Netherworld)[a] is an Indian Hindi-language crime thriller television series on Amazon Prime Video, created by Sudip Sharma, who wrote the script along with Sagar Haveli, Hardik Mehta and Gunjit Chopra, and directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy.
The series was produced under the banner Clean Slate Filmz,[2] and stars Jaideep Ahlawat, Gul Panag, Neeraj Kabi, Swastika Mukherjee, Ishwak Singh, Abhishek Banerjee, Niharika Lyra Dutt, and Richa Chaturvedi.
[3] Ahlawat, Singh, and Panag reprised their roles in the second season (set amidst political turmoil in Nagaland), and were joined by Tillotama Shome, Jahnu Barua, Nagesh Kukunoor and Prashant Tamang.
Her brother tries to convince Hathi Ram to take a private position where the employer Bhalla is looking to hire ex-military or former police personnel, which Hathiram finds is nothing but "security" for a hawala business.
DCP Bhardwaj reviews the CCTV footage of Raghu Paswan and Rose Lizo with Ansari but refuses to let Hathiram join the investigation team.
Interrogating Jogi, Hathiram finds out that Paswan's wife was accidentally killed by his goons who were trying to scare her away and his connect in Nagaland was a drug dealer named Max Rizu.
Meghna and Hathiram conclude that Reddy tipped off the police leading to the big drug raid which caused a massive financial loss for Thom, forcing him to attend the summit.
On interrogation, he finds that Raghu borrowed the rickshaw to help Rose flee that night and on returning back, an altercation with his room mates led to this murder at their hands.
[14][15] Vijay Subramanian, head of content for Amazon Prime Video India, announced the series, along with six Indian originals, at the Television Critics Association's press tour held at Los Angeles, California in February 2019.
"[24] The series marked Sudip's fourth collaboration with Anushka Sharma's production house Clean Slate Filmz (NH10, Phillauri and Pari), and the latter's debut in digital platforms.
In web-series, because of the format, directors come in late and then if you dump nine-ten episodes on one person, it’s very difficult for them to process this new world, these new characters and do complete justice to it.
[24] Shot mostly in major portions across North India, including Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, Sudip chose locations with which he was familiar and had researched for his previous work.
In an article from Scroll.in titled Best of 2020 Music in Films and Web Series, Devarsi Ghosh stated "The gloomy landscape created by background score stylists Benedict Taylor and Naren Chandavarkar neither calls for attention nor can be ignored.
"[34] A promotional single "Toofan Main", sung by Prabh Deep and produced by Sez on the Beat, was released through YouTube on 22 May 2020,[35] and received applause from audiences.
[36] The ending credits of the series features a reused rendition of the bhajan "Sakal Hans Mein Ram Viraje" by Prahlad Tipanya, famous for singing Kabir in the Malwi folk tradition.
According to Niranjan Rajguru, a scholar and professor of Gujarati literature at Saurashtra University, "Few of Nanak Das’s compositions have been heard outside Gujarat, Sakal Hans is an exception as it was picked up by Prahlad Tipaniya who adapted it into Hindi.
An extramarital romance between Sanjeev and his coworker Sara (Niharika Lyra Dutt), who is many years his junior, takes an unsettling turn, exposing his hidden hypocrisies.
[42][43] Anushka Sharma released an announcement poster of the series, through the production house's Twitter account on 24 April 2020,[citation needed] and the teaser was unveiled the very same day.
[54] Anupama Chopra, editor-in-chief of Film Companion wrote "Paatal Lok is a tightly knit thriller with every episode ending on a cliffhanger, which forces you to keep bingeing.
"[55] Harish Wankhede in his review for the Hindustan Times, stated that "In the plethora of dull and substandard Hindi content on the web today, Paatal Lok rises as a much-needed suspense thriller that is likely to be classified as a ‘classic’ soon.
"[57] Shubhra Gupta gave three-and-a-half out of five stars, in her review for The Indian Express and stated "Paatal Lok is fashioned as a crime thriller-cum-police procedural set mainly in Delhi, spinning off into several threads, some really solid, a few comparatively weak, but managing to keep its hold on us.
"[58] Namrata Joshi of The Hindu wrote "There is a steady momentum, an unmistakable sense of force underlining the craft in Paatal Lok: from the cinematography to the acting to the atmospherics.
"[59] Renuka Vyahare of The Times of India gave four out of five and wrote "What essentially lies at the heart of Paatal Lok is a courageous screenplay that questions our society’s nature of burying the truth.
"[61] Swetha Ramakrishnan of Firstpost gave three out of five stars and stated "The primary problem with Paatal Lok is that it is trying too hard to be too many things: a thriller, a social commentary, an "edgy" take on new India and its fault lines.
"[63] Udita Jhunjhunwala of The Quint gave three out of five and wrote "Paatal Lok lands somewhere between Delhi Crime and Mirzapur but doesn't quite get the urgency of the police investigation of the former or the grit and messiness of the latter.
"[64] The New Indian Express, chief critic Shilajit Misra commented "The show takes its plot and characters from Tarun Tejpal’s novel The Story of My Assassins.
"[66] Aishwarya Vasudevan of Daily News and Analysis gave four out of five and stated "Paatal Lok is not right to watch during the lockdown as you have no escapism to breathe fresh air.
"[67] Priyanka Sinha Jha of News18 gave three-and-a-half out of five stating "Paatal Lok is certainly an important chronicling of the hellish journey of small-town characters who lived to tell the tale and one that makes for a compelling watch.
"[68] Meehika Barua of The Guardian stated "The stars of Paatal Lok speak out on the backlash surrounding their gritty portrayal of crime, corruption and caste inequalities.
[79] A complaint was filed by "All Arunachal Pradesh Gorkha Youth Association (AAPGYA)" to the National Human Rights Commission while a legal notice was also sent by the Lawyers Guild.