Paatal Lok — Review
Paatal lok is the latest in the list of OTT crime thrillers released. After receiving rave reviews from the entertainment fraternity, the series received the usual push-back from the rising digital Hindu right wing.
So how does Anushka Sharma’s production fare of viewer engagement?
So how does this latest edition of Desi Crime drama fare against the likes of Sacred Games and Mirzapur?
How valid are the claims of Hindu-phobia against it or of it serving another alleged offering of Left-Liberal propaganda?
Paatal lok is a Delhi based crime thriller which starts with the failed assassination attempt of a Delhi based TV anchor (no I won’t call it journalism) of a left-liberal orientation. The narrative is very smooth and engaging delving deep into roots of crime and violence- communalism, casteism and patriarchy. The protagonist — Haathi Ram — played by Jaideep Ahlawat — is a hard working, underperforming police officer who is the moral compass, which serves us wonderfully in the dark and immoral world of Paatal Lok. Its Haathi Ram, who gives us the heading and heart of the story: The world is made up of 3 worlds — Swarga lok — Upper Class Lutyens Delhi, Dharti Lok — Middle class urban Delhi and Paatal lok — the dirty and dingy world, forsaken by even the gods. The inspector stuck in Paatal lok at Outer Jamuna Paar is desperate to crack the attempted assassination case to upgrade to Dharti lok.
The writers were extremely ambitious in attempting a griping thriller which essentially serves as a backdrop for its core aim — social commentary. Having said this, the main storyline isn’t suppressed by the social commentary and its story arc doesn’t disappoint a bit. The show touches a plethora of fault lines in India — namely Caste, Religion, Sexism, Gender and Class and their interactions with Violence and Power.
The monstrosity of violence has often its origin in an even dehumanizing violence — be it social, political or both. The past of Tope Singh and Vishal Tyagi showcases how brutal realities of caste and sex in rural India often spawn violence in individuals affected by it. The episode 3 depicting these stories is masterfully written and executed. Episode 5 — delving into the past of Cheeni and Kabir M is hard-hitting in a way that it leaves a terrible taste in the viewers mind. I personally found bit of these character arcs a bit inorganic (Hindu RW could call them propogandist) and the result of deliberate framing (which it obviously is) — but they work wonderfully well on emotional level — if one has empathy which isn’t compromised by prejudice.
However, the most satisfying and perfect story arc is the family life of Hathi Ram. From the Ponzi scheming brother of Gul Panag’s character to Hathi Ram’s emotionally estranged son — all the threads are wonderfully woven together creating a typical middle class and dysfunctional family. The aspiration of Hathi Ram to enroll his son to a school with Uber-privileged school is the quintessential Indian parents’ dream of providing all privileges possible to their kids, going above and beyond their means. The husband-wife conflict couldn’t have been handled better given the story constraints and nature of the show.
The Hindu religious imagery always present at the background is very effective in differentiating Urban Delhi from the Desi Hinterlands of Chitrakoot. Unlike what some right-wing voices have said, the Hindu imagery doesn’t attempt to paint with a Hindu-phobic brush. On the contrary, the Hindu themes appear always as a garnishing agent and rarely as a plot device. Unlike Sacred Games — where the omnipresent Gaitonde introduces us to the mythological motifs — Paatal Lok characters themselves introduce and interact with these motifs with a lot left to the readers deciphering. Though none of the motifs used are very subtle — thereby needing explainers or deep thought. The convoluted caste politics with all this imagery is wonderfully confusing and pacy to follow towards the climax.
The Media narrative in Swarga Lok is perfect example of commercialization of TV Media, which has firmly shifted from reportage to Opinion grandstanding and virtue signaling. The troubled dog loving wife of Sanjeev Mehra and his lover/protegee appear well written yet caricature-ish. The semblance of humanity/ loyalty left inside Donullia and Tyagi is nicely juxtaposed with loss of morality in Sanjeev Mehra, while his wife clings on to Savitri (the lovable stray she adopts) — who it’s revealed at end is her and finally her husband’s savior.
