Paatal Lok (2020)

Original title

पाताल लोक

Genre

action television series, crime television series, crime thriller film

Country

India

Length

2 seasons, 17 episodes

Rated

TV-MA

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 117 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A disillusioned police officer investigates a failed assassination attempt in India. The case pulls him into a dark underworld of criminals and corrupt power. The story looks at justice and morality in a broken system.

grimgrittytensebleakslow-burnnoirsuspensefulatmospheric

What happens

Paatal Lok (transl. Netherworld) is an Indian neo-noir crime thriller television series on Amazon Prime Video, created by Sudip Sharma, who wrote the script along with Sagar Haveli, Hardik Mehta and Gunjit Chopra, and directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy. The series was produced under the banner Clean Slate Filmz, and stars Jaideep Ahlawat, Gul Panag, Neeraj Kabi, Swastika Mukherjee, Ishwak Singh, Abhishek Banerjee, Niharika Lyra Dutt, and Richa Chaturvedi. Loosely based on Tarun Tejpal's 2010 novel The Story of My Assassins, the first season is about a disillusioned cop who lands the case of an assassination attempt gone wrong. Ahlawat, Singh, and Panag reprised their roles in the second season (set amidst political turmoil in Nagaland), and were joined by Tillotama Shome, Jahnu Barua, Nagesh Kukunoor and Prashant Tamang. Sudip Sharma wrote the script in January 2017, and took more than a year for writing and pre-production. It is filmed across more than 110 real locations, with Paatal Lok being the first series to be shot at Chitrakoot. The cinematography for the series were handled by Avinash Arun and Saurabh Goswami, with editing done by Sanyukta Kaza. The background score was jointly composed by Naren Chandravarkar and Benedict Taylor. The first season of Paatal Lok was premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 15 May 2020. The series received rave reviews from critics, praising the performances, storyline, writing and direction. The series were listed in the Top 10 Indian Web Series of 2020, by The Indian Express. Variety listed Paatal Lok as one of the best international TV shows of 2020. In May 2020, the makers announced that the second season is to be conceptualized. The second season was released on 17 January 2025. Paatal Lok received eight nominations at the inaugural Filmfare OTT Awards, and won five awards – Best Actor (Jaideep Ahlawat), Best Series, Best Original Story, Best Screenplay and Best Direction (Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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