Every once in a while, when a murder investigation seems destined for the dusty inertia of a cold case file, a forlorn detective resorts to asking a psychic for help.
In Amazon Prime’s The Last Hour, a police officer reassigned from Mumbai to Sikkim – a region sitting between Bhutan and Nepal – takes that controversial approach even further: he consults with a shaman.
The Setup
Arup, the world-weary cop played by Sanjay Kapoor, relocates to a very different part of the world, but on this assignment he won’t be able to drink tea with his feet on the desk until it’s time to go home and mourn his recently-deceased wife. People are dying all over Sikkim, a sublime mountainous region tied together by a small town and network of roads. The chai can wait.
Despite excellent help from Officer Lipika (Shahana Goswami), Arup quickly becomes overwhelmed by the dead bodies and his semi-competent staff.
Enter Dev (Karma Takapa), a “jhakri” or shaman who possesses a special gift: he can communicate with the souls of the dead, view the last hour of their life, and accompany them to the other side. The rules and rituals surrounding his power (for example, he cannot talk to a soul once its previous body is cold) only make the process more interesting.
Skeptical at first, Arup comes to appreciate Dev’s power. Then he thinks, Why not? and assigns Dev as his assistant.
If the story’s structure were to stop developing here, we would have an interesting twist on a basic police procedural, and it would be fun and most likely watchable. The young, spiritual newcomer would provide information gleaned from the victims, and over time, he would come to understand, say, that justice isn’t always simple. The jaded cop would eventually see the world less rigidly and understand that what he can see and touch isn’t everything. Cases would be closed, and protagonists would achieve synthesis: storytelling paradise.
Except that’s not what happens.
Much More Interesting
Show creators Anupama Minz and Amit Kumar tell a love story or two in the middle of all the puzzling murders.
Dev falls for Arup’s daughter (Shaylee Krishen), a student at the local college, and Arup gets involved with Lipika. We also learn that the death of Arup’s wife may have been something more than an accident.
On top of all of this, someone is trying to kill Dev in order to steal his gift, which explains all the murders. Some victims were in the wrong place at the wrong time, others were close to Dev. And then, just for fun, throw in a few soccer playing thugs.
And Yet…
There are many threads to the story, and, since they’re shoehorned into eight episodes, it’s not always easy to keep track of them.
But even though The Last Hour is complicated, it works.
The acting is occasionally uneven, even uninspired at times, but overall the characters are convincing – in particular Takapa as Dev. Death, love, time travel, betrayal, and redemption permeate the story, giving it more heft than just cops solving a murder per episode. And the series is beautifully shot – the scenes from the afterlife are simple and powerful, while the shots of the mountains, with clouds lingering and prayer flags snapping in the wind, are breathtaking.
By the time the season ends, Dev and Arup are no longer working together. In fact, the shaman is a suspect – which shouldn’t come as a surprise. In many respects, The Last Hour is an enjoyable, watchable study of change and transition: life to death (then back to life, in several cases), love turning into loss, friends becoming enemies.
