It’s been a long wait of almost five years and Prime Video series Paatal Lok has returned with a bang. Season 2 ventures into a new terrain, the Northeast, and the bloody murder of Jonathan Thom, a high-profile businessman-politician from Nagaland, sets the stage for investigation.
Inspector Hathi Ram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat) is back too, still posted at the Outer Jamuna Paar police station where he is grappling with a world where the odds are stacked against him. Ansari (Ishwak Singh), now an assistant commissioner of police, is leading the probe into the murder of Jonathan Thom. When the threads of Hathi Ram’s missing person case begin to intersect with Ansari’s murder investigation, the duo get to putting two and two together in Nagaland.
Investigating in Nagaland isn’t a cakewalk, Hathi Ram and Ansari learn the moment they set foot in the state. SP Meghna Barua (Tillotama Shome), isn’t over the moon about assisting two cops from Delhi, and wears her displeasure on her face. Turns out Thom was not just influential, he struck shady deals too. His mistress Rose Lizo (Merenla Imsong), caught on CCTV running out from his hotel room and has been missing since, becomes the prime suspect. And then there’s Thom’s estranged son Reuben (LC Sekhose).
The eight episodes unfold like a slow burn, with Hathi Ram and Ansari winding their way through a maze of corruption, greed and revenge. With that the show examines larger themes of development, erasure of local identities and the simmering anger of a generation left behind. This story is as much about the region and its people as it is about solving a case. The use of multiple languages — Nagamese, Assamese, Hindi and English — further grounds the story in its setting, creating a world that feels lived-in and real.
Alongside capturing Nagaland’s lush landscape, series creator Sudip Sharma and director Avinash Arun Dhaware explore its socio-political complexities with nuance, and Season 2 becomes a reminder that ‘paatal lok’ isn’t one place, it exists everywhere, in every system, in every society.
At the centre of it all is Jaideep Ahlawat’s Hathi Ram. If the first season introduced us to his grit and moral dilemmas, the second deepens our understanding of his character. Ahlawat plays Hathi Ram with a quiet intensity, a man who carries the weight of his failures and guilt but refuses to stop fighting. Ishwak Singh plays the perfect foil, bringing restraint and determination to Ansari. Their partnership is both a clash of perspectives and a study in camaraderie, with Hathi Ram’s street-smart instinct balanced by Ansari’s procedural rigour.
Tillotama Shome as SP Meghna Barua, juggling her job with the demands of motherhood, is a standout. LC Sekhose as the volatile Reuben Thom, Merenla Imsong as the troubled Rose Lizo, and filmmaker Jahnu Barua as the aging Rongthong Ken bring authenticity to their roles. Film journalist and Shashi Kapoor’s biographer Aseem Chhabra, and filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor also impress in their cameo appearances.
