‘Paatal Lok’ season 2 series review: Jaideep Ahlawat takes the show forward

Jaideep Ahlawat in ‘Paatal Lok’ season 2

Reunions are always bittersweet. And then there is the idea of ​​Sudeep Sharma’s reunion. in the new season of underworldHathi Ram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat) first sets his sights on his old friend Ansari (Ishvak Singh) in a mortuary. Ansari was once his junior in his unimportant outer Jamna Par police station. However, now, as a flamboyant IPS officer working on big cases, he deserves respect. The elephant ram stands at a distance and stares, resisting contact. A team-up is imminent, but the morbidity of the setting makes it poignant.

Haathi Ram-Ansari’s friendship is our anchor in Season 2. Created by Sudeep Sharma, the first season of Prime Video’s crime series was a pandemic hit — a gritty, complex procedural, kaleidoscopic in its scale and scope, tackling hot-button topics like racial violence and Islamophobia. The second season is more subtle and less aggressive, with a subdued commentary in favor of human relationships. At times it becomes a poignant meditation on male bondage. When Hathi Ram’s name comes up during a briefing, Ansari explains to his superior that he is not an ‘SHO’, just an ordinary inspector. He’s not cruel or arrogant, just realistic about their different vantage points.

The new Sebasana opens with death. Jonathan Thom (Kaguirong Gonmei), an influential Naga leader, is brutally murdered in Delhi – with a headless corpse in a tub. The shocking murder of Thoms has jeopardized talks for the upcoming trade summit in the northeastern state. The police send out a lookout notice for Rose Lizzo (Marenla Imsong), a mysterious young woman who has been caught on camera fleeing the crime scene. Hathi Ram, overcoming his initial hesitation, approaches Ansari with a clue: Rose has left town.

The first two episodes are where Sharma, director-cinematographer Avinash Arun and their actors are in complete control. We get some familiar faces: Gul Panag as Hathi Ram’s down-to-earth wife, or Nikita Grover as the cool lady constable Manju. The pace picks up when Hathi Ram, in his lumbering manner, infiltrates a warehouse where medicines are being packed. Like the first season, a complex picture begins to form, and Hathi Ram and Ansari soon follow Rose’s path to Dimapur in Nagaland.

Sharma’s previous series, very good fogThere wasn’t much overt politics but it was consistently entertaining. It was a Punjab pastoral, combining ideas of masculinity and wealth with the state’s checkered past. of Nagaland underworld Called vaguely, with much display and lip service. We hear of promises of development and former rebels laying down their arms. Tillotama Shome plays a superintendent of police named Meghna Barua – Nagamese, a creole language, with Assamese and Bengali influences, and Shome is Bengali. Sharma and his co-writers keep the basic engine of the plot humming. This is a perfectly capable series, well paced and performed, although the potential in 2025 is strictly praiseworthy.

Jaideep Ahlawat gives another brilliant, yet frustrating performance as Hathi Ram. The tough Haryanvi policeman this time has a thick mustache and broad hands; Yet he moves as fast as the wind, sliding down from rooftops and killing attackers with a single, sure blow of his helmet. There are comical touches in Ahlawat’s anxious demeanor: there’s a precious moment when Ansari is talking on the phone with his mysterious “girlfriend”, and Hathi Ram leans in to listen. I wish Alhawat had been in Hollywood in the 60s and 70s, when Sam Peckinpah was making his great Westerns – his tremendous presence deserves a canvas that is untamed.

Soft-spoken and sinister Nagesh Kukunoor is excellent as a shadowy bureaucrat – he seems to be in the style of Kapil Dev and writer Pankaj Mishra. There’s another fine, enigmatic cameo from veteran Assamese director Jahnu Baruah. At eight episodes of approximately 45 minutes each, it’s a bit weak – though that’s not necessarily meant to be –underworldSharma draws on some resonance to find ways to talk about the migrant crisis and rising unemployment. Criticism is carefully addressed. The first season was a hammer blow. This is a slap on the wrist.

Paatal Lok Season 2 is streaming on Prime Video