Paatal Lok Web Series Review. An Intelligent & Irresistible Web Series

Paatal Lok web series is a nine-episode series which was released on Amazon Prime Video on 15 May 2020.

Paatal Lok Production

Paatal Lok web series is the first series produced by Clean Slate Filmz, the production house run by Anushka Sharma and her brother Karnesh Sharma. It’s been created by Sudip Sharma, who wrote NH10 and Udta Punjab. Sudip has also co-written the series along with Sagar Haveli, Hardik Mehta and Gunjit Chopra. Paatal Lok has been directed by Avinash Arun, who made the National Award-winning Marathi film Killaand and Prosit Roy, who made the horror film Pari.

Paatal Lok Web Series Trailer Video

Paatal Lok Story Synopsis

Ye ek nahi teen duniya hain, sabse upar swarg lok (heaven), jisme devta rehte hain, beech me dharti lok (earth), jisme aadmi rehte hain, aur sabse niche paatal lok (hell), jisme keede rethe hain.” Hathi Ram Chaudhary sets the tone of Paatal Lok.

The story of Paatal Lok is constructed as a crime investigative thriller. Four killers have been arrested for trying to murder Sanjeev Mehra, the head of a leading news channel and one of the country’s most high-profile journalists. The case has been assigned to a washed-out, mediocre cop who works in the Outer Jamuna Paar police station what he calls Paatal Lok. But the rather unfortunately named Hathi Ram Chaudhary, whose life has been a series of fights and failures, instinctively understands that this case can be a game-changer.

Aided by his fresh-faced junior Ansari, Hathi Ram tries to uncover the motives of the four assassins and he discovers startling truths about the lives of the suspects and the entire case turns into a dark mystery thriller.

The story of Paatal Lok is a tightly knit thriller with every episode ending on a cliffhanger, which forces you to keep bingeing. The narrative travels from Delhi to Chitrakoot and Punjab and the distinct accents, language and specific curses are one of the highlights of the Paatal Lok.

Paatal Lok Cast and Characters

• Jaideep Ahlawat in lead role as Inspector Hathi Ram Chaudhry
• Neeraj Kabi as high profile journalist Sanjeev Mehra
• Abhishek Banerjee as Vishal “Hathoda” Tyagi
• Niharika Lyra Dutta as Sara Matthews
• Swastika Mukherjee as Dolly
• Jagjeet Sandhu as Tope Singh
• Ishwak Singh as Imran Ansari
• Gul Panag as Renu
• Anurag Arora as SHO Virk
• Aasif Khan as Kabir M
• Bodhisattva Sharma as Siddharth Chaudhary
• Mairembam Ronaldo Singh as Mary Lyngdoh
• Vipin Sharma as DCP Bhagat
• Akash Khurana as Singh Saab
• Rajesh Sharma as Gwala Gujjar
• Akshay Sharma as Donullia
• Anup Jalota as Balkishan Bajpayee

Jaideep Ahlawat as Hathi Ram in Paatal Lok

Jaideep Ahlawat, has been admired since his stellar turn in Gangs of Wasseypur, finally gets a lead role to match his blazing talent. Hathi Ram’s face and his eyes seem bruised by the brutality he has encountered, but he is still, every inch, the everyman hero. Despite the odds, Hathi Ram, like a modern-day Sisyphus, continues to push his rock uphill and probe until the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Hathi Ram is up against formidable opponents, including the murderer Hathoda Tyagi, named so because he prefers to kill with a hammer.

Hathi Ram belongs to the pantheon of memorable investigators that streaming platforms have given us, like Sartaj Singh in Sacred Games and Srikant Tiwari in The Family Man. Hathi Ram is a man who has spent his life dealing with violence and vice and yet he retains his honesty.

Paatal Lok Web Series Review – Filmy Radar’s Take

Paatal Lok web series showcases caste, corruption, greed, dirty politics. It explores the backstories of the lead characters, revealing the cauldron of poverty and hate that creates killers. This might not be new information, but what’s chilling is how casually it all plays out. A key character explains that what everyone thinks of as a rotten system is in fact a well-oiled machine in which every part knows his job and anyone who doesn’t is just replaced.

Gul Panag breaks the bleakness with her feisty presence as Hathi Ram’s wife. Swastika Mukherjee is also lovely as Sanjeev’s long-suffering spouse. These actors leave a mark in the little screen time they have. The locations in this show are also characters –especially the river, which is a site for romance, violence, contemplation and excretion. Avinash doubles up as DOP along with Saurabh Goswami for all 9 episodes. The two shroud this grim world in a green-grey palette, which is momentarily broken by bright lights.

The climactic detour into a village fair is especially dazzling. The haunting background music of Paatal Lok by Naren Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor, and the editing by Sanyukta Kaza. Paatal Lok is the type of storytelling that streaming platforms were made for–dense, layered, ambitious, ambiguous.

This is a crew brimming with talent and their collective skills create fireworks on screen. This is what elevates Paatal Lok from a skillful thriller to something bigger and more essential.

We highly recommend that you make time for it.

External Links

Paatal Lok on IMDB

Paatal Lok on WikiPedia