Breathe: Into the Shadows || Abhishek Bachchan, Amit Sadh, Nithya Menen || Review

Breathe: Into the Shadows

A gripping thriller with guessable denouement

Breathe Into The Shadows cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Amit Sadh, Nithya Menen, Hrishikesh Joshi, Srikant Verma, Plabita Borthakur, Saiyami Kher

Breathe Into The Shadows director: Mayank Sharma

Breath Into The Shadows is a good show, it's just that there are some parts of the series that work better, especially those which topline Amit Sadh reprising his conflicted crime branch cop Kabir Sawant from the first season.

Abhishek Bachchan plays Avinash Sabharwal, a psychiatrist with a thriving practice in Gurugram. Such is his influence, we are told, that he is frequently summoned to appear in trials, providing ‘expert testimony’. He delivers it with a stern expression and in a vaguely foreign accent, and that is the only reason that he is taken seriously.

Coming back to the plot, Kabir Sawant is a cop who is transferred to Delhi from Mumbai. His anger management skills are awful, so he goes about losing his top whenever provoked. Alongside him are two other characters, Hrishikesh Joshi and Srikant Verma. They are Kabir's faithful companions. And just that, there is nothing special about them. 

Like season one was about a tragedy of a parent's loss, this one is the origin story of a serial killer.

Kidnapper in Breathe: Into the Shadows

Avinash and his wife are parents of a 'Juvenile diabetic' girl, Siya, who is in regular need of insulin shots. Their quiet life is disrupted when Siya goes missing. Cops are called and they do their 'chhanben'. Flashing lights and looking under things, as shown, but Siya is nowhere to be found.

Months go by before Avinash and  Abha are contacted by the kidnapper, via a letter and a free IPad. It seems that writes were lazy enough to think of some other believable or creative way to write this part. The whole IPad and letter thing felt really hilarious and cartoonish, but the story moves on.

It is exactly after the letter and IPad moment, that Breathe: Into the Shadows descends into full-blown bizarre madness. The kidnapper seems like he has recently watched David Fincher’s Se7en (a fantastic watch by the way). He tells Avinash, that to save or rather rescue Siya, he must kill random people.

Amit Sadh In Breathe Into The Shadows

But like the first season of Breathe, the victims of killing are not innocent in this season. Each of them is guilty of exhibiting sins like Lust and anger. All of this is believed by the kidnapper. This is another point where the story didn't resonate with me. The first season presented the viewers with a moral dilemma, but this one is a story of Revenge. It deals with the age-old Indian belief that, "Revenge is the only Justice." 

Avinash contemplates the morality of the killer for a moment or two, but then goes on to play filthy mind games with his victims and ultimately kills them violently. In the starting episodes of the show, the motives of the kidnaper are frustratingly muddled.

Just when you think you have got hold of the story, the plot changes dramatically from a story of a serial killer to a psychological drama. And again you will know that this is coming because the show would indirectly tell you with a series of flashbacks.

Another point that I would like to present is, the show is ineptly put together. At some moments, just to propel the plot forward the story uses unnecessary expositions. The passage of time is also something that is always stated instead of being implied. “Chaar mahine beet Gaye,” Avinash says at one point, for nobody but the audience. And when Siya wonders if her parents have forgotten about her the line is repeated 11 times! I counted.

Also, despite Amit Sadh's great performance, I felt like his character was sidelined just to make way for Abhishek Bachchan's Avinash. 

In conclusion, I would say that season 2 is closely written but has a lot of potential for the future. The shows jump in and out of a kidnapping drama and psychotic killer but then gets stuck in its muddled storyline. Watch the show if you have time but giving it a miss won't be a huge loss.   

Also, the show is relatively clean. Unlike other shows that include nudity and strong language,

Breathe Into the Shadows is Streaming on Amazon Prime Video. 

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