Like the first season, the second season of Tanaav is a beast of its own. Authentic in look and speech, Tanaav doesn’t look like an adaptation, of the Israeli series Fauda. The terror contexts are smartly changed and localized. The characters do not waste time in allowing us to get to know them. Their jobs are well-planned from before. Heads will role, tides will turn and the fugitive terrorists will find their nemesis.
I like the way the series makes room for the families to have their say. There is a chilling clarity in the narrative in the way it identifies the two sides and then leaves them to their devices. Tanaav2 gets it terror-dynamics right from the start. It’s not just the families of the Indian officers and the terrorists who suffer, even friends and acquaintances are not spared.
Directed with a firm hand by Sudhir Mishra and E Niwas, Season 2 opens with the death of one of the protagonist from the Special Task Group. The tragedy colours every move in the ensuing episodes. Mishra and Niwas as co-directors bring an immediacy to the storytelling without getting lost in the business of constantly holding our attention.
There is a refreshing thehrao (calmness) in the plot, even in its most exacerbated moments. Among the actors, Maanav Vij continues to be sullen and angry at everyone from himself to his father (Kabir Bedi, a little off-key). Vij manifests the simmering discontent in the Kashmir Valley so vividly manifested in the plotting and characterization.
Everyone continues to be unhappy in the second season of Tanaav. Yet, this is not an unhappy watching experience. Yes, there is discontent at the heart of the series. But the mood remains hopeful, if not upbeat. Soni Razdan’s worldweary face embodies the unspoken theme of Tanaav. Humankind can’t stop hoping for peace even if the religion, culture and politics of the nation offers no reason to think of a better world.
