Thode aur thoughts on Paatal Lok!

Any similarities to real persons is not coincidental It is intentional Thus cleverly begins Costa Gavras Z that as a FrenchAlgerian film was in many ways to the Oscars in 1970 what the Korean Parasite was in 2020 mdash nominated in both Best Film and Best Foreign Language categories and having picked up the latter besides bagging Best Editing Oscar from among Hollywoods Alist eliteWhile equally a robust dark politicalthriller why am I particularly mentioning Z in a postpiece on Paatal Lok Because thats the movie the journalistcharacter plans to watch with his Anglo activist type girlfriend Sara on New Years Eve before he disappoints her having bounced off to a pind in Punjab to be with the pirseer who guides his lifeNo you did not blink through that moment in Paatal Lok Its there in Tarun Tejpals book The Story Of My Assassins The Amazon Prime series wholly omits this sacred aspect from the journalists life Im assuming to steer it clear from further comparisons with the equally expansive dystopian Netflix India series Sacred Games based on Vikram Chandras novel of the same nameMy copy of Chandras novel is 900 pages Tejpals is 522 pages mdash am only addressing a pet peeve to do with books which is that no one ever discussesmentions it by the number of its pages while the running time of a movie is inevitably everyones paramount concernA fine webseries is the new novel you can tell as you watch Paatal Lok mdash so strong on subplot neatly patiently chapterised although killing imagination for the reader of course For all Paatal Lok characters in the book mdash journalist girlfriend Sara wife Dolly cop Hathi Ram assassins Hathoda Chakku Tope etc mdash the elaborate descriptions on the pages go to die with twodimensional faces attached to names and places in a filmseries that is set in stone and set to motion at the same timeThis is probably why fans of a book rarely if ever are satisfied by its screen adaptation Fans of a film on the other hand hardly ever visit forget about devouring the book it was based on Whats the pointYet both serve such different purposes Its impossible to viscerally sensefeel the filthdepthdepravitygratuitousness of crimeviolence for instance with the same gravity as you experience it on screen Those with issues with realism of violence on the screen itself I suspect would much rather live in denial Or keep safedistance through daily news that objectifies humans into statistics on crimeThe series Pataal Lok appears as a visual attempt to reverse just that What about such scenes normalisingencouraging violence in society Weve been through this before Its like blaming Hamlet for every time somebody kills his uncle Where do I remember this analogy from A column Tejpal wrote in Outlook from back when I was a kidHis book as he couldnt have made it any clearer is the story of his alleged assassins While I continue with my stray thoughts I suggest those who havent seen Paatal Lok disembark at this point and probably watch the show instead spoiler alertThe entire operation of nabbed hitmen and the exposed target in the seriesbook is a complete setup mdash a trap of sorts put together by the deepstategovernment that primarily acts against its people through the police And that it gets to lord over by winning peoples trustvote through an election By all accounts Tejpals was apparently a true story The state had put him under surveillance to scare the shit out of him as a journalist yes mdash but to settle an altogether separate score with his supposed assassins elsewhereIn fact its the same story of setup and actual encounter that a top moviestar once told me about his alleged assassins from the 90s The policeboss and a major minister informed him about them Those guys were gunned down a few days later right outside his house while he was abroad What kinda assassins show up without even ascertaining their targets current locationI felt Paatal Lok owes so much of its narrative skillsstyle to David Simons HBO series The Wire mdash to think that was 18 years ago The level of filmmaking mdash especially the blocking in chasesequences mdash is worldclass Its purpose including performances examining origins of crime in terms of layerdepth is only a few feet short of Joker But the fact is If there was no The Story Of My Assassins the book there would not have been Paatal Lok the seriesTejpal the author is a rapeaccused This wouldve probably put people off from delving into his artwriting Which is totally unrelated to his crime And that he deserves punishment for once proven in a court of law You can be moralistic about criminals alleged or otherwise and choose not to benefit from their works in art scholarship and elsewhere Thats your lossAnd we can debate this forever Or you can totally be like the platform of a show that picks up an authors work but completely does not credit the original material plus the creator mdash pleasing everyone in the bargain WahMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news