Nothing, just about nothing is subtle in the world of crime, as demonstrated in the web series Abhay. From the first to the second season, the blood, gore and violence saga has only multiplied manifold by filmmaker Ken Ghosh, the man who once directed feel good high gloss music videos and then made that adorable Ishq Vishk with Shahid Kapoor.
He has graduated to a different world though and his partner-to-solve-the-crime, Kunal Kemmu, is more than happy to comply as well. Which means there are heads in the bag paraded as trophies, brains knocked out of the head and relished raw as a meal, teeth extracted out of the jaws and savored as mementos, and stuff alike on display every 15 minutes. While that takes of the violence part, the sex also goes to the next level, what with dildos coming into play for unnatural pleasures.
As you would have realized by now, Abhay 2 is not for the faint hearted. Even the first season wasn’t, what with cannibals and aghoris bringing out the truly violent streaks with a lot of pain, sadism and gore coming into play. Hence, when the team at ZEE5 decided to commission the second season, the mandate seems to be clear around the holds-n-bar approach.
That’s how it plays out too once the series opens with the scene of Chunkey Pandey, a common man outside his house who runs a stationary shop and an evil mind committing mindless crimes for that piece of mind inside his father’s ‘pushtaini’ barber shop. While he plays around with his newest set of victims, the song ‘Bikta Hai Sone Mitti Ke Mol, Bikti Hai Mitti Sone Ke Mol’ from Subhash Ghai’s Trimurti plays in the background. One wonders whether this was a tribute to Chunkey Pandey’s 80s hit Mitti aur Sona, or if that was a mere coincidence!
Nonetheless, the man makes sure that he kills it with his performance, well, literally so, as he changes his entire walk, body language, gait and mannerisms for his evil part. If you felt that he could be that funny man to hang out with after his ‘Aakhri Pasta’ escapades in the Housefull franchise then well, you would like to be far-far away from him after catching him in Abhay 2.
However, a lot more evil is on the anvil, now that Ram Kapoor has been introduced in the show which has so far unveiled three episodes with rest coming on ZEE5 Premium in September. While it is interesting to see him design his dialogue delivery style on Sanjay Dutt no less (remember Khalnayak, Kartoos?), there is quite some intrigue that has already been established. Why has he hijacked a bus full of school children? What scores does he want to settle with Kunal Kemmu? Why has he surrendered? What game he is trying to play every 12 hours?
All of this and more ensures that Abhay 2 turns out to be a riveting affair and the good part is that Kunal Kemmu is pretty much continuing from where he left. While his ‘desi’ Sherlock characteristic traits were already well established in the first season, his approach towards crime, cops and media is interesting as well, especially when he communicates with his superior (Mohan Kapoor) and live-in girlfriend who is a TV journalist by profession, Asha Negi. Also, this time he has a new team with Nidhi Singh stepping in and oozing great confidence already.
Meanwhile, the crimes stay on to be twisted and the ultimate redemption being mind boggling as well. Yes, you need a strong stomach to digest it all, be it Chunkey’s episode or later the one featuring Bidita Bag, who plays a prostitute and designs her own way to cherish that ‘charam sukh’. However, as long as you can get past that and feel entertained, there is a lot more that Abhay 2 promises in episodes to come.
The stage has already been set and with Kunal Kemmu v/s Ram Kapoor face-off all set to be the highlight of the episodes to follow, one expects a riveting crime thriller in the offering soon.