‘Suzhal – The Vortex’ Season 2 assessment: Swirling in mediocrity

Firstly, to their credit score, there was promise within the set-up. Via their very introductions, characters, unknown and acquainted, make you sit proper up. To proceed the story from the primary season and save time by anchoring the plot round established characters, we start with Nandhini (Aishwarya), now imprisoned for the crime she dedicated within the first season. SI Chakravarthy a.okay.a Sakkarai (Kathir), beneath investigation as part of Nandhini’s case, helps her from the skin. Chellappa (the ever-impressive Lal), a do-gooder lawyer and a father determine to Sakkarai, has tilted the case in favour of Nandhini and Sakkarai.

A public spat over a contract immediately lets you already know who’s in hassle, and pressure mounts when Sakkarai finds Chellappa useless in his non-public cottage. A presumptuous eye would conclude it a suicide. The catch? It’s a locked-room thriller; all doorways and home windows are shut from inside, and the homicide weapon is lacking. The primary episode reveals the suspect as an unidentified lady (Gouri Kishan) discovered hiding inside a closet within the room with the lacking gun. Once more, it will get sophisticated when Sakkarai notices that the closet she was present in was shut from the skin. This units into movement an eight-episode investigation, thickened with extra suspects coming ahead with confessions. The motive behind the homicide is one factor, but it surely’s the modus operandi that we will’t wait to uncover.

A nonetheless from ‘Suzhal – The Vortex Season 2’
| Photograph Credit score:
Prime Video

The pilot episode, directed by Bramma, fantastically units the tone, reminding one of many storytelling flavour that stood out within the first season. The second episode, directed by Sarjun KM, establishes the various interpersonal dynamics between the first characters, hinting on the quick suspects on whom we will forged our doubts. Points pile up from the third episode onward.

Right here’s the largest downside — all through the second season, we’re spoon-fed the foundational pillars with which new entries into the franchise are to be constructed. The sequence must a) inform a small-town investigation story garnished with subversions, b) set up a backdrop of a rooted spiritual pageant, drawing parallels to the tales of the land, and c) introduce a theme that takes a stand in opposition to a particular social evil. Had one condensed the primary season of Suzhal to its naked bones, it operated largely beneath these broad boundaries, however the sequel appears force-fit into this framework.

Keep in mind the immersion you felt within the first season every time the story took you thru the crowded streets of Sambaloor? Set in Kaalipattanam, the second season fails to construct an appropriate ambiance. Even the coastal setting, which is emphasised all through, feels generic; had the sequence discovered house to seize the temper of dwelling in a close-knit coastal group, it might have grow to be a Broadchurch. The opposite places within the sequence — the police station, the jail, and Chellappa’s home — don’t stand out.

The story takes place simply when lakhs of pilgrims are set to go to Kaalipattanam, desirous to take part within the Ashtakaali pageant, through which women and men costume as the various characters within the folklore of the Ashtakaalis. As per the legend, eight Kaalis needed to unite and struggle to finish the reign of a heinous Arakkan. Like the primary season, the follow-up makes an attempt to construct parallels between the narrative and the native folklore, but it surely isn’t as seamless. Probably the most memorable scene involving the pageant comes in the direction of the tip of the second episode, which introduces different suspects within the homicide of Chellappa. The scene intercuts with the Ashtakaalis’ parade on the pageant; on paper, it sounds compelling, even when a bit heavy-handed. However then you definitely surprise if this might have been positioned elsewhere, perhaps throughout a extra highly effective reveal later.

The bigger arc surrounding the homicide doesn’t ship both. Sakkarai and the native inspector, Moorthy (Saravanan, who makes each scene rely), discover themselves in fairly a pickle with the case, having to chase any clues that come their method. However even once they get their share of leads, the investigation is something however engrossing. The one intelligent police work we see from Sakkarai is when he learns that the suspects are to be lodged within the jail; he makes use of his place to get them in the identical jail as Nandhini, and he or she is tasked to dig up data. How she goes about it and the way the jail sequences are written, as soon as once more, present potential however flip infuriatingly chilly.

A nonetheless from ‘Suzhal – The Vortex Season 2’
| Photograph Credit score:
Prime Video

You discover a bone to choose with how little Nandhini will get to do till the final two episodes. Whilst you count on the writers to dive into the guilt she’s crippling beneath, she is used as a puppet, providing apparent intel, and later, for a reveal we see coming from miles away. Specifically, a two-episode stretch surrounding the homicide sufferer is written for a predictable flip of occasions.

Ultimately, nearly all of Suzhal Season 2 feels overstretched. When all of the items of the puzzle come collectively, the déjà vu is unreal. It’s a downgrade you least anticipated given how the earlier season had an intricately woven screenplay and well-rounded characters. The nuances within the writing, the aptitude within the dialogue, the palpable ambiance of a brooding thriller, and the magic potion that makes a superb sequence nice appear to be lacking this time.

There has at all times been a black gap on the centre of the southern Indian OTT house — an oblivion impenetrable even after the pandemic-driven OTT growth. Blame it on the hesitancy amongst filmmakers and producers, the long-format stays nascent in Tamil; it was upon the Suzhals, Vilangus, Ayalis, and Inspector Rishis to pave the way in which, however the hits have been too few and much between. With out many forerunners, even Pushkar-Gayatri appear adrift this time.

Suzhal – The Vortex Season 2 is at present streaming on Prime Video