Akka on Netflix: Keerthy Suresh and Radhika Apte’s Matriarchal Gangster Drama Gets Mixed Reviews
The five-episode series, directed by Dharmaraj Shetty and set in a 1980s South Indian town ruled by women, has been praised for its premise but faulted for its writing.
Akka, Netflix’s new crime drama starring Keerthy Suresh and Radhika Apte, is now streaming and has quickly become one of the most-searched shows in India. Early reviews, however, suggest a bold idea that does not quite reach its potential.
What the show is about
Directed by Dharmaraj Shetty, the five-episode series is set in the 1980s in Pernuru, a fictional South Indian town where women hold power and men are kept on the margins. Keerthy Suresh plays Bhavani, who heads the district, and Radhika Apte plays Rudra, an outsider from Bombay. Rudra teams up with Amar (Anshuman Pushkar) to run smuggled goods through the region and challenge the women’s rule, setting up a power struggle with Bhavani.
The cast also includes Tanvi Azmi as Muthakka, Bhavani’s godmother, Vishak Nair as Nanda, Bhavani’s lover, and Kiran Karmarkar. The dialogues, in Hindi, are by Hussain and Abbas Dalal.
What critics are saying
WION’s reviewer called the premise promising but said the show is overly ambitious and fails to leave a lasting impression. The review praised the matriarchal world-building and said Keerthy Suresh lends weight to Bhavani, while the supporting male actors make the most of limited parts.
The criticisms were about the writing: the story drifts into a familiar mob-style fight for power without fully exploring its central idea, the dialogues are clichéd, Radhika Apte’s character is thinly written, and the graphic violence often feels unnecessary. The review likened the show to a cross between Kantara and Mirzapur, a “desi Game of Thrones”.
“Akka” drew more than 20,000 searches in India on Google Trends over the past day, with “Akka Netflix” and “Akka web series” also trending.
Featured image: A person watching television at home. Photo: Shixart1985, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (source).
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