Ronit J

Paatal Lok Season 2 Synopsis:

Inspector Hathi Ram Chaudhary, the haggard, unlikely hero, investigates a high-profile murder case that leads him to remote corners of North-East India, where he battles powerful forces and personal tragedies in his pursuit of truth.

Paatal Lok Season 2 Review:

I watched Paatal Lok Season 1 in may 2020, bang in the middle of the pandemic. It was one of the finest shows of the year. Honestly, I always thought it was a shame that we didn’t get a season 2. Until some ten days ago, when they revealed the trailer for season 2. Seeing so many popular series deliver terrible filler seasons, I was sceptical about this one. But then, I read that the showrunners responsible for the epic puzzle of season 1 were back behind the camera. Trusting their filmmaking prowess, I decided to give it a shot.

Eight episodes long, roughly 42 minutes each (not counting credits). That’s 336 minutes of a compelling, captivating crime drama that had me glued to my screen.

A slow burn that explodes, but never fizzles out

I remember some folks complaining about how Paatal Lok Season 1 was extremely slow and boring. For me, that slow burn of Season 1 actually made the show a compelling watch. It beautifully demonstrated how to build tension, intrigue, and atmosphere. Each episode slowly untangled the complex web of corruption, crime, and human drama. Season 2 is no different.

The story unfolds rather slowly. But the slow pacing isn’t a crutch so much as it is a deliberate treatment. The slow burn of every conflict is like lighting fire to a cracker’s fuse. The flame slides forward languidly, before causing a heart-thumping explosion. Right from the first scene with the discovery of the headless corpse of Jonathan Thom (Kaguirong Gonmei), the makers take their time to immerse you in the scene before slapping you across the face with the reveal of the decapitated head. This immersion is deliberate and consistent throughout the show. Our reward: a rich and realised world populated by living people with hopes, dreams, history, and struggles.

The two major plots of season 2 are both deeply impacted by Jonathan Thom’s murder. The brutal puzzle in season 2 replaces season 1’s complexity with cultural and social depth. Not to say that season 1 lacked either, but season 2’s plot feels much more focused on Hathi Ram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat). This relatively singular approach works in favour of the story and mystery, keeping the plot tight and the tensions constantly high.

A masterclass in tension building

I’ll admit I’m one of the many Indians who don’t know enough about Nagaland. The seven North Eastern states have consistently been neglected by mainstream media. When they get attention, it might not be as accurate or sensitive about cultural depiction. These usually stem from cultural ignorance, something that many viewers might relate to. Even Hathi Ram is guilty of this, not even being able to point out the state on India’s map. Yet, there isn’t any racist spite stemming from him; he’s just there to solve his case.

Paatal Lok boldly depicts Nagaland in all her natural glory and political unrest. The tensions brewing between the local gangs, the aggressive reaction to Jonathan Thom’s murder, further shaken by the arrival of two Delhi cops, all make for an uncomfortably precarious setting. Dangers lurk across Dimapur, but not in a racist way—in the same way they would in Delhi or any other city/town/village depicted in the last season. Just as pressure builds from the Naga side to solve the case and bring justice to the murdered Naga, so do the stakes rise from Delhi’s side for Hathi Ram and ACP Ansari (Ishwak Singh) to save face, all without hurting the Naga Business Summit—key for the economic development of the state.

The untangled knots and revealed secrets all threaten to disrupt the rocky peace. Our protagonists tread these shaky grounds to do their job, working for the very system that has given birth to demons that haunt these lands. The summit of these boiling tensions comes in Episode 6: Of Mothers & Daughters, where a mob of protestors attack the hospital where prime suspect Rose Lizo is admitted. The entire episode is a masterclass in tension-building and high-octane dramatised action.

Jaideep Ahlawat steals the show as Inspector Hathi Ram Chaudhary

Season 2 is all Jaideep Ahlawat. The righteous, short-tempered inspector from a small town who just wants to do his duty. An insignificant pawn in a Kafkaesque system of corruption, crime, uber-rich, and ignored poor. Hathi Ram Chaudhary refuses to play in the system, yet doesn’t hesitate to play the system when called for. He is doing his duty searching for Raghu Paswan (Shailesh Kumar), but that simple missing person’s case leads him to an interstate drug trafficking racket that has connections with top-level politicians, hotel owners, militant leaders, and more. Aware of the corruption that plagues not just Nagaland, but India as a whole, Hathi Ram navigates these dangerous waters searching for the scant nuggets of justice that his duty demands.

Like Season 1, Season 2 brutally dissects the systemic oppression that infects Indian society, this time in Nagaland. From migrant workers embroiled in long-standing cases, to drug abuse that ruins families, to uber-rich businessmen, taking what they want, Paatal Lok reminds us that the world outside isn’t a jolly paradise of blissful ignorance. Neither is everything as stellar as fake news propagators want you to believe. Our country is functioning because of this astronomically amoral system as much as it functions despite it. And within this system lie the many morally agnostic as well as the righteous, the ones who have managed to strike somewhat of a balance. The Hathi Ram Chaudharys that manage to keep our country from devolving into the gang-led dystopia of the netherworld (Paatal Lok).

Paatal Lok Season 2 Ending Explained

So, Uncle Ken (Jahna Barua) was behind it all. Not just the brains behind Jonathan Thom’s murder, but also the hands that did the killing. He did what he had to because he had no choice. The complex web of corruption had put Nagaland in a precarious position already. The Business Summit was her economic saviour, threatened by Jonathan Thom’s pulling out. The retired militant takes matters into his own hands, resorting to bloody ways one last time.

Hathi Ram chooses to pardon him because this was never his case. If the people are to thrive in a rotten system like this, Uncle Ken’s actions actually serve in favour of the people. Besides, Thom was a demon in more ways than one, and he never cared for the people or his state. Reddy, Grace, and Ansela, get away scot-free, condemned to live the rest of their lives with the burden of all the dead they left in their wake. ACP Ansari doesn’t get his name cleared, but then again that was a futile quest in this rotten system anyway.

Hathi Ram returns to Delhi and finally uncovers what happened to Raghu, his original case. Killed by his roommates for petty money troubles, his death is futile as many of this season’s, afterthoughts in a game of extreme power played under the shadow of a broken system. Hathi Ram tracks the money Raghu was about to get, stumbling across a whopping ₹2 Cr ($230,000). Still refusing to participate in this corrupt system, he only grabs the share that is owed to Raghu’s son and delivers it in a triumphant climax scene. The end symbolises the hope that candles of goodwill still exist within the smog of corruption.

In Conclusion:

Paatal Lok Season 2 gets a very crucial point right, which many shows and films have failed in today’s age of content overload. It doesn’t depend on Season 1 to tell a compelling story. However, that barely even begins to scratch the surface of all the layers of praises, technical mastery, performances, visual splendour, writing, and storytelling prowess that the cast and crew have displayed in the mere eight episodes. Be it the familial tensions between Hathiram Chaudhary and his wife, to the believably damaged life of Rose Lizo (played by Merenla Imsong), every scene, every story, and every plot makes this a rich and compelling watch.

From the slow reveals of episodes to the tying of loose ends in the finale, Paatal Lok gives due attention to every piece of the puzzle, beautifully wrapping up the tour de force that was season 2. Watch Paatal Lok Season 2, not because it’s a worthy sequel, but because it’s a damn good eight-episode crime drama.

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What other show/movie/book would you like me to review? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time.