‘Suzhal – The Vortex’ Season 2 overview: Swirling in mediocrity

Firstly, to their credit score, there was promise in the set-up. Through their very introductions, characters, unknown and acquainted, make you sit proper up. To proceed the story from the primary season and save time by anchoring the plot round established characters, we start with Nandhini (Aishwarya), now imprisoned for the crime she dedicated in the primary season. SI Chakravarthy a.ok.a Sakkarai (Kathir), beneath investigation as part of Nandhini’s case, helps her from the skin. Chellappa (the ever-spectacular Lal), a do-gooder lawyer and a father determine to Sakkarai, has tilted the case in favour of Nandhini and Sakkarai.

A public spat over a contract immediately lets you already know who’s in hassle, and rigidity mounts when Sakkarai finds Chellappa useless in his personal cottage. A presumptuous eye would conclude it a suicide. The catch? It’s a locked-room thriller; all doorways and home windows are shut from inside, and the homicide weapon is lacking. The first episode reveals the suspect as an unidentified girl (Gouri Kishan) discovered hiding inside a closet in the room with the lacking gun. Again, it will get difficult when Sakkarai notices that the closet she was discovered in was shut from the skin. This units into movement an eight-episode investigation, thickened with extra suspects coming ahead with confessions. The motive behind the homicide is one factor, nevertheless it’s the modus operandi that we will’t wait to uncover.

A nonetheless from ‘Suzhal – The Vortex Season 2’
| Photo Credit:
Prime Video

The pilot episode, directed by Bramma, beautifully units the tone, reminding one of many storytelling flavour that stood out in the primary season. The second episode, directed by Sarjun KM, establishes the various interpersonal dynamics between the first characters, hinting on the instant suspects on whom we will solid our doubts. Issues pile up from the third episode onward.

Here’s the most important downside — all through the second season, we’re spoon-fed the foundational pillars with which new entries into the franchise are to be constructed. The sequence must a) inform a small-city investigation story garnished with subversions, b) set up a backdrop of a rooted non secular competition, drawing parallels to the tales of the land, and c) introduce a theme that takes a stand in opposition to a particular social evil. Had one condensed the primary season of Suzhal to its naked bones, it operated largely beneath these broad boundaries, however the sequel appears drive-match into this framework.

Remember the immersion you felt in the primary season each time the story took you thru the crowded streets of Sambaloor? Set in Kaalipattanam, the second season fails to construct an acceptable environment. Even the coastal setting, which is emphasised all through, feels generic; had the sequence discovered house to seize the temper of residing in an in depth-knit coastal group, it may have change into a Broadchurch. The different areas in the sequence — the police station, the jail, and Chellappa’s home — don’t stand out.

The story takes place simply when lakhs of pilgrims are set to go to Kaalipattanam, desperate to take part in the Ashtakaali competition, in which women and men costume as the various characters in the folklore of the Ashtakaalis. As per the legend, eight Kaalis needed to unite and struggle to finish the reign of a heinous Arakkan. Like the primary season, the observe-up makes an attempt to construct parallels between the narrative and the native folklore, nevertheless it isn’t as seamless. The most memorable scene involving the competition comes in direction of the top of the second episode, which introduces different suspects in the homicide of Chellappa. The scene intercuts with the Ashtakaalis’ parade on the competition; on paper, it sounds compelling, even when a bit heavy-handed. But then you definitely marvel if this might have been positioned elsewhere, possibly throughout a extra highly effective reveal later.

The bigger arc surrounding the homicide doesn’t ship both. Sakkarai and the native inspector, Moorthy (Saravanan, who makes each scene depend), discover themselves in fairly a pickle with the case, having to chase any clues that come their means. But even after they get their share of leads, the investigation is something however engrossing. The solely intelligent police work we see from Sakkarai is when he learns that the suspects are to be lodged in the jail; he makes use of his place to get them in the identical jail as Nandhini, and he or she is tasked to dig up info. How she goes about it and the way the jail sequences are written, as soon as once more, present potential however flip infuriatingly chilly.

You discover a bone to choose with how little Nandhini will get to do till the final two episodes. While you count on the writers to dive into the guilt she’s crippling beneath, she is used as a puppet, providing apparent intel, and later, for a reveal we see coming from miles away. In specific, a two-episode stretch surrounding the homicide sufferer is written for a predictable flip of occasions.

In the top, nearly all of Suzhal Season 2 feels overstretched. When all of the items of the puzzle come collectively, the déjà vu is unreal. It’s a downgrade you least anticipated given how the earlier season had an intricately woven screenplay and properly-rounded characters. The nuances in the writing, the aptitude in the dialogue, the palpable environment of a brooding thriller, and the magic potion that makes an excellent sequence nice appear to be lacking this time.

There has at all times been a black gap on the centre of the southern Indian OTT house — an oblivion impenetrable even after the pandemic-pushed OTT growth. Blame it on the hesitancy amongst filmmakers and producers, the lengthy-format stays nascent in Tamil; it was upon the Suzhals, Vilangus, Ayalis, and Inspector Rishis to pave the best way, however the hits have been too few and much between. Without many forerunners, even Pushkar-Gayatri appear adrift this time.

Suzhal – The Vortex Season 2 is at present streaming on Prime Video