Breathe: into the shadows

Amazon Prime Original

Episodes: 12

*ing: Abhishek Bachchan, Madhavan, Amit Sadh 

Rated: 5/10

Abhishek Bachchan’s debut in a second season of an established series Breathe was being awaited with, well, bated breath. He does not disappoint but one really never gets to go beyond the Jr Bachchan’s persona much as he tries to get into the skin of a beleaguered psychiatrist. He is still his father’s son, in the sense he carries some of senior Bachchan’s mannerisms into the character, messing it all up, at times.

Breathe’s Season 2 is better than Season 1 in the sense that the premise of the plot is better placed on believability but it suffers from all kinds of loopholes that stand tall throughout the drama enfolding around the kidnapping of a little girl from an outdoor birthday party.

Before proceeding on the ifs and buts of this season, a word first on the remarkability and presence of Amit Sadh who returns as Inspector Kabir as much more muscular, much more sensible and much less doused in alcoholic persona. Sadh is a delight to be with when he gets into waylaid characters like a guilt-prone father lubricating his liver with only daru and yet having the keenest eye for detail on a crime scene. In this one, he does well as a plain and simple Crime Branch spook handling the case of psychotic serial killings with acumen and incredible presence of mind.

The problem with Breathe 2 is that it has a lot of jargon, a lot of mumbo jumbo and even Abhishek, as Avinash the shrink, seems to be analysing the crime with frivolous conclusions and many OTT liners on “ravan kay 10 sar, meaning dus emotions to kill” type of analyses.

Flashbacks though meant to explain, often intrude on the story which itself is struggling with reason and logic most of the time. A kidnapper picks up a girl and does not make a move for nine months and then suddenly plans the killings of sundry people across Delhi. The moment it is revealed who the killer is, you lose interest in the proceedings. And that’s revealed in the sixth-seventh episode and you still have five more to go to the conclusion, which incidentally, is predictable but well mounted.

In short, Breathe 2 is not too easy to inhale or exhale, but keeps going nevertheless with all kinds of sub-plots and side stories of people in extraordinary circumstances, be it a lesbian relationship, a dark incident in college and germophobia to name a few. A case of flailing limbs to stay afloat in a sea of crime dramas.