Suzhal - The Vortex - Season 2 - A Familar Spin

Suzhal (The Vortex) - Season 2

Tamil - Drama / Crime

8 Episodes ~ 45 mins
Prime Video

 

Pushkar and Gayatri, the duo who gave us "Vikram Vedha",  must have fond memories  of 2022. They made a streaming debut with the first season of Suzhal, followed by the Hindi version of  Vikram Vedha and as creative producers on Vadhandhi - the fable of Velonie, phew!

The first season of Suzhal (3 min quick recap here) was an intricate web of characters expertly woven around a cultural event (Mayana Kollai). It starts off as a kidnapping, unravelling deeper wounds. Fortunately, beyond a couple of main characters (Nandini and Sakkarai), there is no significant carry over into Season 2.

Season 2 introduces us to Adv Chellappa (Lal) who is doing his best to get  Nandini (Aishwarya Rajesh) out of prison, for the fatal act she committed at the end of Season 1. Chellappa is a good Samaritan and a strong ally for women, having fought many a case to improve their social situations. Sakkarai / Chakravarthy ( Kathir ) considers Chellappa as  his godfather and comes down to spend time with him.

Chellappa is found dead one night and a young girl is found with the murder weapon. As Sakkarai gets involved in the investigation, the following night, 7 other girls surrender to the police, admitting to the crime. One murder - 8 admitting to the crime . Oh yes, all of this is happening around a festival in town - the celebration of the AshtaKali (eight avatars of Kali).

Thematically, Season 2 is much of what made Season 1 a great watch.  Many characters, dense backstories, plenty of red herrings and the connection to folklore/mythology. It definitely evokes a sense of déjà vu. While the strong writing and performances generally hold up,  this season could have benefitted from trimming some needlessly gratuitous prison sequences,  at least one subplot (without affecting the main story) and a less rushed ending.

The acting is sold across the principal characters -  Kathir, Aishwarya Rajesh, Lal and the superbly conflicting performance by Saravanan (as SI Murthy) hold the show. The 8 suspects are ok with whatever time they get, but special praise must go to the casting director—the younger versions of the suspects are such uncanny lookalikes  - something i last saw in one of my all time favourites Dark.

Technically exceptional, superb sound design, cinematography of stunning locations (the license plates indicate Tiruchendur, but i wish I knew where!). If you enjoyed the first season you will like this, but may not get blown away as you did the first time over.