Religion, politics, and sex make strange but recognisable bedfellows. Season 2 of the series Suzhal sustains its sophomore momentum by putting some of the characters from the original into situations that are not what they seem. The actors are in confident hands this time, as much as they were when the Tamil series first struck a note of foreboding three years ago.
Suzhal in Tamil on Amazon Prime Video, in 8 Episodes that streamed in 2022, had us agog. Its setting, actors, and treatment of a complex storyline generated ample curiosity, more so since the narrative constantly remained ahead of us, as two cops Sakkarai (Kathir) and Regina (Shreya Reddy) tried to solve the mystery behind the disappearance of a young girl Nila (Gopika Ramesh) the younger daughter of a union leader Shanmugan (Parthiban Radhakrishnan) who had this very strange propensity to repel those close to him.
I am not too sure that the pieces of the jagged jigsaw finally hold together in Season 2. No doubt writers Gayathri & Pushkar keep us invested from the first episode to the eighth. The atmospheric pressure is built up in welters of dramatic tension. Staying alert to the seismic changes in the temperamental flow of the storyline requires viewers to invest in every episode.
If you skip portions you are bound to miss plot links: something or the other is constantly happening. This could be either problematic or gainful for the viewer depending on how much time he is willing to invest into the series.
Without a shred of doubt, the serial’s architects know how to build suspense and generate curiosity in viewers. The twists in the storytelling may seems an imposed at times: when there are eight episodes to fill to the gill, the writing loses its spontaneity. But then the actors are so unerringly dependable, especially Aishwarya Rajesh who regrettably has relatively less pivotal role to play this time as compared with Season 1, and Lall who is exterminated in the second episode.
Interestingly the writing strategy where women folk from the entire town take responsibility for a murder reminded me of an old Hindi film, Mohan Sehgal’s Sajan in 1969. What goes around…
Set during the Ashtakaali Festival in Kayalpattinam, Suzhal Season 2 strikes a persuasive narrative balance while depicting the odd mix of religion and politics. The ritual of performing vulgar dances during religious festivals is so deep-rooted, that the series must be lauded for simply bringing it to the surface.
