Paatal Lok - The next level

Illustration/Uday Mohite

So, the makers of the web series Paatal Lok called me.

"What did you think of Season 1?" they enquired. I said, in my view, it's the most watchable web television series, plus Jaideep Ahlawat can do what no other actor in India can - create deep simmer in his eyes, coupled with deep sadness, and shoulders that sag with excessive bureaucratic rejection.

"What did you think of the writing?" they asked.

Adaptations can be tricky, I answered. I'm more of a fan of an entirely original material, because in adaptations, the author of the book has done much of the hard work, which is to give us all that all-important nugget - the story. Also, it's the issue of perspective. Tarun Tejpal's The Story of my Assassins, sees the book from the journalist's POV, Paatal Lok is from the cop's. Still, Paatal Lok is first-rate writing, and character creation.

In my view, original Indian fare, on OTT platforms, is a mixed bag. The shows fall loosely into two broad categories - the hip and the Hindi heartland.

The former has been patchy - the characters are usually a bunch of supposedly cool people punctuating every sentence with "bro'' "dude" and "f@%k", but they appear anything but cool, while the latter has totally uncool goons mouthing "be$#@&th" and "bh'&^%ke", pretty coolly. In my view, we handle grit far better than glamour.

"Do you envision a Season 2?" they queried.

Season 1 had a completeness, a definite beginning, middle and end. Hathi Ram Chaudhary, the protagonist cop, has cracked the case but the story was as much about him finding the suspects as it was about him finding himself. Also, Ahlawat's character has won a Pyrrhic victory, the most dramatically powerful of all wins, so wherever you go from here, it'll seem tame.

"So, what do you suggest as an extension?" they asked.

I'm seeing an animation series that will have a concurrent video game.

So, in this animation series/video games, our Hathi Ram Chaudhary, is a desi superhero faced with a series of tasks. Each episode sees him taking on a new antagonist, sometimes natural, sometimes human.

These antagonists include cyclones in Bengal, Coronaviruses in Bombay and cruel sarpanches in Bihar, disallowing weary migrants from entering their village.

Hathi Ram's trusted mode of transport is a giant locust that flies through the air and delivers him from place to place.

In the season's finale, I have conceived a cross OTT platform, mouth-watering prospect: Prezzie Trump has just condescendingly announced that he's prepared to "mediate" between India and China. Hathi Ram is pissed off, "Who needs his help, handle your own affairs, Donald Trump," he thinks to himself. His boss advises him, "Tell Trump yourself."

So, Hathi Ram enlists the help of Sartaj Singh from Sacred Games (Saif Ali Khan) and Srikant Tiwari from The Family Man (Manoj Bajpayee) and they fly on the locust to the US on an undercover mission and infiltrate the White House.

"What will you call this season?", they asked.

"PAATAL LOCUST" I concluded.

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com

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