Paatal
Lok is Amazon Prime’s answer to Netflix’s Sacred games. It’s a failed-assassination investigative thriller which goes far beyond than just crime, with
mythological overtones. It’s a bold commentary on stigmatised casteism,
communal divide, bigoted politics, hypocritical bureaucracy and yellow
journalism. It isn’t the first time when someone has tried to do an underworld story
with hinterland political twists and social message but where Paatal Lok trumps
over most of them is its way of handling those issues so effortlessly.
The
essence of brilliant storytelling is its ability to deliver a strong message
without having to say it out loud. Sudip Sharma has taken two years to write
his hitherto magnum opus. A strong string of narrative that ties not-so-related
characters so inconspicuously that you start believing that all of it is
actually happening for real. Most of the times when you have too much to tell,
you say nothing at all. Sudip probably did that. He has written a story that
doesn’t tell you much yet you feel learned. It’s a story that has been told to
us so many times that we have started to take it as a given, but here Sudip
tries really hard to make us uncomfortable with the details which we
voluntarily have been avoiding.
This
is not a stereotypical story of a protagonist going up and against an
antagonist. There are no kings, queens or bishops; there are only pawns. The central
piece of pawn is Haathiram Choudhary played by Jaideep Ahlawat. A police
officer whose life is a series of small failures. A trivial cop who is given a high-profile
case, for his bosses know he will be incapable of solving it. The irony lies in
the fact that he wants to solve the case not to prove his potency to his bosses
but to earn respect of his estranged son. Then we have four criminals accused
of conspiring to assassinate Sanjeev Mehra, a ‘celebrity’ journalist played by on-point
Neeraj Kabi.
The
four criminals come from diverse backgrounds and each of their stories has been
sewed so meticulously that audience starts believing that it’s inevitable for
them to kill for a living. Mind you that the violence has not been celebrated
but abominated in its own pragmatic portrayal-- from brains gushing out of open
skulls to hammering one’s own thumb out of hand to pass Masterji’s eklavya test. One of those four who sticks out is Hathoda
Tyagi, an unemotional character with a straight but haunting face who has killed
forty-five so far with hathoda. Abhishek
Banerjee has made a surreal gruesome character of Tyagi come alive. The
whole ensemble of cast, each one of them has done justice to his/her character,
no matter what screen time they have got.
What
impresses me is how all the characters have been portrayed as rounded
personalities with their own unique set of vulnerabilities. One of the many brilliant characters is Ansari (the deputy
of Haathiram), a muslim who goes through regular incriminating comments
from neighbourhood on how minorities are favoured in Indian organisations just
to project themselves as a place which accepts diversity. Then we hear a
destitute, talking about ragpickers on how those kids were left out in cold to
die by their families, “Insaan ke bacche
ki jaan bohot sakht hoti hai sahab, keede ke jaise log marne ke liye chhod
jaate hain, par wo zinda rehna seekh leta hai”.
I
cannot help myself from praising the unerring illustration of lifelike
situations. Neither story nor the storyteller shy away from presenting before
the audience the series of events veraciously. May it be husband’s irritation
from wife’s nagging who is actually suffering from anxiety or it be revenge sex
by commune supremo to avenge his dead son- all speak volumes about human nature
of neglect and negation. In another scene where Haathiram understands that the
criminals are being framed as terrorists in the name of religion, he can only
empathise when a criminal’s father says- “Jise
humne musalmaan nai banne dia sahab, use aap logo ne jihadi bana dia”.
Series
end-credits has a background score- “sakal
hans mein Ram biraaje”, subtly giving
out its message- there’s some good in every evil.
Special
mention to the two genius directors Avinash and Prosit, and kudos to talented
editor Sanyukta Kaza for their impressive work behind the screen. For me, you
all juxtaposed everything so engrossingly- The cockroach, the Masterji and the Dog.
