Sanjeev Mehra, the victim, is not innocent. He is a spectacle-hungry news anchor who stokes communal hatred for ratings. The series offers a devastating critique of the “electronic media” landscape, where truth is irrelevant and tragedy is merely content. Mehra’s attempted murder is a direct consequence of his manufactured narratives—a classic case of the creator being consumed by his creation.
Traditional police procedurals reward methodical investigation. Paatal Lok subverts this. Hathi Ram’s investigation is not an intellectual exercise but a physical and psychological gauntlet. The police force is depicted as corrupt, lethargic, or brutally oppressive. The series suggests that the state’s apparatus cannot solve the crisis of violence because the state itself is complicit in creating the conditions for that violence (e.g., fake encounters, custodial torture, political patronage of criminals). paatal lok review
Critics universally praised the show’s writing and performances, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% (critics) and high audience approval. However, some scholars noted that the series occasionally lapses into stylistic excess (e.g., gratuitous violence) that risks numbing the viewer. Furthermore, the final episode’s attempt at a redemptive arc for Hathi Ram—reuniting with his family—feels tonally incongruous with the preceding eight hours of unrelenting nihilism. The show offers no solution, only diagnosis. Sanjeev Mehra, the victim, is not innocent
Jaideep Ahlawat’s performance as Hathi Ram is the emotional core of the series. He portrays toxic masculinity not as power, but as profound exhaustion—a man drowning in mediocrity, domestic tension, and systemic failure. Abhishek Banerjee as Hathoda Tyagi delivers a terrifyingly sympathetic villain, embodying how trauma calcifies into psychopathy. Director Prosit Roy employs a muted, desaturated color palette, contrasting the sterile luxury of Swarg with the muddy, visceral textures of Paatal , making geography an expression of moral ecology. Mehra’s attempted murder is a direct consequence of
The series follows Hathi Ram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat), a weary, middle-aged Delhi police inspector stuck in a dead-end job. He is assigned a high-profile case: the attempted assassination of a prominent TV journalist, Sanjeev Mehra (Neeraj Kabi). The four prime suspects—Hathoda Tyagi, Cheena, Kabir M, and Mary—are from marginalized backgrounds. As Hathi Ram descends from the symbolic Swarg (Heaven) of elite South Delhi to the Paatal (Hell) of Uttar Pradesh’s caste-riven badlands, the narrative reveals that the “terrorist” plot is, in fact, a desperate act of revenge rooted in caste-based humiliation and historical injustice.
Paatal Lok and the Archaeology of Indian Darkness: A Review of Caste, Media, and Systemic Violence