PATAL LOK, Season 2 Review- Why it Did not Bother me Much.

Dipti Tamang.

The much-awaited series- Patal Lok, Season 2 is out and has been well received by the audience once again. Only, this time around it is not in the limelight for (perhaps) wrong reasons? The internet is flooded with praises for the show, and rightly so. The screenplay is brilliant, the direction and story-telling fantastic and the cast is nothing but amazing.

The first season of Patal Lok, season 1 blew my mind off, and I was disturbed- for the right reasons. As a viewer, I felt triggered, watching the stories unfold on screen. For after all, popular culture -of which the visual medium is one of the most powerful platforms, to tell a story. And this was a show, which I personally think, took a bold step in that direction. I cannot help but feel that the second season moved away from this direction. It just felt like a good show.

We live in difficult times, where we have vigilante groups operating at multiple levels, and telling a story- especially a truthful story- requires one to be approved by these groups, or face consequences. It is therefore understandable why the makers of the show this time around chose to play safe. I felt nostalgic for the first season. It felt more raw and closer to speaking to the truth. I missed the boldness of the show that, to me resonated with Patal Lok.

From depicting stories of gross sexual violence against Dalit communities to the racism entrenched in systemic forms of oppression and violence against people of the Northeast/Nepali community, the stories rattled us as viewers while watching Season 1. It resonated with us, especially communities who have been on the receiving end of these forms of violence and seeking Justice. These stories found a home and a voice. I felt that the first season raised the right questions. Which is exactly what this kind of storytelling is supposed to do. And you know that they got it right the first time- it irked the right set of people on both sides. After- all how often does popular culture get it right?

The second season makes a bold move by venturing into the heart of politics in Nagaland, which as an ‘Outsider’ is both a difficult and contentious move to make. But the boldness ends at the choice of the place and the backdrop; it could have been any other place, I guess. Why Nagaland? I do not understand.

The story simply focuses on the generic issues of drugs, business, corruption and politics- are we not all familiar with these realities? Especially as ‘Insiders?’ It was not necessarily a story of or on Nagaland. And sadly, these realities get reduced to Corruption and Violence- consequences of ‘politics’- so this could be like a situation in any part of the country-if only it was so. This kind of storytelling once again re-perpetuates the imagination of these places and its people as ‘violent’ people. And are we not tired of being told the same thing over and over? By the mainland.

Despite trying to be so hard on being politically correct, the story goes terribly wrong in dealing with the politics of the place. For instance, in a conversation between Hathi Ram- the police officer- representing Delhi, and a localite, a person of non-ethnic origin, but someone whose family has lived for generations in the place expresses his woes of not being treated as an ‘Insider.’

In choosing to highlight this plea- a powerful dialogue between the mainland and those who ‘look’ familiar to the mainland as the dilemma of the place – the show terribly reduces the complexities of the place to unwanted violence.

There is more to the story, but do we care enough to tell that story in a way that refuses to please the mainland?

We live in times where systems are failing us- especially systems that were supposed to deliver Justice. In addressing questions of ethics, politics and Justice, the show dangerously hinges towards the politics of morality. The politics of these places –the Northeast- is not about morality- It is about Rights and Injustice. Period.

What the show does, however, is it powerfully lays bare the brokenness of a system, weaving through the individual journeys of the primary protagonists, caught as victims in their own spaces.

The moral dilemma of Haathi Ram and his colleagues, within the institution of the Police system- one of the most contentious and difficult institutions of our times- plays throughout the show.

Here, we have Haathi Ram Choudhary, a middle-class police inspector, stationed at Jamuna Paar police station outpost constantly having to choose between ‘doing one’s work and one’s duty’, is beautifully and effortlessly depicted by Jaideep Ahlawat. As always, stealing the limelight- and rightly so- of the show.

Whether it is through the story of Ansari, who is now a senior officer having cleared the Indian Police Services and graduated from being a sub-inspector, a mentee of Haathi Ram in the first season, or the slight underlying change in character of the almost invisible SHO Virk, one can see through the brokenness of the system. How each one of them is forced to navigate it as best as they can- while saving themself.

For me, season 2 of Patal Lok simply became a show about morality and ethics. But it stopped being a ‘mind-blowing show’ for me. It no longer irked or disturbed me and just felt like watching a well written and directed show- better than what we have been forced to consume on mainstream popular mediums.