General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Jengaburu Curse

The Jengaburu Curse is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language mystery thriller streaming series, marketed as India's first cli-fi (climate fiction) web series, that follows a London-based financial analyst who returns to Odisha to search for her missing father and uncovers a conspiracy around bauxite mining, unexplained deaths, and displaced tribal communities.¹ It was created and directed by Nila Madhab Panda, a National Award-winning filmmaker making his streaming debut, and written with Mayank Tewari.²^•³ The series premiered on SonyLIV on 9 August 2023 as a seven-episode season with runtimes of roughly 45 minutes each.⁴^•⁵

Key fact	Detail
Format	Seven-episode Hindi mystery thriller, about 45 minutes per episode, streaming on SonyLIV⁴^•⁵
Release	9 August 2023 on SonyLIV⁴
Positioning	Marketed as India's first cli-fi (climate fiction) web series¹
Lead cast	Faria Abdullah as Priyamvada Das, with Nassar, Sudev Nair, Makarand Deshpande, Deipak Sampat, and Indraneel Bhattacharya¹
Setting	The fictional mining town of Jengaburu, meaning "red hill", in Odisha, home of the fictional Bondria tribe⁶
Central secret	The mines contain uranium ore secretly extracted by Dutta Mines in an international scandal involving North Korea²
IMDb rating	7.5/10 from about 17,000 user votes⁷

Spoilers

Premise and story

The series opens with a legend of the fictional Bondria community of Odisha: millions of years ago a "Dragon King" ruled the Earth and went to sleep beneath the area that is now the village of Jengaburu, a fictional word meaning "red hill". From his head flows the Hatidhara river, which sustains the village and its surrounding forest, and the sleeping king must never be woken or the world will be destroyed.⁶

In the present, Priyamvada (Priya) Das, a financial analyst working in London, is called back to her home state of Odisha after her father, the activist and professor Swatantra Das, goes missing; she is asked to identify a body that turns out not to be his.⁶^•⁸ Her search leads her into a conflict between a mining company, corrupt police and local officials, and the Bondria tribe, which has been pushed out of land it had protected for generations and labeled "naxal" (Maoist insurgent label used against tribal activists).⁶ Along the way she is helped by Dhruv Kannan, an IAS officer played by Sudev Nair, and by a local doctor played by Makarand Deshpande.⁹

The village shows the costs of the operation in personal terms: the river water turns red and toxic, a mysterious disease kills people, mostly children, living along the polluted river, and miners collapse vomiting blood at work.⁶ In the final episodes the supernatural framing is resolved as a cover: the mines contain uranium ore that Dutta Mines, headed by the businessman Rao, were secretly extracting in an international scandal involving North Korea. Priya, the tribals, and Dhruv expose the operation, the military raids the mines, and the tribals are resettled on different land because their original area has high radiation levels, while the government keeps the affair under wraps.²

Production

Panda filmed the series extensively at real locations across Odisha, including Bhubaneswar, because he wanted the story to be authentic in every aspect.¹⁰^•⁵ A tribal language was created for the series, and he worked with a mix of professional actors and non-actors.¹⁰ The series was produced by Indranil Chakraborty for Studio Next, with music by Alokananda Dasgupta and cinematography by Paulo Perez.⁴ Panda has said he also wanted the series to put the culture, heritage, and landscape of Odisha, his home state, in the spotlight, since streaming stories from northern states had been more common.¹⁰

The series continues themes from Panda's earlier environmental films, Kadvi Hawa (2017) and Kalira Atita (2020), which take climate-related subjects out of news headlines and show them through an intimate lens.⁶

Reception

Audience measures. The series holds an IMDb rating of 7.5/10 from about 17,000 votes, with 530 user reviews.⁷^•⁵

Critical response was divided. The Times of India gave the season 4/5, calling it a "clutter-breaker" that conveys that development must not ride roughshod over the rights of those closest to nature, and praising the performances of Faria Abdullah, Nassar, and the supporting cast, the real-location shooting, and Alokananda Dasgupta's background score.¹¹ Down To Earth's review praised how Panda mixes documentary-style observation with the pace of a thriller and shows environmental degradation as a personal tragedy, while noting that the ending feels rushed before a cliffhanger hinting at a sequel.⁶ Scroll.in judged the series far ahead of Aar Ya Paar (2022) in its treatment of Adivasi concerns and mining in India, though it found the thriller conventions produced convenient plot turns and overly lengthy scenes.¹²

Negative reviews focused on execution. Hindustan Times called it "noble intentions cannot save this rushed drama", criticizing exposition delivered through dialogue, muddled twists, and the lack of perspective given to the Gondria tribe's own point of view.⁹ Moneycontrol found the show "far too rushed for its own good", with a scattered landing that does not earn the emotional costs it claims.¹³ Rediff's review was titled "Big Ambitions, Poor Execution".¹⁴ The Cinema Express review rated it 3/5, calling it a straightforward, effective thriller but noting that, for something marketed as cli-fi, little on screen is markedly about climate change and the payoff is political rather than environmental.¹⁵

Significance

The series is described by its platform and press coverage as India's first climate fiction web series, and reviewers noted it had no real precedent in Indian streaming content.¹^•¹¹ Down To Earth concluded that the series shows climate change can feature in mainstream fictional content and paves the way for more such storytelling.⁶ Its subject matter, mining-induced displacement and tribal resistance in Odisha, corresponds to conflicts documented in the state's mineral-rich regions.¹⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Indian and South Asian web series

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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