Paatal lok | Amazon Prime Web Series 9 episodes *ing: Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi and others Produced by: Anushka Sharma

Rated: 9/10

I  learnt four things by watching the Amazon Prime thriller series Paatal Lok. One, online entertainment is deeper, faster and more engaging than mere cinema. Two, content is packaged and sold here without the wing clipper called funds and censorship and is, thus, delectably raw yet refined.

Three, viewers who have en masse switched to online entertainment, are going to stay there even after lockdown, thanks to the depth and nuance provided to them. Four, and most importantly, web series can be a good platform to enrich your glossary of Hindi abuses.

Having said this, the real value of online entertainment lies in Anushka Sharma’s production Paatal Lok which flowers on a story that’s grounded, real and tense. The thriller engages you with acumen, earthiness and pace, leading you from episode to episode on a binge prescription.

Jaideep Ahlawat is the quintessential cop disillusioned with a system which has sidelined him to the noxious peripheries of hell, which he calls Paatal Lok, a world from where very many police procedurals have emanated.

Paatal Lok opens with many questions and the best thing about it is that through all its nine episodes, it manages to dodge the answers, instead, throwing intrigue, drama and, of course, wholesome gaalis at you, making you finally admit that the series does have the licence to abuse making it situationally the need of the hour.

Ahlawat as an out of sorts cop, lands with a case of a lifetime to salvage his botched-up reputation. He does the groundwork like the seasoned, low-ranked inspector that he is despite the rust that has gathered on his starless uniform over years of inactivity.

A TV journalist star is about to be shot before the gang is busted by Crime Branch, never mind, after an aborted mission. Things, however, are not a wee bit simple as they look. The onion layering of the plot gives viewers a time of their nail-biting life. And, one gets to thank high heavens that unlike most web series, this one does not throw a Season 2 at you.

A complete, gritty police department thriller is just what the doctor, or should we say, the Prime Minister, prescribed for a healthy time for home quarantine.

The other good thing about the series is that it tugs at you with a reality ridden narrative which makes you understand the underbelly of police-criminal-political connection that will never die, only come dressed in new garbs to what they call oil the system.

The acting, plot, story, ambience, dialogue — all collude to make Paatal Lok a talking point for viewers, starved of impactful content.