Cast – Ronit Roy, Divya Dutta, Dalip Tahil, Shriswara, Shibani Dandekar, Dino Morea, Mohan Kapoor, Shweta Prasad Basu
Director – Sudhir Mishra
Genre – Mystery, Crime, Thriller
Skilled IPS officer Prithvi Singh (Ronit Roy) who has just retired will cross all boundaries to save Saba (Shriswara), his ailing wife’s life.
Season 1 centred around masked kidnappers taking over the lush and lavish bungalow where proficient surgeon Dr Mira Anand (Tisca Chopra) lives with her husband, two kids and a dog. The kidnappers’ demand: that Mira agree to let Chief Minister Khushwant Handa (Dalip Tahil) die on her operating table or watch her family pay for it.
It unmasked Prithvi Singh as the main kidnapper but the plot thickened when Subramaniam (Mohan Kapoor), the CM’s security in charge, wanted Handa eliminated. The Season ended with Prithvi kidnapping the Chief Minister.
All through Season 2, there are references to the whole city being geared for the state funeral of Chief Minister Handa who’s presumed dead. The PM of Bangladesh too is scheduled to attend it.
But the main focus is once again on a hostage situation.
Inside a dilapidated old British era mansion are Prithvi and Saba with the CM, Subramaniam and a few others. Outside is a bewildered ATS team that has no clue about the identity of the hostages or the kidnappers.
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There’s a whiff of the Spanish serial Money Heist, also based on kidnappers, evident in this season. Series director Sudhir Mishra and episodes director Sachin Krishn erect the same sort of tents outside the crime scene to house the posse of policemen who’ve descended there. They also create the same ambience with Ayesha (Divya Dutta), an accomplished female officer as the main negotiator, and sparks of rivalry between her and Dutt (Sachin Khurana) who has stepped into legendary officer Prithvi Singh’s shoes.
Despite dull dialogues and not all scenes always adding up, like a hotshot TV journalist being dispensed with midway through the series, the 12-episode season is packed with plots and characters. Saba is the CM’s illegitimate daughter, his bone marrow will save her. There are blood-thirsty industrialists who know the CM is alive but want him dead. Dino Morea plays a killer not always with a cause as his body count includes a woman he knifes for no apparent reason. There is no reason either for wealthy international tycoon Isha Andrews (Shibani Dandekar) to drop her clothes to make love with the killer. And again, no reason for a well-to-do bar owner to offer a drink and a romp in her beautiful boudoir to a stranger. There’s another touch of sleaze in the intelligence bureau where dogged young Shikha (Shweta Prasad Basu) who’s generous with MC-BCs and the eff word, has a lecherous boss.
But kissing and killing with censor-free freedom to curse have become an important part of the OTT package and Hostages 2 doesn’t pull its punches.
Fortunately, there’s a balance of ballsy men with women. But Saba is an annoying stereotype who’ll hysterically want to talk to her daughter in the midst of the hostage drama and make patently stupid moves that would normally want a husband to strangle her out of frustration instead of going to such lengths to save her.
Performances and a host of plots keep Hostages 2 moving. Never mind the clumsy attempt to have Mohan Kapoor as Subramaniam speak in Tamil.