Review: 'Breathe: Into The Shadows 2' tries hard to 'breathe' life into the plot; Naveen Kasturia shines

Breathe: Into The Shadows

It is almost like writer and director Mayank Sharma along with the entire team of Breathe: Into The Shadows are trying extremely hard to 'breathe' life into this storyline as it returns for a second season. From having a huge impact being Abhishek Bachchan's digital debut back in July 2020 to now having a continued plot that reaches its culmination; there is a lot to marvel at when it comes to the show's second season both in a good way and in a wondering way as well.

Having seen the entirely of Breathe: Into The Shadows Season 2, here is what I thought about it-

Trying to make sense with the plot in hand

It is fascinating to think that writer-director Mayank Sharma was clear with his vision about this story for two seasons as he confessed. Because one of the biggest problems that even the first season faced was having an unforgiving 12 episode runtime which just seemed to be dragging on for no reason. There is some solace in the second season where it is an eight episode season averaging about 40 odd minutes but because everything else is established already, this season feels like a longer drag. J/Avinash (Abhishek Bachchan) is out on the loose again and with six murders still remaining, you can foresee almost everything as to where will the plot be headed to. The convenient plot twists which manage to save J almost everytime to the array of loopholes that the plot never fails to address, Breathe: Into The Shadows Season 2 tries to make sense of its story with full sincerity but not much execution.

4 Murders: 12 Episodes; 6 Murders: 8 Episodes

I ain't no Math wizard but given the fact that the first season had to focus on world-building, we only managed to see four murders in 12 long episodes but that somehow meant that the writers and director had to squeeze in the remaining six murders in Ravana's philosophy into the decided eight episode runtime here. What this enables is incredibly lazy writing and almost no care for its actual HERO since Season 1 - Kabir Sawant (played by a fantastic Amit Sadh). Sadh has been the beating heart of the Breathe franchise for three instalments and to be looking at him being reduced to such minimal character development in this season was saddening. Even with the figment of range he is given to work with, Sadh does his level best to keep you invested and engaged. In the end, because of my (viewer's) attachment to Kabir, I cared about him as opposed to now the taxing chapter of J/Avinash.

The Bright Spark - Naveen Kasturia

Probably the biggest positive and undoubtedly your primary reason to watch this season has to be the amazing Naveen Kasturia, who plays Victor. As seen from the trailer itself, he becomes an accomplice of sorts to J in his impending murders but obviously, there is much more to that once you see the show. Kasturia injects all kinds of fun, madness and even emotions to this fascinating character that he gets to play. There are several traits he adapts as a character which are finely done and he is absolutely brilliant in the execution of the same. It also helps that somehow in this mishmash of writing and plot twists, Kasturia's character is probably given the best arc from a beginning to the end.

Is he J or is he Professor (Money Heist)?

There is only X number of times that you can manage to convince the viewer that the criminal will be smarter than the cops especially when you are literally committing one murder after another to and fro. And yet somehow, J, who is basically the second personality of Avinash is always a step ahead of Kabir and the rest of the police force. At a particular instance, there is a moment of 'phew' when you think 'aah! finally' but nope that is not the case. There is always something Professor from Money Heist-like about J pre-empting every move and having everything figured out with even knowing and being correct about human behavior. And just when I thought that this is indeed the end for this two-season long storyline with barely any life left it in it - it isn't! The show ends with yet another cliffhanger.

Other Characters - Some Work, Some Don't

It was great to see a fine actor like Nithya Menen get to do a lot more this season than the first one. Not only does she get multiple shades to portray, she does with a certain ease and even when she isn't really in the right, you are rooting for her owing to her innocent face and endearing emotions. The likes of Saiyami Kher, Zakir Hussain, Shrikant Verma and Hrishikesh Joshi feel rather wasted barely given anything new to do here and doesn't quite any redeeming moment as well.

What does work really well are the cameos. As we know that we had six more murders in hand here and hence six new faces - which led to fine actors like Ravi Behl, Seema Biswas, Mantra and Rohit Khurana make some fine appearances.

The Verdict

Breathe: Into The Shadows does manage to tingle the mystery bug in you as you watch the entirety of the season but doesn't trust on the intelligence and investment of the viewer enough to give a taut screenplay as opposed to a topsy-turvy ride.

Rating - **1/2 (2.5/5)