CAST: Aditi Pohankar, Vishwas Kini , Kishore Kumar G,
DIRECTED BY: ARIF ALI
SCRIPT :IMTIAZ ALI
The first season of Netflix’s She introduced us to Constable Bhumika Pardeshi aka Bhumi (Aaditi Pohankar), who is sent undercover to infiltrate the gang of a dreaded and mysterious drug lord called Nayak (Kishore Kumar G). The second season sees Bhumi lead a double life, as she struggles to decide which one she should choose – should she be the cop, and get Nayak arrested, or should she be the free woman Nayak has shown she is and leave her old life?
As Bhumi makes her avatar as a sex worker undercover work for her persona,she discovers a new side to her sexuality that she starts enjoying along with the power that she exudes over men. She compares it to her life with her ex-husband and their loveless interactions and keeps making comparisons between the quality of sex she has with her customers and the reality of her real insipid life.
Cop by day and a hooker by night, as she tries to convince Nayak and his gang that she is on their side but will her collagues in the force trust her ?
THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES
In true imtiaz Ali style, the series is the journey of a constable Bhumi into empowering herself to feel more than what the society decided she should feel.
At the end of Season one, Bhumi transformed from a woman who led a subjugated life to an undercover agent to bust the Kingpin of a massive drug racket in India. But what she miscalculates is the power that sexual libertion gives to her. As she enjoys her power over these powerful men, She plays both sides with expertise and manages the drug kingpin and the entire police force using her new found confidence and survival techniques she picks while undercover as an escort on the mean streets.
What really works well for the writing is that the story never judges Bhumi’s decisions for survival using a lens of morality.
IN THE KNOW
Bhumi and her decisions work for her own survival, The viewer is hooked to the story because they wonder about the reasoning of her actions and judgements.
She feels erotic, she gets intimate with many men, and she even goes on to use many, but it’s her world and her morality is not defined by anyone else,lest the audience. She is unapologetic and her unforeseen decisions should not make sense to anyone else but her. The writing is supremely individualistic and empowering at that.
In this entire story of lies and deception, she finds love in her intimacy with the Drug warlord. He becomes the man who really sees her as a woman. She falls in love in the murkeist of all plots and if you know Imtiaz Ali, it is that kind of love.
The series successfully creates very interesting double crossing sequences and keeps you guesing where in that entire spectrum Bhumi really lies. Who is he exactly double crossing?
As she puts her life in peril, Aditi Pohankaar’s Bhumi creates a woman who is transformed not just physically but mentally. Kishore Kumar G plays Nayak, a man who is a myth, and his expressionless approach keep you guessing too so you keep wondering if he really is in love with her. Vishwas Kini as Fernandez is perfectly cast.
At the end of the season, the reveal is a cliff hanger to Season 3 of a story where we think Fernandez’s obsession with Bhumi needs to be explored deeper.
Some hurried sequences at the end of the series make the series a bit of a blotch. Apart from that a masterful story of realization of a woman’s power. Irrespective of the moral radar.