Other threads like media corruption, low level and high level political harassment of journalists, police brutality and politics are all well-handled.
This isn’t a criticism, but one can’t ignore the fact the Paatal Lok touches almost all fault-lines in India not as a by-product of storyarc but somewhat independently as if almost by design. In spite of this, Paatal Lok works. It works due to the tight storytelling, nuanced characters and realism, coherently woven into the social commentary and not the other way round — it wouldn’t have worked, had it taken the route of Leila which ended up being propaganda masquerading as bad art. Compared to Sacred Games and Family Man — Paatal Lok exceeds on some level but also falls behind in other aspects, as it doesn’t set out to compete with these stories.
On the whole, a 4/5 star to Paatal lok by me.
For those who have already seen the series — feel free to go through the spoiler filled take below.
Spoilers and repetition below — TL-DR
The origin stories Tope Singh and Vishal Tyagi showcase how brutal realities of caste and casual sexual oppression in rural India often spawns violence in individuals affected by it. The episode 3 depicting these stories is masterfully written and executed. The monstrosity of violence that is Hattoda Tyagi, has his genesis in an even monstrous act of violence — the casual rape of his 3 sisters at hands of his 3 cousins as means to the end of Land ownership. While Vishal Tyagi becomes the most dreaded criminal in Chitrakoot — his first victims can be easily assumed to exist in each district of the country. It’s the banality of the Casteist bullying Tope Singh faces, shocks the upper-class urban viewer — but it must ring true with crores of Indians.
The origin story of Cheeni and Dhaka (who are called so because of obvious reasons) are heart-wrenching because almost all viewer knows the existence of these problems across this country. Their love story is alluded to but not narrated which could’ve added another layer to these characters. The characterization of Kabir M, a Muslim going incognito to avoid Anti-Muslim bigotry starts as a compelling story. The CBI indictment of Kabir M perfectly mirrors the real-life incarceration of Elgar Parishad activists under flimsy charges. I for one could not stop thinking of the Maoist plot to assassinate the PM exposed to Media by Maharashtra police. The framing of an innocent person for not high-level ends as found at the end leads to the whole drama appearing absurdly plausible. Kabir M and Cheeni expectedly, end up being the helpless collateral in the machinations of Power.
However, I personally found the insertion of Train lynching too unsubtle — as the incident takes place in 1990s or 2000s, when such incidences weren’t unheard of, but definitely not commonplace in collective imagination. The lynching and circumcision certificate background story was either too terrible (to digest) or too implausible for me to digest apart from it feeling in-organic in the narrative. As a viewer i felt the handling of this issue was much more organic in Sacred Games / Family Man. Inspite of this somewhat inconsistent narrative, the characterization of Ansari — the Good Cop to Hathi Ram’s bad cop saves the day. The scene were Ansari answers Mock questions for Police services is wonderful crisp and terse.
However, the most satisfying and perfect story arc is the family life of Hathi Ram. From the Ponzi scheming brother of Gul Panag’s character to Hathi Ram’s emotionally estranged son — all the threads are wonderfully woven together creating a typical middle class and dysfunctional family. The aspiration of Hathi Ram to enroll his son to a school with Uber-privileged school is the quintessential Indian parents dream of providing all privileges possible to their kids, going above and beyond their means. The Siddharth sequences with his gang friends are expertly shot. The trade of Thappads, pregnant with both resolution and escalation, is very satisfactorily.
The climax of Donnulia’s death and Tyagi killing himself in front of Hathi Ram feels like the perfect almost Shakespearean tragedy. Yudhisthir’s Dog story which is frames the dialogue between Hathi Ram and Mehra strikes the perfect balance despite feeling anti climactic.
The series manages a bittersweet ending — with Hathi-Ram’s family life back in order while none of the masterminds and corroborators of the gruesome machinations face any justice.
The Republic endures, it continues.
