General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Karagar

Karagar (কারাগার, literally "The prison"), also known as Cell 145, is a Bengali-language thriller web series directed by Syed Ahmed Shawki that premiered on the Bengali streaming platform Hoichoi in August 2022¹⁶. Set in the fictional Akashnagar Central Jail, the story begins when an unregistered prisoner appears in Cell No. 145, which had been sealed for 50 years; the mute stranger communicates through sign language, claims to be immortal, and says he has been imprisoned for 250 years¹. Produced by Film Syndicate Production and Film Noir, the series ran for two seasons of seven episodes each, with Part 2 released on 22 December 2022¹^•².

Key fact	Detail
Platform and dates	Hoichoi; Part 1 on 19 August 2022 (one report dates it to the night of 18 August), Part 2 on 22 December 2022³^•²
Format	Bengali thriller, 2 seasons of 7 episodes, rated U/A 16+¹
Premise	A mute prisoner appears in Cell No. 145 of Akashnagar Central Jail, a cell sealed for 50 years, and claims to have killed Mir Jafar⁴
Lead cast	Chanchal Chowdhury (David), Intekhab Dinar (Mostak Ahmed), Tasnia Farin (Maha), FS Nayeem (Detective Ashfaq), Afzal Hossain (Mohabbat Ali)⁵
Reception	IMDb 8.2/10 from 4.7K votes; season 1 rated 4.0/5 by The Times of India⁶^•⁷
Production	Film Syndicate Production and Film Noir; filming mostly in Old Dhaka Central Jail over two weeks¹

Spoilers

Premise

The series opens at Akashnagar Central Jail, which officially holds 325 prisoners. During a head count, one extra prisoner is discovered inside Cell No. 145, a cell locked for the past 50 years whose key had been lost; the jail's senior officer had to cut the lock to enter⁸^•⁹. The stranger is mute and communicates through sign language. Through a secretly brought-in sign language expert he claims he has been imprisoned for 250 years¹.

The historical hook is the prisoner's claim to be the killer of Mir Jafar, the eighteenth-century Bengal commander remembered as the traitor of Palashi (Plassey)⁴. The claim is impossible on its face and drives the central question of the first season: who the man is and how he could know what he knows. Inmates call him Gazi Peer, a figure who "judges with a glance," and episode descriptions place his origin at a secret prison in Andaman¹.

The series has a real prison legend behind it. According to the makers, the jail at Dhaka carries chilling stories about an inmate named Gazi Peer who suddenly appeared in a cell, from where nobody knew, and about whom it was said, "one touch of Gazi Baba and everything blurs." The makers said the series was built on history and data and grew out of long research⁹.

Season structure

Season 1 consists of seven episodes (Resurrection, Black Sheep, Life and Death, History and Mystery, Light and Shadow, Spirit and Ghosts, Lost Sheep) and builds the mystery around the stranger's arrival and the jailers' panic¹. Director Shawki framed the two parts as a single structure: the first part establishes the characters and leaves questions open, and the second part answers them, including the question of whether the man really is Mir Jafar's killer³.

Season 2 also runs seven episodes, from The Birth to the finale The Motherland, and turns toward the prisoner's identity. Hoichoi's description says the "seemingly immortal Mystery Man of Cell 145 is back with a staggering revelation rooted in the war-torn history of Bangladesh"¹¹. By the second season the prisoner is identified in cast listings as David⁵. Reviewer MD. Miraz Hossain described the second part as making two points: poking at the scar of 1971, and showing life behind bars, with repentance, agony, and helplessness; he noted that cell 145 is named "Matrichaya" (Mother's care), and that motherhood threads through the story, since the plot follows two searches, one for Maha's father and one for David's mother¹².

Production

Origin and writing. Neamoth Ullah Masum got the concept from "Kaktaal", a Bangladeshi rock band associated with the Old Dhaka Central Jail whose members were temporary and briefly defected to get out of the jail. Before Karagar, Shawki and Masum had worked together on Taqdeer.

Filming. The production team did substantial historical research for the plot¹⁶. Chowdhury said preparing for the role required weight loss, hours of make-up, and costume work¹⁰. Shawki called Karagar the most ambitious work he had done and the largest screenplay he had written, combining mystery, history, and drama¹⁰.

Release schedule. Part 1 reached the platform on 19 August 2022 according to most listings and reviews⁴, though Prothom Alo dates the release to the night of 18 August 2022³. Post-production on Part 2 began in September 2022, and the second part was released on 22 December 2022².

Reception

Season 1 was received warmly. The Times of India gave it a 4.0/5 critic's rating, with Poorna Banerjee praising the cinematography of Barkat Hossain Palash and calling Chowdhury's wordless performance perhaps one of the most significant and nuanced of his life⁷. Saykot Kabir Shayok of The Business Standard wrote that if keeping the audience hooked from beginning to end was the only criterion, Karagar season one "passed with flying colours"⁴. On IMDb the series holds a weighted rating of 8.2/10 from 4.7K votes; season 1 episodes score between 8.4 and 9.1, while season 2 episodes fall between 7.5 and 7.8⁶.

Season 2 drew sharper criticism. The Financial Express review said the hype fizzled out amid plot holes, unnecessary subplots, and patchwork, while crediting the performances of Naufel Jisan, Afzal Hossain as the hangman, and Sarker Raunak Ripon¹². A Times of India review of season 2 called it "a sharp turn towards vendetta" that reduces the intrigue and warns that the second part is hard to follow without rewatching the first¹³. Both parts nonetheless earned Meril-Prothom Alo Award nominations in 2022, for Chowdhury as Best Actor (TV and Digital) and Shawki as Best Director (Web Series)¹⁴.

Significance

Within Bangladeshi streaming, Karagar arrived shortly after Taqdeer helped establish the original Bengali thriller on Hoichoi; The Business Standard noted that until recently an original-storyline thriller web series was unheard of in Bangladesh⁴. A year-end survey by the Indian Express Bengali edition placed Karagar at the top of its list of 2022's best Bengali series, crediting Chowdhury's acting and Shawki's cliffhanger pacing¹⁵.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › South and Southeast Asian serials › South Asian web serials › Premiered 2013 to 2024

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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