The first season of ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein’ became an addictive watch in the way it bent one of the oldest genres in the book: being an obsessive lover is not just a male prerogative; women can do it just as well, if not better. It made up for all its nods to hoary Hindi movie heavies who lived in palaces overrun by armed goons, governed by old-style off-with-their-heads villainy.
Director Sidharth Sengupta and co-writers Anahata Menon and Varun Badola return with their cast and commitment intact for season 2. Purva’s (Aanchal Singh) fixation with childhood crush Vikrant (Tahir Raj Bhasin), which set things into motion in the previous season, has multiplied manifold. Her loving daddy Akheraj Awasthi (Saurabh Shukla), a local power centre, has grown more powerful in the interim: whatever his princess wants, she will get.
The new season opens with Purva trussed up in the back of a car, with the kidnapper (Arunoday Singh) caught between two men, one who wants her dead, the other, alive and well. UK-based security expert Guru ( Gurmeet Chowdhury), armed with a team comprising a couple of vaguely-Slavic types, comes charging in to rescue the woman he has feelings for. Which leaves Vikrant less and less wiggle room : will Shikha ( Shweta Tripathi) the love of his life, now another man’s wife, survive the onslaught? Will Vikrant’s family, father ( Brijendra Kala), younger sister, and faithful friend Golden ( Anantvijay Joshi) live to tell their tale?
ALSO READ | Waack Girls review: Prime Video show is good-natured, well-intentioned
It’s wise to confine the telling to a brisk six episodes, the pace never slackening despite the occasional contrivance or two. A human body is chopped into pieces. The bloody remains are found. Shukla, vamping it up for all he’s worth, declares war. Aanchal Singh exudes menace successfully, even as she is flung from one hiding spot to another. Joshi’s hanging his tongue out at anything ‘from foreign’, is unfunny, and drags things down. Akheraj’s old foe, played by Varun Badola and his armed outfit, are never as interesting as they think they are.
But with the conflicted Bhasin never taking his eye off the ball (we continue to hear his point-of-view through the series, as an explainer), while sliding down an increasingly violent path, keeps us watching: how far can a good man fall in the pursuit of keeping himself and his loved ones safe? And can love that corrodes override a more moral, just affection?
The show, with all its pulpy thriller sinews in place, leaves us on a cliffhanger, nicely primed for the next season.
Cast: Tahir Raj Bhasin, Saurabh Shukla, Shweta Tripathi, Anchal Singh, Brijendra Kala, Surya Sharma, Anantvijay Joshi, Gurmeet Chowdhury, Varun Badola, Arunoday Singh
Director: Sidharth Sengupta
Rating: 3 stars
