Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein season 2 review: I’m happy to report that Sidharth Sengupta’s romantic crime thriller show has successfully evaded the season 2 curse. The series, starring Tahir Raj Bhasin, Shweta Tripathi, Anchal Singh, and Saurabh Shukla, manages to keep the thrills and the pulp of the first season intact. The novelty does wear off, but the politics and philosophical centre remain steadfast.
It’s a dad’s world
Season 2 kicks off exactly where season 1 ended – Purva (Anchal) has been abducted by Jalaan (Arunoday Singh), who threatens her husband Vikrant (Tahir) that he’ll bring her back if her father Akheraj (Saurabh) doesn’t pay ₹100 crore. Hmm, that’s not your usual deal. The catch here is that Vikrant hired Jalaan to kill his wife, but he double-crossed him and now wants more money in exchange.
Sweet subversion has been at the heart of Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, although it may come across as your standard small-town crime thriller fare on the surface. From subverting the popular dance number from Abbas-Mustan’s 1993 hit Baazigar to flipping gender roles in a star-crossed romantic equation, the show’s core screams subversion. Season 2 doesn’t build much on that foundation, but flirts with the same devil with equal gusto. You root for the hero by hoping that the ‘heroine’ never finds her way back.
But at the same time, like the hero, you feel for other characters who got him in that predicament in the first place – particularly both the fathers – Akheraj and Vikrant’s father (Brijendra Kala). Gender roles have been swapped here – the man is stuck in a toxic, deadly marriage with the manipulative, exploitative woman. But even the flip is attributed to the patriarchy – Purva turned out to be entitled and ethically immune because she was raised by her gangster father. In fact, season 2 starts with a flashback sequence in which Purva’s mother rides her car off the edge of a cliff – thus reiterating that the world of this show has no place for matriarchy.
At different points in the show, both the fathers are made to realise how they’ve been grossly unfair with their parenting. Saurabh Shukla’s layered portrayal comes to the fore when he confesses that he never realised that kids can turn out to be weak too. He took pride in the fact that he’s raised children who would never surrender to their vulnerabilities. Similarly, in one scene, Vikrant tells his dad that in his quest for loyalty to the higher chair, he’s willing to sacrifice his entire family. But Brijendra Kala’s impeccable comic timing and perennially concerned demeanour never allow us to hate him. Even though he’s pretty much a perpetrator, unlike his son, he never realised when he devolved from a victim to a co-conspirator.
Vikrant at crossroads
To go or not go down that spiral is the central conflict of the show, especially for Vikrant. He can conveniently follow in his father’s footsteps and surrender to his fate, or he can even own the twist of fate like his in-laws and embrace his identity of a criminal. But he has other plans. The Vikrant we saw in season 1 held 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 titular character in Aarya, we see Vikrant go dark places where he wouldn’t had the circumstances been different. Yet he’s different from Aarya in the sense that she had to protect her family from a dangerous debt that her dead husband had left behind. With Vikrant, his new crime isn’t always to cover up the last one. For him, his eyes are set on a life free of any complications. He manifests living that life with Shikha (Shweta). To him, she represents normalcy, but also agency. He never chose the life he’s been thrown into, and would go lengths to regain the right to make his own choices.
It’s an endless pleasure to watch Tahir Raj Bhasin back on the screen. Only an actor of his depth, screen presence, gravitas, and range could pull off the complex turmoil within Vikrant. The way he harnesses his perceived innonce as a badge of honour or his love at gunpoint as a weapon of choice, Tahir makes Vikrant a man of all shades – victim yet a solution-seeker, full of repent yet determined to do better. Shweta Tripathi has little to do except stay scared, although the relationship with her new partner makes for some sweet moments. Anchal goes all guns blazing despite being stuck in the trope of the daughter who gets kidnapped. Gurmeet Choudhary makes an impressive entry as the dark horse in the mix, one whose equation with Purva remains suggestive at best.
It’s a pity to watch Anant V Joshi, who was excellent in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s sleeper hit 12th Fail last year, being reduced to the lowest of caricatures as the protagonist’s sidekick. Him drooling over a white hitwoman/hijacker is shown in downright ridiculous fashion. In fact, the random stroke of another white hitman/hijacker playing flute and declaring his love for Hariprasad Chaurasia fares much better. But these are distractions, which thankfully, are few and far between. Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein continues to be the fast-paced, juicy thrill ride that it promised to be in season 1. The newness loses its way, but Tahir’s tonal consistency rides the series through.
Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein season 2 is now streaming on Netflix India.
