What Is the Story About?
Puncch Beat Season 2 picks up somewhat from where the debut season of the show left off. Rahat Sharma (Priyank Sharma) and Ranbir Chaudhary (Siddharth Sharma), both students at the élite Dehradun school, Rosewood High, are at loggerheads with each other – both want to be the school boxing champ. However, the show takes on a sinister touch this season, coz one of the two boys is dead, and hard-nosed detective Vishnu (Anuj Chaudhary) suspects that the death is not natural.
Mixed up with the high school vibes is an angsty drama on the side – Ranbir is the son of Rosewood High principal, Maya Chaudhary (Niki Walia) and ex-Rosewoodian and erstwhile Olympian boxer, Rajbir Chaudhary (Samir Soni). Rahat is Rajbir’s illegitimate son. Puncch Beat Season 2 nicely mixes emotional aspects with police procedurals, and gives a very pertinent message at the end of the story.
Puncch Beat Season 2 has been written by Suparn Verma, directed by Akshay Choubey and produced by Ekta and Shobha Kapoor. Sumrit Sahi has written the screenplay and dialogues.
Performances?
Both Priyank Sharma and Siddharth Sharma shine in their roles. Siddharth Sharma gets the lion’s share of histrionics and emotional sequences this season, along with a character that has far more nuances and layers than Rahat’s, and Siddharth exploits the opportunity to the hilt. What’s more he looks good while doing it.
Niki Aneja is superbly understated, and delivers a refined performance, studded with poise and panache. Rushad Rana is a calm and reassuring presence in the show. New entrant Shataf Figar is good too. Anuj Choudhary goes about his role with studied precision, and has an arresting screen presence. The man deserves good roles to justify his talent.
The youngsters in the show steps up to the plate and deliver well what’s required of them. Khushi Joshi, as Padmini, Sindhuja Turlapati, as Aditi, and Nikhil Bhambri, as Adhish, are good.
Analysis
Puncch Beat Season 2 has a new writer-director team helming the show, and the difference is starkly clear. Season 1 was angsty, talkative and high on rhetorics. Season 2 is more realistic, and thankfully, more restrained. The multiple poor-little-motherless-kids tropes of the previous season—in the case of Rahat and Dinky (Harshita Gaur)—have been done away completely, which is a relief really.
The focus this season is more on the boxing matches. And they’re very well done too – quite the highlight of the show, if we must say. But most significantly, Puncch Beat Season 2 shines a spotlight on a very important and relevant point, which is a good thing in the larger sense. Yet, the show takes a very long, repetitive route to saying what it wants to. 13 episodes, even though short 18-20 minute ones, is a very long runtime to get to the point. By the time the eighth episode or so comes around, we’re bored out of our wits with the lengthy tediousness of it. Needless subplots add to the ennui. For instance, a silly student-teacher subplot is completely inessential and could have been totally done away with.
A few characterisations in the show are quite well done – Niki Aneja’s Maya and Siddharth Sharma’s Ranbir, to be more specific. Harshita Gaur has flown the coop this season. Her Dinky flies off to the US for further studies, so that’s that. Samyukta Hegde, though handed a meaty role this season, doesn’t make much of an impact.
All said and done, Puncch Beat Season 2 is a strictly average watch – not brilliant, but not altogether bad either.
Music and Other Departments?
The background score of Puncch Beat Season 2 is peppy and upbeat, keeping up the tempo of the show. The cinematography is beautiful. Several shots of the city below, taken from high vantage points, are pretty as a picture. The editing is finely executed.
Highlights?
A few of the performances
Drawbacks?
Overly long
A few needless subplots
Did I Enjoy It?
I found it strictly OK
Will You Recommend It?
Not so much
Puncch Beat Season 2 Web Series Review by Binged Bureau
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