Movie Review Asur (Season 2)
| Artist | Arshad Warsi, Barun Sobti, Riddhi Dogra, Anupriya Goenka, Amey Wagh, Vishesh Bansal, Atharva Vishwakarma, Abhishek Vishwakarma and Meiyang Chang etc. |
| Author | Gaurav Shukla, Abhijeet Khuman and Suraj Gyanani |
| Director | Oni Sen |
| The creator | Sejal Shah, Bhavesh Mandalia and Gaurav Shukla |
| OTT: | Jio Cinema |
| Release: | 01 June 2023 |
| Rating | 2.5/5 |
Viacom18’s OTT Voot has now merged with Jio Cinema. Ushering in premium entertainment content on Voot, the second season of the web series ‘Asur’ is going to be available for free on Jio Cinema. Three years ago when the first season of the series came out on OTT, I compared it to the path breaking film ‘Tumbbad’. Niren Bhatt and Vinay Chhawal had woven such a web of mystery, thrill, fear and gruesome juices in the first season of the series that once the viewer started watching, he could not stop till the end. Now the second season of the series has been released. The episodes are eight this time too, the first and the last one of one hour each and the rest on an average of 45 minutes i.e. about six and a half hours of time investment! The plot, created by series creator Gaurav Shukla from the confluence of mythology and modernity in the first season, has reached the misuse of social media and artificial intelligence. Times are changing rapidly. It is difficult to predict the interest of the audience. And, overconfidence is fatal in every age, be it Treta, Dwapar or Kalyug.
New writers changed the tone of the story
The web series ‘Asur 2‘ is a series based on the story that forms the basis of the war between Kali and Kalki. The secret of chopping off a finger after a murder has been lost in the exchange of writers. The boy who killed his father has become a teenager. He is throwing the net of attraction of his speech on everyone from ordinary people to great scholars of science. He manages to become an assistant to a professor of AI. And, by hacking the server of the world’s largest social media company, it steals a lot of data of its users. Now whoever is around mobile or laptop. He has access to all. Linking the story of this demon of social media with Puranas, the author of the web series ‘Asur 2‘ repeatedly creates national problems and then when the real problem comes, like the story of ‘Bhediya Aaya’, the audience is not able to get thrilled even after trying.
The effect was seen in the middle three episodes
Apart from Gaurav Shukla, this time Abhijeet and Suraj have shown their skill in writing the web series ‘Asur 2’. The dialogues in the screenplay are so long and that too to take the story forward. All these together do not show the story happening but try to move forward through the dialogues of the characters and the series fails miserably here. Due to this, the series which starts gaining momentum from the third episode gets gasped in the sixth episode itself. These middle three episodes are the best episodes of the series. Meanwhile, Adit KS’s character Ishani Chowdhary also maintains an interest in the story but as soon as she leaves, the story again turns into a typical crime story. The attraction of the confluence of legends and modernity, which was created in the first season of the series, is not the attraction this time.
Barun sobti again number one
In terms of cast, Barun Sobti once again becomes the reason to watch the series till the end. A forensic expert CBI officer, who has lost his daughter, has to seek the help of the same wife, from whom he is on the verge of divorce, again and again in this story. He has to work again with his senior whom he idolized and whom he arrested last season. He has affection towards fellow female officer. Despite having so many shades of the same character, the juice of all these interpolated stories is missing from the web series ‘Asur 2’. In the beginning, the writers are interested in the personal life of the characters of the story, but then everyone wanders in the stock market, which can be controlled by social media and bots, that they marginalize all these stories. But let’s leave.
Special and wonderful performance by Atharva
Among the rest of the cast, the work of Vishesh Bansal and Atharva Vishwakarma is wonderful. Harshu from Yeh Meri Family shows immense potential to become an amazing actor. When the special dialogues in the character of Shubh with a pause on his face, the audience is also attracted towards him. And, something similar happens in the acting of Atharva Vishwakarma. In the journey from Leh to Delhi, Atharv, who became Anant, has done a very effective job. Sharib Hashmi’s character has already died in the first season, so this time Amey Wagh’s responsibility has come to push the series from behind. Amey has also put her soul into this character which changes color every moment, especially her scenes after Apna Raj Khul Jaan are worth watching. Riddhi Dogra, Anupriya Goenka have maintained the same look in all the eight episodes except one or two places. Pawan Chopra, who became the head of the CBI, has done a better job than him. Meiyang Chang’s casting is wrong and Abhishek Chauhan as Badi Shubh is ineffective.
I gave a rating of four stars out of five in my review to the first season of the web series ‘Asur’. This time the audience has high expectations from its second season as well. Arshad Warsi’s monotonous acting seems to be hurting the series a lot this time. Director Oni Sen also seems to have left him as per his wish. The effort to keep the series close to reality this time also does not seem much. If the third season of the series is made, which is also indicated in the last episode, then it is very important to pay more attention to the character of Arshad Warsi along with its script. The cinematography of the series is very simple and the editing leaves a lot of room for finesse. Background music helps a lot in creating the effect of such stories, but it doesn’t seem to have worked in a special way.