycle of mindless violence. Anyway, the story goes back, and we land on the main conflict. For at least two years, Gopi has been telling Sujatha that he’s going to bring her home, but it’s not happening. Sujatha and her brothers—Ramana, Peeri, and Saidulu—are frustrated and angry. If Gopi was not married to Sujatha, they would have killed him already. Sujatha and her brothers have an ulterior motive, though—they want Gopi to hand over his father’s property. That basically means Srinu and Ramu are not getting anything, and Gopi, despite being an imbecile (who can’t keep it in his pants), is not okay with that. Ramana and co. seem to be hellbent on getting it done; they even have the papers ready. Surely Gopi never imagined he would accidentally end up killing Sujatha, but that’s exactly what goes down. It’s not exactly his fault, as he was not expecting her to fall on a sharp nail and get pierced through the temple, after he pushed her away. Gopi expectedly flees the scene, and Ramana makes it a point to make him and his family pay for his sin. It is revealed much later that Sujatha didn’t actually die in the accident, it was Ramana who choked her to death right after it. Of course, this beats the whole purpose of revenge, but Ramana is not exactly a character guided by any values.
What’s the beef between Ramu and Peeri?
Ramu and Peeri were already two men who couldn’t stand each other, and their rivalry just escalated with a fight between their respective gangs while playing cricket. If that wasn’t enough, Peeri also gets fired by marijuana dealer Kashi, and of all the people in the village, Ramu has to be the one to replace him. Naturally, if you combine all this together and put it in a blender, you get a huge family feud between the Sambaiah family and the Ramana brothers. Kobali does give you exactly that, but thanks to the bad writing, it feels like you’re scarfing down a lot of unseasoned meat, and that’s about it.
When Peeri, Saidulu, and a few others go to Sambaiah’s house to teach Ramu a lesson, they have the misfortune to face Srinu. He expectedly beats them to a pulp. Srinu gets mad at Ramu for attracting all this trouble. What further infuriates him is the fact that Ramu is dealing marijuana instead of trying to find gainful employment. That’s the case for most men in the village, except for Srinu’s cousin Krishna, who is a doctor. He is like the one good one in the group of rotten apples. However, there’s a twist in the tale that is revealed at the very end of the show—we’re going to talk about that in a while.
An angry Srinu decides to look into the matter of his brother dealing drugs. Unfortunately, he suffers an accident when he’s hit by a truck. What further complicates matters is the truck driver happening to be none other than Gopi, who’s fleeing after the whole fiasco at Ramana’s house. Of course, Gopi would never knowingly hurt his dear brother, but he doesn’t have the time to check who the accident victim is and drives away. Srinu does survive, though, given he’s the de facto hero of the story who has plot armor.
Who is Raghu, and what does he want?
Newly joined SI Raghu seems to be the only one who actually cares about maintaining the law and order of this wild land. Every other police officer, including the CI, is either in bed with one of the factions or too scared to do anything. The CI is in cahoots with Kashi while Constable Venkataraman is basically Ramana’s inside man. He also can’t stand Sambaiah’s family, especially Srinu, who doesn’t hold back from slapping the constable when he casually insults Sambaiah for bootlegging. Quite naturally, when Raghu takes charge, Venkataraman tries his best to make sure the people he dislikes pay the price. He also has to make sure none of Ramana’s men get arrested. To his delight, Ramu does get apprehended by the police for his drug dealing, although Raghu seems to be more interested in finding the whereabouts of his brother Gopi, who’s now a fugitive for allegedly murdering Sujatha. Sadly for Ramu, he really has no idea where Gopi is hiding.
In the absence of Gopi, Ramu, and Srinu—who’s still in the hospital—Ramana appoints local thug Murthy and his men to finish off the rest of the family. But Murthy turns out to be quite sloppy with the assignment. All he manages to do is kill Sambaiah’s wife while the old man, his two daughters-in-law—Srinu and Gopi’s wives—and two grandchildren—Raju, and Srinu’s little daughter, Chitti—escape. A local girl, Kirthi, whose father is also killed by Murthi and his men, runs away with them. There’s a hint of romance between Raju and Kirthi that ultimately sees no development.
