Look, filmmaking is a form of storytelling. And hence, the foremost purpose of any movie or web series is simply, to tell stories- Stories that are entertaining, inspiring and compelling. And yes, it would be an unjust accusation upon the writers to say that Paatal Lok sidelined the story or prioritized the messaging, in any way. No. Sudeep Sharma who is the creator of the show, and co-writers Sagar Haveli, Hardik Mehta and Gunjit Chopra have put in great efforts in creating a delicate, detailed, dense and layered world.
But one can also not deny that the series defames some of the highest government agencies like The Central Bureau of Investigation or The Delhi Police, by the so-called “exposing” of the miserable corruption these organisations operate with.
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| Source: IMDB |
What seems an investigative thriller, on the surface, turns out to be a social commentary on the Indian society. Paatal Lok is based on a critically acclaimed novel The Story of My Assassins by Tarun Tejpal. For those of you who do not know, Tarun Tejpal was the ex-editor and co-founder of Tehelka, an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. Tejpal has been accused of sexual assault and has therefore not been involved at all, in the making of the series. And like Tejpal’s magazine, the series also seems to be on a fictional sting-operation, trying to uncover the mechanised machinery through which the government is deceiving the Indian society. Putting it in the words of a character from the show “What looks like a rotten system from the outside is in fact, a well oiled machinery. If a part stops working, we just replace it. The system keeps on going.”
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| Source: The Quint |
The show beautifully helps you visualise the concept of the divided Indias, The loks:The India where people lead a lavish lifestyle, where anxiety, depression, loneliness are the biggest challenges of their lives. The other India where poverty and hunger are still very much prevalent. And yet, somehow, you see these worlds sort of interact and collide. The series is a master at blending the lines between good and bad. So much so that you would end up empathising more with the dwellers of the ‘Paatal Lok’- the poor criminals as compared to the so called people of the ‘Swarg Lok’- the powerful journalists, the politicians, and the businessmen. The show constantly puts the audience in a moral conflict. The closest a character can reach to the moral center of the series is Hathiram, phenomenally played by Jaideep Ahlawat. He is the same old everyman hero. The cop. Sartaj from Sacred Games or Manoj Vajpayee’s Shrikant from The Family Man. Hathiram is a mediocre cop, who is frustrated with the insignificant life he had been living. He is an inhabitant of the true Dharti Lok- a commoner who neither leads a lavish life, nor is poor- a person who can neither help, nor can ask for it. He was at a point in life, where another failure added to the pool of successive failures that his life had already been, would lead him to give up all hopes.
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| Source: DNA India |
Abishek Banerjee who plays Hatoda Tyagi- a character which is quite implausible, adds the layer of realism to the character. He is able to strike a balance that makes such an extreme personality believable. Then there is Neeraj Kabi who plays the role of Sanjeev Mehra, who through the course of the series goes from being an arrogant egotist to this vulnerable person by the end. Neeraj plays it pitch perfect- a character that heavily shifts from one emotion to the other depending upon who he is being surrounded by. Swastika Mukharjee and Gul Panag did the best they could, in the little screen time that they were provided. Prosit Roy and Avinash Arun, who are the directors at the series, were able to create a lived-in gritty Delhi world. The grasp over the accents, regional languages and slangs stand out.
Through the course of the nine episodes, the series takes the audience into every aspect of the Indian society- The bigotry in religions, caste based politics, the violent past of rural India, majority of which goes unreported, the sexism, the media manipulation, the corporate politics, and whatnot. And never does it feel that the plot has somehow vanished underneath the messaging. The series is meticulously detailed and the detailing often becomes hilarious, which is exactly what you need in a skillful thriller like this. Like there was seen where Hathiram was finding it difficult to chase a goon while carrying his bag. So he threw his bag on a person selling ‘Dentures’ saying “Policevaala hu, agar kuch churane ki koshish kari to daat tod dunga.” Such humorous instances relieve the tension that the show perpetually stays in the state of.
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| Source: The Indian Express |
Okay, coming back to the point. By the end of it, the series left me wondering: have the recent TV shows become over-critical about the government? Was it appropriate for the series to show the CBI in a bad light? Showing that the CBI can turn an assassination attempt by local criminals into a terrorist attack by Jihaadis, wasn’t it too far-fetched? Wasn’t it inappropriate to show that news channels try to spread fake propogandas just to gain more TRPs? Do you think giving out such false messaging and influencing public perception about the government is wrong? Or is it that you believe that this might just be the reality of our country? It might be hard for us to register, but is it the true face of our nation? People enjoy seeing government on the wrong side now. Money Heist is a very appropriate example of that. Is it sheer coincidence that the movies that challenge or expose the system, the authorities seem exciting? Or is it a general distrust in the democratic system among people that lies underneath?
-Hardik Jaimini
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