Sampurna 2 Review: Sohini Sarkar Fights a Half-Baked Personal Battle

Sampurna 2 Review: Sayantan Ghosal comes back as the director for another season of 2022’s well-received drama-thriller series, whose screenplay and dialogues are by Anuja Chattopadhyay. The series (সম্পূর্ণা 2) stars Sohini Sarkar, Rajnandini Paul, Kaushik Sen, Bhaswar Chatterjee, Manasi Sinha, Laboni Sarkar, Anubhav Kanjilal, Prantik Banerjee and others. The second season has 6 episodes, each with a runtime of around 25 minutes.

Sampurna 2 Plot

After the incidents of the first season, Sampurna and Nandini have to fight against their former in-laws to get the justice that she deserves. However, when the court system proves to be difficult to win over at first, in comes Sampurna’s uncle to save Nandini from embarrassment and further trauma. Although he helps Nandini immensely, his connection with Nandini’s past makes him a thorn in her life. When past trauma bubbles to the surface, will Sampurna be able to find peace and vanquish the fears that have haunted her since childhood?

– Sampurna 2 Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –

Sampurna 2 Review

Sampurna‘s first season was quite an interesting watch. The series captured the horrors of marital rape and domestic violence without going overboard with the drama and was nuanced enough not to make things predatory or awkward. The second season strays away from Nandini’s story and focuses on Sampurna, whose past trauma comes up all of a sudden in the first scene of the second season, and then we get busy unwrapping childhood trauma and horrible scars from the past.

With excellent performances and literally no good male characters, Sampurna 2 might be triggering for audiences who have gone through similar situations. Sampurna 2 handles the sensitive nature of the case nicely and doesn’t forget the fact that it’s literally dealing with children at the end of the day. Her fear and stress around her uncle are very well done and quite realistic, might I add. You can’t help but be tensed about the mental anguish she might be going through after facing her abuser.

There are tense moments wherein you will sit at the edge of your seat and wonder what will happen next, but the series goes from a homely situation to something a bit too high up in the second season. With the success of the first season, I guess it was necessary to up the ante and deliver something even more shocking. And even though child abuse is a very important topic, one that really needs to be addressed, it comes up quite out of the blue in the second season.

First things first, shining light on something that is so important is never a bad thing. How children get abused at the hands of their close ones at home and elsewhere needs to be told. How people try to keep things under wraps in such situations, especially at home, is also an important point. Although dramatic, the series at least tries its best not to make things dirty, which sometimes shows with social commentaries often have the bad habit of doing. You can relate to Sampurna’s character in this season as well as she fights for something that is close to her heart.

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The first season was a relatable and believable ordeal that so many women go through. You can’t help but find yourself in Nandini’s shoes and championing Sampurna as she fights for her sister-in-law. Sampurna 2, however, feels a bit too dramatic. In place of the claustrophobic atmosphere of her home, where everyone seems to be against her, the second season has a lot of talks on podiums and even a night in jail.

The all-powerful uncle trope is also another cliche that we have seen a bit too much, and all these moments combined lose out on the reliability factor of the first season, wherein things feel like they could happen to any of us straddling the middle class.

It’s not a bad thing per se, but personally, Sampurna 2 lacks the charms of the first season. That innate fear that we all have gets lost somewhere as everyone pushes our titular protagonist in front of everyone to expose the truth, while not trying to understand that victims should always face their fears in their own time. Another thing that I must mention is that none of the men in this series seem to be good people, while the women try their best to overcome the horrible circumstances in their path. Thankfully, Protim comes up as the sole source of goodness in this world and is a welcome change from the madness.

Also Read: The Darkness within La Luz del Mundo Review: Harrowing Tale of Abuse is Disturbing

One more point against the second season is that it seems like it’s on a mission to get everything from the first season wrapped up quickly and thrown out of the way so that it can delve into the other angle. The first season’s highly-anticipated victory feels like an afterthought, with two things trying to fight each other for the spotlight for most of the runtime. The horrible husband is also thrown into jail conveniently the moment the uncle makes an entry, and although it might be because he’s great at his job, it still feels forced and half-baked.

The last episode of Sampurna 2 feels really rushed, and things all of a sudden start to click and work out conveniently. It ends with a PSA that, although important, could’ve come after we learnt of what happened to the antagonist. A small speech and some crying are all we get against this man whom we probably would’ve wanted to see get a death sentence, and, in that sense, the ending feels like a confusing downer. Maybe another season is in the works that might break down the situation further, but should that be how an entire season of a show should feel like?

Sohini Sarkar, as Sampurna, is really great as per usual and doesn’t disappoint. Rajnandini Paul joins again as Nandini, although she doesn’t have much to do this time around. However, her relationship with her sister-in-law is sweet and provides a rare respite from the depressive truths that the series puts forth. Kaushik Sen is again a negative character, and the only thing I have to say is that I really want to see him play a good character soon.

Sampurna 2 Review: Final Thoughts

As with all shows that get favourable reviews from audiences, Sampurna 2 tries to go bigger with its subject matter and its handling. It’s not a bad thing, and the season is quite watchable and might also be traumatising, but it lacks that charm and fear of watching two very normal people fighting against injustices in their own homes and against people who are also as normal as them. The inclusion of the all-powerful uncle feels a bit much, but the lesson still remains valid – trust the children in your lives when they report something bad against a family member. It is never okay to keep injustices hidden, regardless of who is perpetuating them.

Both seasons of Sampurna are streaming on Hoichoi.

Also Read: Sampurna (2022) Review: Sohini Sarkar, Rajnandini Paul Series is Gripping