Aashram Chapter 2: The Dark Side review: When is Season 3?, Bobby Ji?!

What: Bobby Deol gets meaner in the second season - sequel of OTT web series Aasharam - Aashram Chapter 2: The Dark Side

Aashram Chapter 2: The Dark Side synopsis

Aasharam Chapter 2 gets darker as the political tussle between the state CM Sundar Lal (Anil Rastogi) and the opposition leader Hukum Singh (Sachin Shroff) gets intense. Getting more into the familiar Prakash Jha territory now as the one up man ship in politics gets more serious. A lot is at stake. Baba Nirala(Bobby Deol) is caught between the two power hungry politicians. However, the smart and manipulative god/con man Baba Nirala is keeping his decision on whom to support close to his chest and enjoying the patronage of both the politicians through state wise concerts by that popular rock star Tinka Singh (Adhyayan Suman). Baba is in his complete element distributing his ‘ladoos’ both to the public, politician and those special ones for this time are reserved for Pammi (Aditi Pohankar). The wrestler responsible for her entire family turning into blind followers is now attracting the lustful eyes of Baba. Baba’s escapades with Babita (Tridha Choudhury) get a break for a while. Who will be the next CM, When and how the ugly face of Baba will be exposed before Pammi and how will Pammi react?, What about Ujagar Singh (Darshan Kumaar) and Sadhu (Vikram Kochhar)’s tryst with truth along with Dr Natasha (Anupriya Goenka) regarding the secrets behind Baba Nirala?.

OTT web series Aashram Chapter 2: The Dark Side review

Aashram – Prakash Jha’s full fledge entry into the web space with his known trusted weapons - politics, democracy, caste system, guns, goons comes with a new deadly explosion – religion/god man. The previous chapter Aashram - one of the best web series in India saw our dear Bobby Deol having a ball delivering his best till date. The captivating Aashram made instant ‘bhakts’, the makers displayed their confidence by adding the trailer of Season 2. A smart move that raised the expectation level as the series ended on a perfect loop.

The second chapter gets darker and arresting. Who will be the next CM?. When and how the ugly face of Baba will be exposed before Pammi?. How will Pammi react?. What about Ujagar Singh (Darshan Kumaar) and Sadhu (Vikram Kochhar)’s tryst with truth along with Dr Natasha (Anupriya Goenka) regarding the secrets behind Baba Nirala?. What happened to the reporter Akki (Rajeev Siddhartha)?. The second season is engaged in answering all the above questions with a degree of satisfaction and conviction. But some important ones are left as it is. Obliviously, season 3 is up on cards very soon. And the wait gets intensified.

Performances

The actors deliver top notch performances again.

Bobby Deol –His career best.

Chandan Roy Sanyal –packs a punch but gets very less scope.

Aaditi Pohankar – superb and here she gets extra shades to explore.

Tushar Pandey – fine.

Darshan Kumar – marvelous.

Anupriya Goenka – natural as ever.

Tridha Choudhury – intriguing

Vikram Kochhar – competent to the core.

Anil Rastogi – competent.

Sachin Shroff – fabulous.

Anurita Jha as Kavita – involves the audience

Rajeev Siddhartha – brilliant and strong

Adhyayan Suman as Tinka Singh –gets into the skin of the character.

Dimpy Mishra – fantastic.

Other supporting cast chip in with excellent support. Navdeep Tomar as Sunny, Mirza Ajhar Beg as Gabha, the Aashram Goon, Nawal Shukla as Gurusharan, Pammi’s Father, Puneeta Awasthy as Navjot, Pammi’s Mother, Uday Veer Singh Yadav as Ishwar Nath - Snober’s Father and Baba Mansukh’s close person, Parinitaa Seth as Sadhvi Mata and Preeti Sood as Sanober.

Technicalities

Rich production values. Cinematography by Chandan Kowli captures the different colors and shades very effectively. Santosh Mandal’s editing is in sync. A special shout for Shruti Mahajan (Casting), Udai Prakash Singh (Production Design), Vishakha Choudhary (Costume Design) is a must.

Any memorable dialogue/scene

Tuchchh harkat ke liye uchch starriye jaanch (rough translation: A high level inquiry for such low standard of act)

Scene that should have been deleted at once

None

Flaws

The terrific Asharam created great expectations with the season/chapter 1, the season/chapter 2 also keeps us waiting for the season 3 but the expectations are not to that level.

The reason for this patch of disappointment is that the writers Kuldeep Ruhil, Tejpal Singh Rawat, Avinash Kumar and Madhvi Bhatt make things repetitive and monotonous for a while. The concerts are going on and on. That rock star Tinka Singh (Adhyayan Suman) is repeating the same song ‘baba layeinge kranti’ again and again making you to yell ‘shanti’ again and again.

Baba is delivering those ‘ladoos’ again and again. Surprisingly Bhopa has nothing much to do here. Seriously, some more footage to Natasha (Anupriya Goenka), Ujagar (Darshan Kumar) and Sadhu (Vikram Kochhar) was the need of the hour. They do get some breakthrough but we wanted more… (may be in chapter 3).

Final words

Aashram Chapter 2 does leave you on a hook, though not as sweeping as the chapter 1, but certainly it gets the demand for season 3 gests pushed with an extra force.