TrendingVideosIndiaWorldSports
State | Himachal PradeshPunjabJammu & KashmirHaryanaChhattisgarhMadhya PradeshRajasthanUttarakhandUttar Pradesh
City | ChandigarhPatialaBathindaAmritsarLudhianaJalandharDelhiShaharnama
Opinions | CommentEditorialsThe MiddleLetters to the EditorReflections
Diaspora
Features | Time CapsuleSpectrumIn-DepthTravelFood
EntertainmentLifestyle
Business | My MoneyAutoZone
UPSC | Exam ScheduleExam Mentor
Advertisement

Binge-worthy and applause-vardi

If ‘Paatal Lok’ has been one of your favourite series and you have been all agog waiting for its second season, which has dropped after a long wait of five years, first and foremost, drop the comparison meter. For, the...
Full StarFull StarFull StarHalf StarEmpty Star
The heady cocktail of crime, politics, wry humour, action and drama makes for compelling viewing.
Advertisement

film: Paatal Lok 2

Director: Avinash Arun Dhaware

Cast: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Gul Panag, Tillotama Shome, Anurag Arora, Nagesh Kukunoor, Jahnu Barua, Prashant Tamang, Merenla Imsong, LC Sekhose, Nikita Grover, Bodhisattva Sharma and Kenny Basumatary

If ‘Paatal Lok’ has been one of your favourite series and you have been all agog waiting for its second season, which has dropped after a long wait of five years, first and foremost, drop the comparison meter. For, the new season is a beast of its own kind, stands firm on its feet and lands with impact and force.

Indeed, both Jaideep Ahlawat and Ishwak Singh reprise their parts of Hathi Ram Chaudhary and Imran Ansari. As do a few other actors. It’s still the same murky world of crime and police. Only, showrunner and writer Sudip Sharma charts the not oft-explored territory and takes us to Nagaland without fetishising the beauty of the state. Or its people, who like any other in the country run the gamut of good, bad and ugly and have their own set of compulsions: ‘you kill only when you have no other choice’. And, once again, the heady cocktail of crime, politics, wry humour, action and drama makes for compelling viewing.

Advertisement

The series begins with the gruesome killing of a Naga leader, in New Delhi for a summit to pave the way for a new roadmap for the state. Soon, pieces of the puzzle begin to fall in place and are as perplexing as riveting. Who stands to gain from the murder? The reasons could be both personal and political. Is it his son Rueben (rapper LC Sekhose), who does not share his father’s ideology? Is it Rose Lizo (Merenla Imsong), seen running out of the Nagaland Sadan at the time of murder? We are introduced to many other players like the murdered man’s security officer (Prashant Tamang, winner of ‘Indian Idol Season 3’.) Famous Assamese director Jahnu Barua is Uncle Ken, a political heavyweight of Nagaland. Then there is another director-actor, Nagesh Kukunoor, as Kapil Reddy, adviser to the government.

In between the mess arising out of murder, Chaudhary is in search of a missing man who has some vague connection with the state. How different threads overlap and are finally woven together is what keeps you invested in the storyline. The pace truly picks up in the final two episodes and director Avinash Arun Dhaware deserves all the credit for packing in so much in the final act without losing control over the art of storytelling.

In this ‘Paatal Lok’ (nether world), there are heroes and villains alright, but much falls in the grey area. Both Chaudhary and Ansari remain the moral compass. In fact, the chemistry between Ahlawat and Ishwak is bang on, playing off one another unfailingly. Ahlawat is rustic, even gruff, for whom ‘bina chaud ke hi koi Chaudhary hove’. Ansari is now ACP and finesse personified. Together, they are the most endearing part of the narrative, which otherwise throws open the fissures of our socio-political reality. The competent Anurag Arora as SHO Virk gets dialogues such as ‘the system is like a boat with a hole, you are trying to save the system while I am trying to save myself’, that hit the nail on the head. And ones like ‘hum gali cricket ke launde hai Chaudhary aur yahan world cup chal raha hai’ are chucklesome, subversive, and say much about the corruption that ails the world around us. But at no point does the drama turn pedantic or preachy.

Advertisement

If the writing by Sharma, Abhishek Banerjee, Rahul Kanojia and Tamal Sen is sharp, the acting is even sharper. Ahlawat could by himself carry the entire series on his broad shoulders. He is so good and so believable. Be it when squabbling with his wife Renu (Gul Panag gets a meatier part this time), or bashing up ruffians or huffing and puffing as a man of his age and girth would when involved in an action sequence. Fortunately, he is also in great company of actors like Tillotama Shome and others. All actors are pitch-perfect. Casting is on point. Not only because we see a battery of actors from the North-east lending authenticity, even those cast in miniscule parts like the grandmother of the boy who has lost his parents belongs to this world.

A thriller can’t be without its fair share of deaths. If you feel for its principal characters, even the minor ones deserve all your empathy.

The final episode is called ‘Good Samaritan’ and here we are introduced to more than one of the kind and of varying hues of goodness. As says a character from Nagaland, ‘People of my land deserve hope’, and so do audiences.

It’s an immensely enjoyable and satisfying fare which bares humanity in its depraved shades, yet goes on to champion the righteous in so many of us. The smile playing on the lips of Ahlawat in the climax is the biggest takeaway of a job done exceptionally well, with both heart and brain in tandem. Binge-worthy has rarely been so applause-worthy.

Advertisement
Show comments
Advertisement