Anyway, Ramana gets understandably mad at Murthy for not being able to deliver, so he sends Peeri with Murthy to finish the job. Along with that, he also tasks his right-hand man, Paidu, and the other brother, Saidulu, with taking care of Ramu and Srinu. This time around, Murthy and Peeri catch up with old Sambaiah, and Peeri violently murders him. However, he soon gets caught by the police during a regular ruckus in the village. With Ramana’s kid brother in custody, Raghu now has the advantage over the criminal. It is eventually revealed that Raghu also has a personal vendetta against Ramana for killing his brother Sampada. Yeah, this show is basically a ‘you killed my father/brother, so I kill you, and the vicious cycle continues’ kind of thing.
Does Gopi die?
I believe Gopi’s death is the kind of turning point of the story that changes everything. Before that happens, Ramu gets out on bail thanks to Krishna, and Srinu, fresh out of the hospital, takes on Peeri and some of Ramana’s minions for another round. Gopi was doing good with the hiding for a while, but how long can he possibly do that with Ramana and his vultures circling for a taste of his blood? So the inevitable happens, and right before Ramana grants Gopi a violent death, he makes a phone call to both of his brothers—Srinu and Ramu—and apologizes for putting the family in this troublesome situation. Not only does Gopi die at the hands of Ramana, but Venkataraman and a few other police constables also pay the price for being in the wrong place at the very wrong time. The next morning, Ramu and Srinu discover their brother’s lifeless body hanging from the bridge, and unsurprisingly, they vow revenge.
Who is really behind all this?
This is where the show tries to play it smart (and fails quite horribly). Giving Ramana the final boss treatment really doesn’t make sense when they were always going to reveal someone else as the real villain. Yes, it’s our good doctor Krishna, who wanted his uncle’s property to sell off for a hefty sum. He could have just sold the land he got from his own father, but greed clearly got the best of him—so much that he wouldn’t hesitate to hire a thug to murder his own family members, including the kids. Ramana is ultimately dumbed down as the hired muscle and nothing else. But since this is no The Usual Suspects, the twist turns out to be nothing but mere gimmick.Â
What happens to Srinu and Ramu in the end?
Let me start by addressing the possibility of a second season. With Krishna very much alive in the end, there’s every possible chance of that happening. Not to mention, Srinu has also let Ramana go, which means he is going to remain a threat. And given it is Ramana, he’s definitely going to play for the bad guys. Meanwhile, Ramu and Peeri also have another go at their never-ending bitter rivalry, which ends with a draw. That means Peeri is also alive, and we’ll have to endure more of this Ramu versus Peeri nonsense in the future.
Speaking of Srinu, he is most likely dead thanks to Krishna’s newly hired executioner, Jagjeevan, setting up a bomb when Srinu and the family are performing the rituals for the dead. If Srinu is dead, it also means everyone else in the family died in that bomb blast. We already know Ramu survived, as the show circles back to the very first scene—Ramu taking the head of Kuyam and clearly suggesting that he is on a warpath. He also looks different, with a disheveled look—long hair and a beard—which might imply him taking the center stage as the vigilante lead in an upcoming season.
Now coming to Raghu, he was always meant to be the second lead in comparison to Srinu, which also means the guy was never going to get his revenge. He does manage to get some wins, though, as he kills Saidulu at Ramana’s house and also frustrates Ramana by keeping Peeri in the lockup for a while. Ramana does get the best of him, though, right after Raghu kills Saidulu. With Raghu’s death, the village again goes back to the same—with criminals like Ramana, Kashi, and Krishna running the show. Maybe a new CI will arrive next season to help Ramu. I also believe Srinu is alive simply by the fact that we haven’t seen his dead body.
Will there be a season 2?
Before finishing off, I’m going to do one fun thing for you, and myself as well, because watching Kobali was not exactly an enthralling experience. So I’m going to do a roundup of who died and who lived in the end, which is all that matters in this show. The confirmed dead are Sambaiah, his wife, Gopi, Sujatha, Saidulu, Kuyam (who really had no major part to play in the show), Raghu, along with Murthy and Paidu, who are killed by Srinu. I’m pretty certain Ramana is alive, and I would like to believe the same for Srinu as well. We also have to consider that Ravi Prakash is a star, and he’s the reason Kobali is still tolerable. It would be a foolish move to do another season without his Srinu. I personally don’t wish for another season of this atrocious thing, though, if the making of it is this terrible.
