Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein season 2 review: I am happy to report that Sidharth Sengupta’s romantic crime thriller has managed to escape the curse of season 2. The series, starring Tahir Raj Bhasin, Shweta TripathiAnchal Singh and Saurabh Shukla, manage to keep the thrills and pulp of the first season intact. The novelty fades, but the political and philosophical center remains firm.

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It’s a father’s world

Season 2 begins exactly where Season 1 ended: Purva (Anchal) has been kidnapped by Jalaan (Arunoday Singh), who threatens her husband Vikrant (Tahir) to take her back if his father Akheraj (Saurabh) does not pay . ₹100 million. Hmm, not your usual affair. The problem here is that Vikrant hired Jalaan to kill his wife, but he betrayed him and now wants more money in return.

Gentle subversion has been at the heart of Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, even though it may appear at first glance to be the standard small-town crime thriller. From subverting the popular dance number from Abbas-Mustan’s 1993 hit Baazigar to reversing gender roles in a star-crossed romantic equation, the heart of the series screams subversion. Season 2 doesn’t build much on this foundation, but flirts with the same devil with the same enthusiasm. You root for the hero, hoping that the “heroine” never finds her way home.

But at the same time, like the hero, you feel resentful for the other characters who got him into this predicament in the first place – especially the two fathers – Akheraj and Vikrant’s father (Brijendra Kala). The gender roles have been reversed here – the man is stuck in a toxic and deadly marriage with the manipulative and exploitative woman. But even the twist is attributed to patriarchy: Purva turned out to be entitled and ethically immune because she was raised by her gangster father. In fact, season 2 begins with a flashback sequence in which Purva’s mother drives her car off the edge of a cliff – thus reiterating that the world of this series has no room for matriarchy.

At different points in the series, both fathers realize how extremely unfair they have been with their parenting. Saurabh Shukla’s superimposed portrait comes to the fore as he confesses that he never realized that children can also turn out to be weak. He was proud to have raised children who would never give in to their vulnerability. Similarly, in one scene, Vikrant tells his father that in his quest for loyalty to the top chair, he is ready to sacrifice his entire family. But Brijendra Kala’s impeccable comic timing and ever-concerned attitude never allow us to hate him. Although he is more of a perpetrator, unlike his son, he never realized that he had gone from victim to co-conspirator.

Vikrant at the crossroads

To go or not to go down this spiral is the central conflict of the series, especially for Vikrant. He can easily follow in his father’s footsteps and surrender to his destiny, or he can even take on destiny like his in-laws and embrace his identity as a criminal. But he has other plans. The Vikrant we saw in season 1 was holding a gun gingerly and couldn’t pull the trigger to save his life. The Vikrant we see in Season 2 gets his hands dirty – but the bloodstains never leave him alone, in more ways than one.

Like Sushmita Sen’s lead character in Aarya, we see Vikrant go to dark places where he wouldn’t have if circumstances had been different. Yet he is different from Aarya in that she had to protect her family from a dangerous debt that her late husband had left behind. With Vikrant, his new crime is not always to conceal the previous one. For him, his eyes are set on a life without complications. He manifests this life with Shikha (Shweta). For him, it represents normality, but also free will. He never chose the life he was thrown into and would do anything possible to regain the right to make his own choices.

It’s an endless pleasure to see Tahir Raj Bhasin back on screen. Only an actor of his depth, screen presence, gravitas and reach could resolve the complex turmoil within Vikrant. The way he exploits his perceived innocence as a badge of honor or his love at gunpoint as his weapon of choice, Tahir makes Vikrant a man of all shades – victim yet solution-seeker, full of repentance but determined to do better. Shweta Tripathi doesn’t have much to do except be afraid, even though the relationship with her new partner offers her sweet moments. Anchal pulls out all the stops despite being stuck in the trope of the girl who gets kidnapped. Gurmeet Choudhary makes an impressive entry as the dark horse in the mix, whose equation with Purva remains suggestive at best.

It’s a shame to see Anant V Joshi, who was excellent in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s hit 12th Fail last year, being reduced to the lowest of caricatures as the protagonist’s sidekick. His drooling over a white hitwoman/hijacker is shown in a downright ridiculous way. In fact, the random shot of another white hitman/hijacker playing the flute and declaring his love for Hariprasad Chaurasia fares much better. But these are distractions that, fortunately, are rare. Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein continues to be the juicy thrill-ride it promised to be in Season 1. The novelty loses its way, but Tahir’s tonal consistency runs through the series.

Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix India.