A solid follow-up to the first season – Planet Bollywood

The first season of ‘Undekhi’ ended with a very interesting cliffhanger that made one look forward to see how the next season unfolds. After a wait of almost two years, the next season arrives and you one is introduced to a set of new characters. While the second season offers the kind of twists and turns that one has come to associate with the series, there is a slight shift in the style of storytelling courtesy a change in the showrunners and the writing team.

In the first season, one witnessed the killing of a young female dancer by Papaji (Harsh Chhaya), a matriarch of the Atwal family, in an inebriated state. What followed next was several attempts made to conceal the information of this murder and make this crime go ‘undekhi’ or unseen by the world. In the process, several more crimes are committed and many lives are lost. The final episode of Season 1 ended with the deceased dancer’s friend, who was also a witness to the murder, being taken in an ambulance in a bid to save her from the all-powerful Atwals.

Just like the first season, the second season of the show spans across ten episodes, each of which has a duration of almost thirty minutes. The first episode sets the tone for the season. You see another major incident happening. This time, an individual, who seems to have a conscience, leaves a police officer severely wounded while trying to escape from a situation and then, putting in a lot of effort to make it go ‘undekha’. A lot more things happen while one waits for the narrative that begun in the first season to reach its conclusion.

By the time you see the end credits rolling down for the final episode of the season, you realize the makers had not planned on concluding the story of the Atwals in the second season. While one looks forward to the third season, one wishes the second season had lesser subplots and the narrative unfolded in a more straightforward manner. While the first season adhered to a more realistic storytelling method, a lot of creative liberties have been taken in the second season.

Some of the twists in the narrative have been added just for effect and have not been justified well. For instance, the ease with which Shashwat (Sayandeep Sengupta) gets in and out of Azra Esher’s office/godown makes you feel baffled. Equally baffling is the manner in which he spots the two trucks and uses the situation to his advantage. Teji (Aanchal Singh), who was portrayed as somebody with a conscience, is shown to go through a transition in the second season. However, this transition doesn’t happen very smoothly and many of the actions taken by her character are not in sync with the way she has been largely portrayed in the show.

The filmy storytelling in the second season might leave a section of the audience, which was expecting it to have a grammar similar to that of the first season, underwhelmed. However, the majority of the audience will relish the dollops of entertainment the show delivers with aplomb.