A serial killer who believes he is asur is back for yet another strike — this time, with the aim of unleashing complete anarchy — and is giving the forensic expert duo of Dhananjay Rajpoot and Nikhil Nair a tough time in their search to track him down. All of which makes Asur 2 or Asur: The Rise of the Dark Side, streaming on JioCinema, a much more engaging watch than its first season.

Created by Gaurav Shukla and Vibhav Shikdar, Season 1 of Asur – Asur: Welcome to Your Dark Side — wove the Hindu mythology of the battle between Kali and Kalki into a contemporary story of an orphaned boy, Shubh Joshi, who believes he’s an incarnation of Kalki and wants to establish a new world order. Season 2 pushes the threat level to a new high, with a lot at stake as the lead characters in charge of the investigation suffer personal losses.

Headlined by Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti, the eight-episode second season — also directed by Oni Sen — features Ridhi Dogra, Vishesh Bansal, Anupriya Goenka, Gaurav Arora, Amey Wagh, Adithi Kalkunte and Meiyang Chang.

The hunt for Asur

Season 1 had two clear teams — one that believed in Shubh’s ideas of anarchy; and another in the CBI, led by Dhananjay Rajpoot (Arshad Warsi) and Nikhil Nair (Barun Sobti), who tried to stop them from executing their plans. Season 2 traces how Shubh’s past is connected to his grand plan and why his followers align with him. As Shubh is executing killings across the country, the CBI team of Dhananjay and Nikhil often find themselves two steps behind him, saddled as they are with their own issues of guilt, grief and trauma from massive personal losses.

With more killings around the corner_, new characters and backstories getting introduced and a CBI team out of its depth, the race to catch Shubh becomes even more uphill.

Watch the trailer here:

Nikhil Nair’s dilemma

Honest CBI forensic expert Nikhil Nair (Barun Sobti) is coming to terms with the death of his daughter, whom he presumably had to sacrifice for the greater good during a deadly game that Shubh had pulled him into. Nikhil’s choice not only breaks him, it also destroys his marriage. Tormented by his action, Nikhil teeters between his need to do his duty as an investigator and his desire to avenge his daughter’s death.

Being on the edge, his sense of moral uprightness slowly slips away. Though he’s against any kind of illegal methods to catch Shubh, in the last episode titled The God’s Dilemma, he poisons Shubh after putting him behind bars.

Dhananjay Rajpoot blurs the line between right and wrong

On the other hand, disgraced CBI officer Dhananjay Rajpoot (Arshad Warsi) is willing to bend the rules and let go of his sense of right and wrong to stop Shubh. It was Dhananjay who had caught a teenager Shubh years ago by fabricating evidence for murdering his own father. It was a choice he took thinking it might bring the lost teenager to the right path.

When we first meet Dhananjay in Season 2, he is living in a monastery after being accused of his wife’s death. He is also mourning the loss of his close friend and colleague Lolark (Sharib Hashmi).

Plagued by guilt and anguish, he doesn’t want any new developments in the case that had taken over his life. It is only when Nikhil’s wife Naina (Anupriya Goenka) asks for his help in capturing the killer of her daughter that Dhananjay rejoins the hunt, but by heading an alternate investigation away from the rules.

Shubh Joshi: A compelling antagonist

One of the notable aspects of this series is the characterisation of the antagonist. Shubh Joshi — the younger Shubh is played by Vishesh Bansal of Yeh Meri Family fame — was presumed dead after a fire broke out in the prison where he was lodged as a teenager. The fact that there is no record of how he looked like as an adult adds to the intrigue. He is a psychopath with a very high IQ who has been fascinated by Hindu mythology. He becomes a cold-blooded killer in his quest to build a new world order — the beginning of Kalyug.

Shubh is frightening because he’s not looking for any kind of materialistic gain; he just wants to see the world burn. The grown-up Shubh shows up in the last two episodes. Played by Abhishek Chauhan, the character is as menacing, consumed as he is by his drive to wreak complete havoc and usher in anarchy.

New characters give an edge to the hunt

The inclusion of new characters and backstories gives a fresh edge to the hunt for Asur in Season 2. Two new CBI investigators have joined the manhunt - Paul, played by Meiyang Chang, and Ishani Chaudhary, played by Adithi Kalkunte – providing much-needed urgency. While Ishani wants to avenge her mentor Lolark’s death, Paul has no personal involvement in the case. He’s the only person objectively hunting down Shubh.

Dhananjay’s separate investigation leads him into tracking down Shubh’s past. After running away from the prison during the fire, Shubh lived in an ashram where he got close to a visually challenged artist, Vrinda Srivastav (Barkha Bisht). Although she wasn’t able to help Dhananjay, she presented herself as another victim of Shubh. However, the end of the final episode reveals Vrinda to be an associate in Shubh’s grand plan and who will take up the place of Asur in the third season as Kali.

Blend of mythology and technology

Shubh’s reign of terror is based on his command over technology. While he’s deeply fascinated by mythology and astrology, Shubh is dependent on modern science. In Asur 2, we see him developing an AI tool to predict every step of his game. In the last episode, Shubh is seen negotiating with the CEO of a mega tech firm to give them his algorithm in exchange for their vast array of data.

Asur 2 turns the spotlight on the real threat of lack of privacy on the internet and the constant amassing of personal information every time a user browses the net.