Paatal Lok web series review: Paatal lok kiya jaye!

Paatal LokOn Amazon Prime Videocreator Sudip SharmaCast Jaideep Ahlawat Neeraj Kabi Abhishek BanerjeeRatingWhats a thriller but a plot with so much at stake for characters involved that by the time a movies budget hits max the existence of the whole planet depends on it In that sense Paatal Lok shouldnt it be Pataal Lok appears aimed at quite a lowstakes game A lot like Dibakar Banerjees Shanghai 2012 which in turn was based on CostaGavras Z if you may What was that aboutMurder of a local bookselleracademic Whats this about A thwarted plot to assassinate a journalist And yet the series has you by the eyeballs from the first frame itself wherein as a show of hand for some quality writing the creators spell out the saar or base for the six hours plus that will followThe lead character a Delhi Police beatcop patiently explains how there are three worlds Swarg lok heaven where Gods live dharti lok earth for humans and pataal lok netherworld where insects survive His thana in Outer Jamuna Park poverty stricken outskirts of Delhi decidedly belongs to pataal lok as do by association most parts that have practically fallen off Indias mapBasically nobody cares who commits what crime in pataal lok Lutyens Delhi nations political capital is swarg lok yes but what happens in heaven stays in heaven mdash its useless for a cop to operate in Its the upper class colonies in Delhi mdash Vasant Vihar Noida etc mdash where the insects from pataal lok on occasion bite inhabitants of dharti lok which then becomes kaandscandal Aarushi Nithari etcCops earn their stripes for cracking these kaandscases As a loaded descriptive opener for a filmseries I dont know a better one since the bewakoofchiyedhaage reference in Vishal Bhardwajs Omkara 2006When the intended target of an attack in this series meets his wouldbe assassins at the police station he finds something primal in those eyes The target the married journalist mentions this to a young colleague he meets at a bar later mdash right before he sets out to have sex with her Nothing more primal than that eitherSerious man Neeraj Kabi Ship of Theseus Talvar plays the hotshot journalist The show Im told is based on former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpals book The Story Of My Assassins which I didnt pick up from the store mainly because the blurb on its cover by one of the litcoterie writers called it the best Indian novel in English everDont know how much has been added subtracted or altogether discarded from that source Dont think the book was credited on screen at all Beyond text what cant be denied is the sheer cinematic quality of Paatal Lok though mdash directed like a dream Avinash Arun Prosit Roy shot like a nightmare Avinash Arun Sourabh Goswami mdash just look at the production scaledesign of this nineepisode outdoor drama hinged on location location and location and solid chase sequences thrown into each mdash whether in Chitrakoot or Chandni ChowkThe shows been created by Sudip Sharma whose writing credits include Navdeep Singhs NH10 Lal Kaptaan Abhishek Chaubeys Udta Punjab Sonchiriya mdash to give you a perfectly rugged Middle India sense of where hes coming from or where were goingWatch the trailer of Pataal Lok hereWhere were also circling around a lot is a deeply intricate story spread over multiple characters leading to several separate subplots Inevitably an issue with such a complex structure is youll like some of the stories and people in it and really not care for some othersHappened to me all through Suspect will happen to you too But you carry on also because the performances keep you up mdash whether its the fresh novice cop Ishwak Singh or the young journalist Niharika Dutt besides a full gang of moronic minions and conniving lords hovering like moths on screenTowering above all of course is the leading man Jaideep Ahlawat as the foulmouthed cop Hathi Ram Chowdhry mdash rockhard bohot hard mdash lugging this heavy show on his broad shoulders as his character soldiers on through hell and back Weve seen and admired Ahlawat in the past Raazi Raees Lust Stories But this is in many ways a debut of sorts mdash like it was for Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Gangs Of Wasseypur 2012Throughout he looks so feisty yet so completely weighed down Does the series itself weigh down the viewer Sure as hell Its titled Nether World for Gods sake It shines a torchlight on a dark India we often read about mdash you can see traces of so many reported cases from Mathura moblynching Ahmedabad fakeencounter Jamia terror cellhellip It exposes the gutter and leaves you feeling gutted tooBecause it humanises it all while we prefer to read about the characters in this series as either statistics or faceless groups mdash ragpickers gunmen youth etc Perhaps essential to visually dissect human insects on a microscope sometimes Paatal Lok does just that bewareCatch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps MidDay is now on 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