Job Vs Duty:
In Season 1 of Paatal Lok, Delhi cop, Hathiram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat) was sent into a dark dungeon of crime because he was naive and dispensable.
In Season 2, he says he is a permanent resident of the netherworld. But those who dumped him there, clearly underestimated his capacity for absorbing the whiplash of undeserved punishment. He says he’d rather do his duty than do a job, calmly letting others take credit for his work. He does not care that a rookie, Imran Ansari (Ishwak Singh), whom he trained in the last season, is now Assistant Commissioner of Police, though he has some difficulty in calling him sir.
Hathiram’s sincere attempt to hunt for the missing husband of a woman, ties into a much larger conspiracy involving murder, drugs, greed and the insurgency-affected state of Nagaland, which the Government is hoping to appease with multi crore development plans. Kapil Reddy (Nagesh Kukunoor), a businessman married to a Naga woman, who owns a hotel chain, is driving a summit between Naga leaders and Delhi’s Home Ministry bureaucrats. But Reddy has his own agenda, while in Nagaland, those for the summit and those against clash. Another filmmaker Jahnu Barua plays an elderly advisor, which is a smart bit of casting.
A Naga leader, Jonathan Thom (LC Sekhose) is murdered in Delhi; a young woman, Rose (Merenla Imsong) from Nagaland could be a involved, but she goes missing. Ansari and Hathiram go to Nagaland to investigate and meet local cop Meghna Barua (Tillotama Shome), seemingly hostile, but also courageous and honest.
The eight-part series (on Amazon Prime Video), directed by Avinash Arun Daware, goes into the lanes and dark alleys of Delhi, where businesses are not what they seem, and people are killed without causing a ripple in the swamp of illegal goings-on. It also explores the beauty and tragedy of Nagaland. Along with being a rigorous police procedural, it is also politically aware; if there are action set pieces like the hospital rescue scenes, there are also little scenes of family and friendship.
Hathiram, who has a thuggish, world weary appearance, is soft enough to shelter an orphaned child in his home (his wife played by Gul Panang has become stoic over the years), always be ready for a chase even though he is of shape, accept Imran’s gay relationship without judgement, to do good even when nobody’s looking. As another character says, he tries to save the leaking boat of the system, when others are busy protecting themselves.
The way Ahlawat plays Hathiram, like a cynical, tragic, noble hero– it is a joy to watch such a wonderful actor at work. He makes the character so likeable, that it is impossible to imagine anybody else in the role.
(This piece first appeared in seniorstoday.in)
