Undekhi Season 3 presents a world of drama and chaos, as ghosts of the past appear amid all the bloodshed

Nonika Singh

When Undekhi broke on the streaming service SonyLiv in 2020, it not only served a thrilling mix of cat and mouse games, but also gave us new talent, Surya Sharma, from the same state Himachal Pradesh in which the series is set.

Film Undekhi Season 3

Director Ashish R Shukla

Cast Harsh Chhaya, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Ankur Rathee,

Surya Sharma, Anchal Singh and Varun Badola

Rating ***

Into its third season, Surya as Rinku paaji retains his core strengths as an actor of grey and menacing shades. But the question that hangs heavy… is the series, which meanders down the familiar path with a dash of unexpected, as exciting?

The first season began with the murder of a dancing girl at a Punjabi pre-wedding function and the ensuing cover-up by the powerful Atwals. The same murder and the video indicting Atwal patriarch Papaji (Harsh Chaaya is once again suitably, abominable and devilishly bonkers) returns to occupy centrestage in yet another innings of drama and chaos. The major players are familiar members of the cast. There is the conniving daughter-in-law Tejji (Anchal Sharma) making some dangerous moves against her own family, son (Ankur Rathee) caught in the crossroads, loving wife of Rinku, Muskaan (Shivangi Singh), and the determined DSP Ghosh (Dibyendu Bhattacharya), who is obsessed with bringing the Atwals down. Then there is an additional mystery man, a twist in the long-ending game of revenge, retribution and, of course, justice.

As the video resurfaces, Ghosh comes out of his self-inflicted guilt trip and goes to Manali again. He starts to tighten the noose around Papaji; the evidence this time is incriminating. And just when you think, foul-mouthed Papaji, who swears faster than he breathes, won’t escape this time over, remember director Ashish R Shukla’s penchant for springing a surprise tampered with his uncanny ability to keep us engaged.

Papaji gets a backstory and almost loses his sanity over his past, reappearing as small tokens, a bracelet here and a necklace there. Varun Badola, the talented actor of television, plays the ghost from his past. Ghosh and Rinku are once again involved in a duel to outwit each other. Collateral damage in their game is incidental. Side characters die like flies and Lucky (Vaarun Bhagat) gets to reprise his previous act, and kills a loved one. Trigger-happy Rinku finds genuine familial reasons to be happy and series time to invoke some Punjabi songs. In fact, the season boasts of three songs by artistes like Harshdeep Kaur.

As bad men like Rinku love and hate with equal passion, this thriller meant to provide you an adrenaline rush, succeeds in fits and starts. Before the major build-up, fatigue sets in at more than one point. The big revelation can be guessed before the mystery unfolds. But here, writers, Abhishek Garg and Chirag Salian, need to be lauded for giving us more than one version of the past events. And it’s this blend of familiar and unfamiliar that makes the series work, at least at the very basic engagement level. Bad men getting away each time might be frustrating for viewers. Of course, there is poetic justice, karma, a word which is repeated several times over. Keeping the door wide open for yet another season, the series does offer a closure of sorts as karma strikes home.

Like the television soaps of yore, the twists are unpredictable precisely for they are so fanciful. Turning picturesque Manali, otherwise well shot by Director of Photography Murzy Pagdiwala, into a hotbed of bloodbath and endless body count requires some flight of imagination and not necessarily in the right direction. Yes, yes the series is a work of fiction and excuses itself on count of how it presents legal provisions too. Thus, what was touted as inspired by a true event descends into a fictional quagmire.

With short run-time of less than 40 minutes, the eight episode series is watchable provided you are not put off by gratuitous violence and barrage of gaalis. Since you can’t ‘unsee what you witness’… watching it comes with a caveat of not just ‘violence, blood, strong language and sexual references’ but also oodles of ‘suspension of disbelief’.