rewrite this title 'Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein S2' Review: A Grander Sequel Momentarily Loses Steam

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There’s Something So Delicious And Charming About Season 1 Of Netflix’s Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankheen – A show that gave me one of my favorite Indian women in Purva (Aanchal Singh). Power, violence, desire, seduction and greed all turned into a delicious drink that I was very happy to consume. It’s no surprise, I’ve gone back to the show several times since its release in 2022. So, the Season 2 announcement came with mixed emotions — we finally got more Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankheen But what if they ruin the magic?

Let’s set the stage first, okay? Vikrant (Tahir Raj Bhasin), a middle-class man, dreams of living with his girlfriend Shikha (Shweta Tripathi) in a small house with a yard and a small dog. He’s not made for the big leagues and he never yearns for them – he dreams in the ‘small’ leagues and he’s content.

However, this dream has always been under threat – a woman named Purva’s dangerous, borderline obsessive ‘affection’ for him. The daughter of a powerful man, she never wanted for anything and as a result, she never understood the meaning of ‘no’. Naturally, this makes him a terrible person.

This love triangle, although the term doesn’t do justice to the mess that it is, forms the crux of the story. How far will Purva go to get the man of her dreams and how far will Vikrant go to protect all he loves? Season 1 was pulpy and charming and unpredictable for the most part, but Season 2 seems to be lacking some of that excitement.

It still has Rani Kashyap’s pulp novel in production Haseen Dillruba It might have started from a stand at a railway station, but the makers have lost their grip on the story. The stakes are higher in Season 2—the weapons are bigger, the kills are gruesome. Season 2 begins where its predecessor left off – Jaalan (Arunoday Singh) has kidnapped Purva, effectively foiling Vikrant’s plan to kill her.

There are some new entries in the new season, prominent among which is Purva’s friend Guru (Gurmeet Choudhary) who appears with expert agents and surveillance equipment and lots of weapons to rival James Bond. The needle of her suspicion turns towards Vikrant almost immediately – he is stubborn and fearful for his life. For a person with small dreams, everything that happens around him overwhelms him, and forces him to make quick, often wrong decisions. Director Siddharth Sengupta tries to keep track of all the twists and turns already established and for the most part, it works but the flaws become apparent very soon. Purva, who was the lynchpin of the entire show, spends a lot of her time trying to escape and survive, but as with many, dynamic parts of the show, we don’t really get to join in on the fight.

Nor can we sit well with Vikrant’s quickly unraveling sense of self and Shikha’s internal conflict. Shikha, now married, tries to balance between the expectations that come with her new life and the reality she has been trying to deny for some time.

Artists bring life to the show. Aanchal Singh may not have got as much time as last time to make her mark, but for all her modesty, she has managed to deliver an impressive performance. We get a glimpse of his past which means the actor must balance between his role as the antagonist and the newfound sympathy his audience feels for him. On that front she succeeds. Bhasin plays the ‘leading man’ role well – his anger would have seemed redundant had the actor not put his all into Vikrant.

The inconsistencies in his character and the lack of awareness in some of the people around him are more visible due to his writing than his performances. At first, all these characters seemed to be on equal footing – no one could tell who would prevail over whom. But this time some characters are seen acting out of character, due to which the story can move forward. Producers prioritize convenience over authenticity of their characters.

Then there is Shweta Tripathi as Shikha. Tripathi has a knack for emotionally impacting – his character is constantly pulled in multiple directions and the impact this can have on someone is evident in every scene.

A particularly effective scene where she reaches out to her husband for comfort when everything else seems uncertain is enough to cement her role in the show, with little screen time set aside.

But the way the show seems to be going haywire, the actors can’t completely hide it. Why doesn’t a policeman understand the difference between blood and vermilion? Are black-and-white shots (with highlighting the blood and whites, of course) really necessary? With a stronger script, these flaws could have been overcome, but alas.

Some of the storylines feel completely unnecessary and the show takes less time to actually introduce some of its more fascinating themes. The subversiveness and pulpy aura of the first season feels missing here – the dialogue doesn’t always have the sharpness that a show like this needs. There are parts where the show shines with the ghosts of past seasons – the lines between hero and antagonist blurring as the episodes progress.

‘Morality’ as a narrative device was much more black-and-white in Season 1 than it is now and that’s always an interesting thread to pull.Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankheen Gender dynamics have been subverted in the ‘love as passion’ story, but it’s interesting that the show wants to explore how patriarchy influences this subversion as well.

Purva is a mirror image of her father – both her outspokenness and stubbornness emerge from the way she was brought up. For a few seconds, the show even gives us a glimpse of the person she could have been or perhaps wanted to be.

In moments like this, where the show focuses on its characters instead of becoming a survival thriller, Season 2 is still engaging, but it also feels like a setup for Season 3 better than expected.