Paatal Lok
On: Amazon Prime Video
creator: Sudip Sharma
Cast: Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 

What's a thriller, but a plot with so much at stake for characters involved, that by the time a movie's budget hits max, the existence of the whole planet depends on it! In that sense, Paatal Lok (shouldn't it be Pataal Lok?), appears aimed at quite a low-stakes game. A lot like Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai (2012; which in turn was based on Costa-Gavras' Z), if you may. What was that about?

Murder of a local, bookseller/academic. What's this about? A thwarted plot to assassinate a journalist. And, yet, the series has you by the eyeballs from the first frame itself wherein, as a show of hand for some quality writing, the creators spell out the 'saar' or base for the six hours' plus that will follow.