Poacher follows the story of a police procedural underway following the discovery of illegal poaching of elephants in the jungle of Kerala. Will the forest department abolish the entire supply chain of ivory? The story here is hard-hitting and intended to create awareness about thousands of animals in the wild that are killed for leisure or for selfish needs of humans. And precisely for that, the theme of the show becomes automatically relevant given that it has barely been explored on celluloid previously. My only concern before venturing into the show was whether the writing would stay clear of an EVS lecture while focusing on the issue through the story that it wishes to tell. And Poacher does exactly that! It refrains from being preachy while unfolding like an edge of the seat thriller and tackling the messaging only in the second layer. This, while also touching upon the politics of the land that has its way up to the top of food chain(even in terms of power with the most influential people involved). The screenplay standing at 8 episodes of roughly 40 odd minutes to an hour is compelling and makes for an engrossing watch while infuriating you with some painful visuals along the way. 

The drama opens in dramatic fashion with the closeup of an elephant which is suddenly shot in the head only to fall on the ground and die. This opening sequence not only sets the ball rolling for the drama to follow but also acts as a thread tracing its events at the start of every episode till the two worlds meet. Elsewhere, you are acquainted with a character who names the poachers of the area guilty of killing 18 male elephants for their tusks due to the increased demand of ivory. While not being taken very seriously to begin with, the forest department soon assembles a team to nail the perpetrators in what is an immersive sense of world building highlighted by frames with a blue tinge to it. It is very early on that a few names of the perpetrators are been floated around but you never really get to see them until later on in the show. This for me was a clever piece of writing that added mystery to the proceedings while consistently being layered with its theme. 

The proceedings are engaging and engrossing right from the first frame while coaxing the viewers to be attentive by floating various names to begin with. You are also acquainted with the few principal characters, all of whom are overworked and facing either health issues or issues related to their family members but are committed to the cause of nailing the perpetrators, by going after them or getting familiar with their closed ones. There are subtle twists and turns in the screenplay while the drana never loses sight of its core issue, maintaining the momentum of the proceedings throughout. This includes some tense sequences involving the officials zeroing on their targets only to be foxed or outwitted at times. Also, the brief display of politics of the land was nicely integrated in the narrative(sadly that did not have much of a payoff at the end). 

I liked how the writers gave a more wholistic view of the view as opposed to just staging the drama in Kerala. So the drama at times also shifts to Delhi with a trail of the end consumers while increasing the intensity of the drama with every passing minute. In between, the little flashback of who the perpetrators were(a typical Delhi Crime template of storytelling), and how did they hunt the elephant made for an excruciating yet infuriating watch. I was a little on the fence with the chaos created in the climax that I felt was a notch lower to my expectations wherein I did feel that a safer route wad adopted as opposed to venturing deeper into the politics around the wildlife which was just about touched upon. But the final visual of the show did leave me numb with a lot of emotions circling within me. The screenplay here was brilliantly penned and very relevant in raising awareness related to the wildlife was also highlighting their importance in our survival as species.