Asur Season 2 Review: Star Rating:
Cast: Arshad Warsi, Barun Sobti, Riddhi Dogra, Anupriya Goenka
Creator: Gaurav Shukla
Director: Oni Sen
Streaming On: Jio Cinema
Language: Hindi (with subtitles).
Runtime: 8 Episodes, Around 60 Minutes Each.
Taking ahead the hunt for a mastermind playing with myths and technology by killing and brainwashing people, Asur 2 progresses in the story with the pain that the characters have suffered both metaphorically and literally. With time, now the playground widens, and Shubh now uses technology to make his plans work as he plays out the Kali vs. Kalki tale from the mythology.
Asur Season 2 Review: What Works:Right between the pandemic, and when the audience was ready to get immersed in the most significant wave of content, Voot entered the market with a show that wasn’t promoted the way it should have been, and the only way it grew leaps was by word of mouth. The sheer brilliance in writing that transcended not just genres but even patterns by which storytelling is done, made Asur a show that was unique and a bulletproof experiment from all directions.
Asur Season 2, that now shifts base to Jio Cinema, also sees a shuffle in writers. While Abhijeet Khuman continues to write with Gaurav Shukla, Niren Bhatt, and Pranay Patwardhan are replaced by Suraj Gianani. So when Asur 2 begins with the introduction of its plot that is now not just about the quest for a serial killer who is killing people, but a mastermind who is about to blow up the entire country in more than one way, you see the change in the voice. The canvas is bigger than just a team of CBI officers fighting against a killer. Now this works both in a good way and a bad.
We first list down the good. Asur as an idea is a meaty one and also risky because it blends real in mythology and serves a story that not just resembles the stories from the times of Gods and their vision, but also kind of makes the audience the judge to decide what side of the spectrum they chose. It is a lucrative story where now it is not just police officers running behind a shadow, but realising that the shadow has created little pockets of him, and they are running the show with him. In season 2, we see the mythology of the Kali and Kalki tale, technology, and noir all coming together to give us an interesting watch.
Credit where it’s due, Shukla and his team know how to introduce complexities to a story and take their time to them untangle the tangled bits. They indulge the audience so much into the happenings of the protagonists, that the audience never knows enough about the antagonist until he has killed one more victim. This helps in building the villain well. Add to it the fact that they chose an unusual actor to play the part in a way that the idea of him is supposed to be dread and not his face. His face has always been naive.
Talking about Asur without giving out spoilers is getting tougher. So I stop.
Barun Sobti transforms not just mentally but physically with season 2. He gets messier and not in a dramatic manner but very subtly. You might not even notice it, but the actor puts loads of efforts into bringing authenticity to his part and making it look effortless. This only makes me wonder how did no one ever saw mettle in these boys (also including the brilliant Siddhant Gupta from Jubilee), considering that have been around for so long.
Arshad Warsi doesn’t hard sell a cop because now he has a heavier part, rather he keeps it simple, and that is why it works more. While the script mid-way makes his arc mostly repetitive to give him a big moment by the end, the actor never let’s you leave his side.
Both Riddhi Dogra and Anupriya Goenka have concrete parts to play and one that are very much consequential to the story. However, the script entirely forgets that Dogra’s Nushrat was attracted to Sobti’s Nikhil, and the charm of their dynamic is lost.
Somebody finally saw Meiyang Chang in a role that has nothing to do with his ethnicity, colour, or, looks. And the actor makes sure he proves himself. Yes, there is a long way to go, but we can see the actor has the potential to scale it.
Asur Season 2 Review: What Doesn’t Work:One can see the shift in writers affects the essence of Asur throughout the show. Not that it makes it unwatchable, but the attention detail that the first season offer goes entirely for toss. Like Nikhil and Nushrat’s dynamic, the season 2 entirely forgets the plot about the missing fingers. We see flashes but that part is never spoken about. Wasn’t it a very integral detail to the story?
There is an entire chunk in Asur 2 that feels too out of the place. Victims given remotes with red and blue buttons and told to choose is too much to believe and connect with the content of the show otherwise. It shapes a character and makes him a god but he is not build well enough for us to root for him in the upcoming season.
Asur lacks the charm that the mention of every mythological tale brought with it in season 1. The Tumbbad-like storytelling is entirely left behind to welcome the technology angle but I wonder if it would have still been possible with the old blueprint.
Asur 2 isn’t as brilliant as the season 1 but certainly has a gripping tale to offer. We can definitely give this show another chance to bounce back to its complete glory.
For more recommendations, read our Garmi Review here.
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The post Asur Season 2 Review: Mythology Continuous To Seamlessly Blend Into Real-Time, But The Attention To Detail Goes Missing appeared first on Koimoi.
