Mahabharat Murders is a Bengali TV series directed by Soumik Haldar and stars Priyanka Sarkar, Arjun Chakrabarty, Saswata Chatterjee, Rishav Basu, Kaushik Sen, Rajdeep Gupta, and Debasish Mondal. The series has 12 episodes and three episodes will release every week till June 3 and the episodes have a runtime of around 25 minutes each. It is based on the novel of the same name by Arnab Ray.
Hoichoi describes the series as:
A SERIAL KILLER PERCEIVES HIMSELF AS THE MODERN-DAY DURYODHAN AND VICIOUSLY KILLS THE PEOPLE HE PERCEIVES AS THE PANDAVAS. INVESTIGATING OFFICERS RUKSANA AND SIDDHARTHA ENCOUNTER SEVERAL TWISTS AND TURNS IN THIS 21ST CENTURY KURUKSHETRA TO UNCOVER THE MASTERMIND BEHIND THIS GRUESOME GAME OF REVENGE.
– Mahabharat Murders review does not contain spoilers –
Mahabharat Murders part 2 comes with new murders and delving deeper into the Mahabharat. The reason, I’d say, why the series works is because of Saswata Chatterjee’s acting and charm. Honestly, I’d say even Priyanka Sarkar and Arjun Chakrabarty are magnetic as well and make for great cops. It’s interesting watching Sarkar’s character – her past and present coincide with this very confusing case in such interesting ways.
But more interesting still is the case itself. The parallels with the Mahabharat make this absolutely delicious and the way the killer has thought this out is amazing. The creators of the series have done an excellent job at constructing these interesting scenarios and although the murders are gruesome, it makes for a good watch and makes you think.
Mahabharat Murders part 2 brings forth a formidable antagonist in Abirlal. Kaushik Sen has always been very chilling in his thriller series roles and it’s not any different here. Although we are yet to understand his end goal (albeit a few do come to mind), the way he presents himself is quite fear-inducing. There are other interesting characters as well who manipulate the scene, some from far away and some closer to home, but the most interesting of them all is our Yudisthir himself – Pabitra Chatterjee is an enigma.
Is Pabitra the murderer masking his true self under a helpful guise? Or is he simply an insightful man who truly is a good person, as he claims to be? We’ll know that over the course of the following episodes but for now, this duality of what he can be is quite delicious to watch. Is he the worst kind of person? Masking under fake niceness or is he truly a good person who just never seems to catch a break? I want to root for him but the way he has hitched his wagon to Ruksana makes me doubt his intentions. The true-crime lover in me is doubtful that a politician can be this great, but we have seen weirder things in the series, so you never know.
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The way the entire storyline has been created keeps the viewers guessing till the sixth episode, making you want to watch this till you learn everything that there is to learn about human psychology, mythology and how the latter holds a mirror to our everyday life. Although the series doesn’t really progress this time in terms of uncovering something shocking, it adds to the storyline very well and creates a mystery that makes you want to come back for more.
I think that’s the problem with a release schedule like this, though. The episodes in the middle are usually very exposition-heavy and if you club them together for release in a week, they seem very dull. Either way, some patience might go a long way with this one.
Will the killer be caught? We’ll have to wait till the last episode to find out!
Summing up: Mahabharat Murders Part 2
Part 2 adds to the intensity of the chase. The characters and their motivations are just so interesting and this lack of a clear resolution will prove to be maddening for audiences. We’ll just have to wait and watch what happens in the upcoming episodes.
Mahabharat Murders is streaming on Hoichoi.
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