The second season of Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein picks up from the same point where season one had ended. And so, the core of the second season remains faithful to the kidnapping drama that was setup of the first season. In that regard, the focus also is distributed to the other important character of the show, Purva (Anchal Singh). In the first season, Purva is shown to be head-over-heels for Vikrant, completely oblivious of his sinister plans. The naiveity and cunningness of her character is rather unassuming given the powerful family that she finds herself in – presumably more so because you see a brief opening sequence in season 2 about how a thrilling car sequence without a context, ended ties with her mother (or did it). The set of events highlight one important facet of Purva – she has seen several lows in her life while knowing how to survive, a far cry from being blinded in love with traces of wickedness in the first season. The need to win at any cost is still there but buried deep beneath the realms of finding herself to be a victim of her husband’s circumstances which is unknown to her, while refreshingly being a counter-productive anti-hero for Vikrant. In a way, both Vikrant and Purva are soulmates – with each being a victim of the other in a twisted manner.

The drama essentially unfolds as a potential face-off between Vikrant and the family he is batting for, unknown to the latter that he is the kingpin of all the confusion. It is hilarious for sure to witness the amount of faith showered on Vikrant who also finds a way to chop his brother-in-law to pieces, at the wedding of his girlfriend. In a hilarious sequence, the song that plays from the playlist is ‘Deewana Deewana’, even as Vikrant matches the beats in the song with frequent ‘chops’. Here is a character who has this one job of plotting the killing of Purva – but he has failed every single time, hilariously being an expert at dumping bodies with the apparent murder that he has committed. But the twist in his life and the show comes in the form of another character Guru (Gurmeet Choudhary), a character silently in love with Purva from his childhood but never getting the benefits of a relationship owing to the ‘blinded love’ of Purva towards Vikrant. So a cat and mouse game within a cat and mouse game is between Vikrant and Guru, oddly who meet at an interesting juncture in the screenplay, with a definite ‘undercurrent’ of tension flowing between them – both literally and figuratively speaking. In a later scene, you see Vikrant mockingly admit to his crimes while Guru looks on with surprise while severely doubting his intentions.

The proceedings are supremely thrilling with traces of black humour that often stems out of the existence of the characters of this world. For instance, the character of Akhiraj (Saurabh Shukla) casually states, ‘Kahan Marr Gaya Woh’ , ironic to his oblivious self that the character has indeed died. There is another instance involving Vikrant who suddenly has an outburst to stall the details provided by Purva about her whereabouts in a coded manner. The subtext of the larger cat and mouse game is pretty evident in most scenes, that doubles up in contributing to the laughs of the show. On the other side of the world, it is Purva whom you empathize with – until you don’t – often subjecting to being tied up or a flairing escape gone wrong that leads to the tense moments of the show. However, the stakes for the potential kidnapper Jalan (Arunoday Singh) isn’t straight forward too – in fact his stakes are personal too, that grounds his character in the humane capacity. So as a viewer, the setup is definitely there on which character would you be inclined towards, particularly in a rescue ops sequence that ends in an unassuming shootout.

One of the few gripes that I had with the writing of the show was in its overstuffed final act that deviated to a subplot, only to kill off a string from the past. The unexpected collaboration between two characters was in its nascent stage, and this budding dynamic needed time to fully invest in their new-found relationship. Yes, one of the pluses here included a hilarious planned hatched by Vikrant to escape to the Nepal border, only to be counter argued by his father on how would he witness the feeling of being a grandfather. The argument was valid and rather hilarious. But I sure was not in favour of contriving the potential of the plot in this season by backing it with a tepid finale, and teasing the viewers with multiple cliffhangers (which by the way were interesting). There shouldn’t be a compromise in the current season finale which is often traded for the setup of the next season. Despite that, the screenplay here sizzles and keeps you on your toes while providing a solid thriller.