What Is the Story About?
The third season of the much popular show Undekhi picks up from the second season’s ending. Teji’s ploy to take over Atwal family’s power in her own hands leads papaji aka Surinder Singh Atwal take a hasty decision. The murder of a young woman that opened the first season of the show comes back to haunting the patriarch with a video of his on the scene surfacing, and once again Rinku and Daman comes up in the picture to protect and defend him. DSP Barun Ghosh on the other hand is adamant to bring justice to the deceased girl.
Can Rinku save his papaji? What will eventually happen to the family once papaji decides to retire? Who are the real enemies of Atwals? Will the enemity finally make it to the forefront? Undekhi Season 3 explores these questions one by one.
Performances?
The best performance of the third installment of the much revered series is again from Harsh Chhaya. He churns out the chronic alcoholic, cuss-mouthed, despicable and unhinged business-man turned patriarch Surinder Singh Atwal aka papaji with ease, much like previous seasons.
Surya Sharma is a delight to watch onscreen as Rinku. His relentless papaji-prem sometimes gets irritating to watch, but that’s on the writing. He is the all-knowner, angry-young-man, next-in-line of the Atwal kingdom (atleast on the surface), but this time he portrays the emotional side of Rinku really well. While Dibyendu Bhattacharya makes the most of an under-written character this time around (unlike the last two seasons), Aanchal’s Teji and Ankur Rathee’s Daman are criminally wasted with little to nothing to do.
Analysis
Directed by Ashish R Shukla, the much revered and popular show Undekhi from SonyLIV is back again for its third season. What started off as an exposure of the world of crime, power-tussles and power-dynamics between the members of a famous clan – the Atwals and its deplorable patriarch aka papaji, has turned into a never-ending battle against, for and within for the Atwals. Add to it multiple characters, villains, twists and turns that never seem to end.
Undekhi Season 3 begins exactly from the culmination point of season 2. There are inner battles of succession as papaji’s condition doesn’t get better, with Daman and scheming Teji trying to build a better life for themselves amidst all the chaos and vengeance soaked-battles. Rinku is on the hunt for Samarth to terminate his illegal drug business when a video of papaji murdering the dancer (from season 1) resurfaces.
The ghosts of his notorious past haunts papaji and Rinku is adamant on protecting him as the video gets out in the public and case gets reopened. This makes DCP Ghosh, the only voice of justice in this despicable world of crime and cover-ups feel hopeful of closing Atwal family’s chapter forever.
That’s not all for the Atwal Clan, trouble’s been brewing for the family for quite a long while and this time they have a vile nemesis locking horns – Rajeev Malhotra. While Rajeev brings further conflicts and problems to the table, his brutally cunning manager Shruthi makes it further hard for the region’s shadow rulers.
As betrayals, murders, blood-conquests, lawlessness and shifting loyalties keeping criss-crossing in Undekhi Season 3, the ardent fans are in for more characters and a far-stretching third season which clearly lacks the punch of the first season by a mile and even falls shorter than the muddled second season.
One of the strongest assets of Undekhi Season 1 was it’s raw and gripping narrative, taut writing and interestingly layered characters. While the third season introduces multiple new characters that offer promise, some of the most interesting characters of the previous seasons are un-necessarily under-treated.
Undekhi Season 3 takes predictable turns after a slow paced set of episodes half-way through only to meander further and stretch its course beyond a point of intrigue. The show runs out of steam and suspense quickly and turns repetitive. The duration of the show could have been atleast 2 episodes shorter for same story to be told more engagingly.
However, with a dedicated central cast sinking their tooth and nail right into impressive performances, Undekhi Season 3 retains its binge-watch quality even with a muddled third season. The fans and non fans can equally binge the show, but if the non-fans would appreciate the third season of the show as much as the fans…is a question posed at the makers that hint a fourth season at the end of Undekhi Season 3.
Music and Other Departments?
Ashish Narula’s background score for Undekhi Season 3 is repetitive, while the soundtrack features some nice Punjabi melodies. There’s so much desperation for the sound department to make an impact cutting across the writing and performances. Murzy Pagdiwala’s cinematography and production design captures picturesque Manali adequately while the colour grading is very much regular. The editing department is mugged by visible fatigue as the episodes tend to be inconsistent and untautly cut half-way through the series.
Highlights?
Performances
Star-cast
binge-worthy
Drawbacks?
Duration
Overstretched narrative
Less Suspense
More Characters
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes, in parts
Will You Recommend It?
Yes, but with huge reservations.
Undekhi Season 3 Review by Binged Bureau
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