INTRODUCTION
Asur season 1, which was released three years back in 2020, was touted as India's first mythological thriller that lived up to the expectations of all types of viewers with its impeccable writing and connection to mythology. It’s still one of highest rated web series of all time in India. The sequel was highly and eagerly anticipated for a long time and a few days back, the trailer for season 2 was released providing viewers a huge sigh of relief for the launch of season 2. So, how does the season 2 fares? Does it manage to live up to expectations set by season 1? Read on...
ABOUT THE SERIES
Season 2 starts exactly from where season1 ended with DJ aka Dhananjay Rajput (Arshad Warsi) taking asylum in a monastery after being suspended, Nikhil Nair (Barun Sobti) and his wife Naina (Anupriya Goenka) are still coming to terms after the loss of their only girl child Riya thanks to the Monster Shubh who is still in hiding planning something really big that will destroy the mankind including political scenario as well as economy. Nusrat (Ridhi Dogra) is still trying to help Nikhil with his trauma. Rasool Shaikh (Amey Wagh), an aide of Shubh, as revealed at last season's end, is still working for CBI without getting caught and coming out clean after Lolark's death.
While Shubh goes on with his killing spree and haywire plans to destabilize the human value system along with insider hand Rasool, and Nikhil Nair still trying to come out of his situation while facing negligence from his wife, it's up to DJ to make a comeback and give hands-on fight to Shubh before he destroys everything. DJ joins hands with Naina to start his mission to stop Shubh.
While DJ and Naina are doing a side investigation, the main case is handed over to ATF from CBI, which is led by Paul (Meiyang Chang, New Entry), with Nikhil, Nusrat and Rasool joining ATF team as well. The situation comes to a point where DJ and Naina's side investigation secret is revealed but also it leads to both of them joining the ATF team as well for support.
DJ then thinks of a new method of digging into Shubh's past to get some vital clues.
What happens to Shubh and his devastating plans to destroy mankind forms the rest of the story. Will DJ, Naina, Nikhil, Nusrat, Paul and the team be able to stop Shubh or will he emerge more powerful once again as a winner of this deadly battle? You will have to watch the series to find out more.
DIRECTION AND WRITING
The series consists of eight episodes of close to 50 mins – 1 hour each. The impressive direction by Oni Sen and brilliant writing by Gaurav Shukla and Abhijeet Khuman keeps you completely hooked with the amazing amalgamation of mythology with artificial intelligence. It was an immense challenge to live up to the expectations in terms of writing that were set by S1, and probably the level of writing suggests and justifies why it took almost 3 years to come up for the next season. There are enough twists and turns but then there are loopholes too that conveniently let the things happen but you gotta ignore some of them to make a good connection.
Full marks to dialogue writers Suraj Gianani, Abhijeet Khuman and Gaurav Shukla and also for the background score by Dharamraj Bhatt. The dialogues try to establish a connection between mythology and current times accurately. It clearly shows the amount of effort that has been taken by the makers.
PERFORMANCES
Arshad Warsi as Dhananjay Rajput leads the pack like the last time. Known more for his comic timing, Arshad clearly shows here why he is so underrated and underutilized by Bollywood by not being considered for serious roles like this. Asur is a feather in Arshad’s cap and he wears it smartly with his amazing act. He is emotional but logical, cunning but within limits, I can use one word for his performance and that is SHARP.
Barun Sobti as Nikhil Nair does a tremendous job as a broken man who has lost his daughter owing to his decision and his marriage is on the verge of falling due to that incident. At the same time, he needs to do his job to find out the man (monster) behind his daughter’s death.
Barun just simply sleepwalks as if the role is tailor-made for him. He has depicted his emotions effectively. He complements Arshad eye to eye and his chemistry with Ridhi Dogra and Anupriya Goenka is spot on.
Ridhi Dogra as Nikhil’s colleague Nusrat again does a fabulous job. As a family person, who takes her job more seriously, she looks pretty convincing. Her chemistry with Barun is a delight to watch, the way they work as a team. Anupriya Goenka as Nikhil’s wife Naina is again very good. She looks confident and commanding when it comes to play a tech-savvy mother who lost her daughter but who is on a mission to find the killer just like her husband.
Amey Wagh as Rasool Sheikh is amazing. Here he has been given more screen time but revealing his identity at the end of season 1 made his role predictable and cliché. However, he still excels in what was expected of him.
Meiyang Chang is a new impressive addition to the series. His clear Hindi diction will beat most of our Bollywood actor’s diction honestly. His acting skills are equally impressive and he proved to be a great addition with his class act as Paul, the ATF lead.
Gaurav Arora as Kesar Bhardwaj looks dashing and would have been a better choice for playing the antagonist Shubh Joshi. But then that’s my view. Nonetheless, this guy leaves a mark in a smaller role.
Barkha Sengupta looks adorable in a cameo. But that might not be the end for her in the series. It’s just a kind of beginning. I would love to see more of her as she impressed me the most with her cameo.
Pawan Chopra as the CBI head is good and looks convincing. He likes to stand by his colleagues and their decisions, despite sometimes receiving flak for the same, but he stands out amongst the crowd.
It’s great to see Pramod Mautho (who acted in Chanakya and some other serials on Doordarshan and was my one-time favourite) after a long time on screen. He has a smaller role but a crucial one and he is already a great actor, as we all know, so not sure if I should say that he does it with ease.
Adithi Kalkunte Shyamprasad as Ishani Chaudhary is good in an extended cameo, but I am not sure why writers wanted to show her as a Haryanvi cop with a fake accent. Although she excels in the acting department, her fake Haryanvi accent didn’t go down well with me.
Abhishek Chauhan again does a fine job after an impressive performance in UNDEKHI.
Though less screen time, he leaves a mark with his subtle act and emoting eyes.
All in all, everyone is spot on but the one young man who stands out among the crowd is none other than Teen Actor Vishesh Bansal. He is spell-binding and gives you chills with his dialogue delivery and subtle eyes. As young Asur Shubh, he steals the show in whatever scenes he appears with his flawless Hindi mantras (Shlokas diction). Those eyes will haunt you for a long time!!. I could not believe he is the same cute teenager who played the lead in Yeh Meri Family Season 1. If you read this, now you will be able to recognize him easily. And if that’s not enough, we have another brilliant child actor who stole the show with his adorable subtle act Atharva Vishwakarma as Anant. These two are the highlights of Asur 2 and Indian OTT, mark my words!
OVERALL VERDICT
Overall, Asur2 is a worthy successor to an already acclaimed and interesting series. The direction and writing do full justice and also justify the fact of the gap in coming up with a new season, almost three years later.
Flaws, if any? Though there are some loopholes and things conveniently done at places that was the case with season 1 also. Didn’t we ignore that time and make ASUR one of the best series of all time? The series looks a tad too long with the initial 4-5 episodes looking a little dragged with monotonous events, but once you reach ep06, you will start connecting the dots and you will find it worth it.
It’s absolutely worth spending 8 hours of your time, especially if season 1 impressed you. This one might not be superior to season 1 but it’s neither inferior to that, so go and season 1timethe to binge-watch it right now.
And just to add to your excitement levels, I should say SEASON3 is on the cards. As Shubh says “Mahayudhh abhi pramabh hua hai aur koi na koi kali is yudhh ko ladta rahega jab tak Kali Avatar nahi le leta."
WISE MOVIE REVIEWS RATING: 4/5
REVIEW CREDITS: DEEPAK CHAUDHARY
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