After the second season of Paatal Lok (Amazon Prime Video), it’s safe to say that nobody else in India has mastered the police procedural like Sudip Sharma.
Known for writing acclaimed films like Udta Punjab (2016) and Sonchiriya (2019) – Sharma became a household name after the first season of the show in 2020, much like his lead actor – Jaideep Ahlawat. Since then, Sharma has written Kohhra (2023), using the mould of a police investigation to uncover the oppressive culture of patriarchy typical to Punjab.
In the second season of Paatal Lok, Sharma is still grappling with the larger rot in society using a trail of missing persons and murder probes.
There probably hasn’t been a more rousing underdog in cinema than a down-on-their-luck cop, trying to fix society by solving a single case.
I’d like to wager there hasn’t been a more sympathetic protagonist in this mould than Hathi Ram Chaudhary in all of India’s streaming space. It’s visible in the countless mini-moments created by Ahlawat – the way he looks at a younger colleague resigning her job of a female constable after finding a more ‘respectable’ job. “What will really happen? 15-16 years later, I’ll become an inspector. That’s it!” she says to her senior, and the camera cuts to Chaudhary – slapped with his ordinariness and sheer disposability. A visual I’ll take with me from Pataal Lok is that of Hathi Ram Chaudhary running around in labyrinth-like lanes on a quest for truth. Almost like he’s trying to prove his utility to himself.
The second season begins with the assassination of an influential figure from Nagaland – Jonathan Thom (Kaguirong Gonmei), killed in the Nagaland Sadan. The murder takes place a day before a business summit that could see business conglomerates pump in to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore into the state of Nagaland. It would be a huge boost to the local economy; but as we’ve already seen in the many, many films and shows before – such ‘development’ comes at the cost. While ACP Ansari (Ishwak Singh) – Chaudhary’s understudy in the first season while undergoing training – is in charge of the murder case. Another case about the disappearance of a migrant labourer from Bihar, leads Chaudhary into a web of lies around a Central Delhi fruit wholesaler, the owner of a posh night club in South Delhi, and (again like it usually happens in such shows) displays more than a few links to the high-profile murder case led by Ansari.
A still from the trailer of ‘Paatal Lok 2’.
The show is the first one in Hindi to be shot and set in Nagaland, and uses a bunch of Naga actors too. Even though the switch between Nagamese, English and Hindi is not as free-flowing, Sharma’s show is still pretty confident in the way it places the breadcrumbs for its viewers, to put the pieces together around the same time as our investigators in the show. But some of the rage has been bled-out in the second season, especially when compared to the first.
There’s a stunning scene with Chaudhary and Ansari, when a long-kept secret is revealed. Ahlawat and Singh sit there, words evading them both. What irked me slightly was the scene after that – where an emotionally-charged conversation feels like the series flaunting its liberal values. I wish the tension was tempered for longer, without the pressure to resolve it so quickly.
There are some vague and cautious allusions to corruption in the home ministry – which is pressuring special advisor Kapil Reddy (Nagesh Kukunoor) into pulling his weight to make the summit a success. Kukunoor is superb and inspired choice in the role of a man in quicksand, hiding it under a placid exterior. Filmmaker Jahnu Barua plays Uncle Ken, a senior rebel leader of a group involved in the peace talks and negotiations around the summit.
A still from the trailer of ‘Paatal Lok 2’.
Like his colleagues in mainstream Bollywood, Sharma isn’t fully successful at filming in Kohima without an outsider’s gaze (something one might expect with Sudip Sharma’s rigour). The in-fighting between clans is mentioned in passing, there’s no sign of a paramilitary presence to indicate curfews – the civil disturbances appear to be managed by the local police. These small details caught my eye, in a show as thorough as Paatal Lok 2. The Nagaland local police is led by Tillotama Shome – rarely not great at anything she does – but I wish her character, SP Meghana Barua, had some finer nuances.
In the end, Paatal Lok 2 concludes satisfactorily. Almost too neatly, one might argue. Hathi Ram Chaudhary has some convenient flashbacks putting the pieces together where every morsel of information results in the next breakthrough. The show ‘explains’ it by referring to his memory powers – that of an elephant (‘hathi‘). It’s a choice unbecoming of a show as smart as this one.
However, it continues to be a stellar Jaideep Ahlawat showcase, who turns up with a defeated body language in each and every scene of the show. It seems like he’s sporting a paunch this time, possibly a consequence of the ‘peace time’ since the events of the first season. But then he gets the whiff of something awry, and willingly runs into the maze, visibly unprepared for it, only to emerge fully battered and still unafraid. The whiff he catches could be the stench of a nation’s decaying at a rate faster than anyone’s known. But at least, Hathi Ram Chaudhary has solved the case. There’s closure for him and us. For now, at least.
