A young girl is abducted from a birthday party. 9 months later the kidnapper sends a free ipad to the parents asking to kill random people to keep their daughter safe and alive. 1 free ipad per murder. Heard of emails anyone? Nevermind..
The only thing common between Season 1 and Season 2 is the pretext of ‘how far will a parent go to save their child.’ After about only 5 mins of contemplation, Avinash and Abha (the parents) become remorseless killers.
You never buy the premise of an everyday couple turning into overnight serial killers. The writing does not let the characters be vulnerable or even confused. So unlike Breathe 1 you are never rooting for them to get away with the murders. You are infact with inspector Kabir Sawant on this one, also because Amit Sadh’s character here is the most logical one. With a backstory, a slightly comic camaraderie with a colleague, past guilt and anger issues, his character has many natural dimensions unlike Abhishek’s. Not to take away that he also shines as the strongest actor amongst the cast despite lesser screen time.
There are many sub plots ambitiously introduced that contribute absolutely nothing to the main story other than added episode length. Some characters like one competing female inspector and one sub inspector’s ex-lover are totally dispensable. All this while we get to know nothing about the lead couple outside of their crime partnership. There is also a lot of repetition of facts and data for a plot which is hardly complex. A little trust in the audiences’ intelligence would have helped in keeping the narrative succinct.
One revelation after 6 long episodes does make you sit up and pay attention with a renewed interest, but you soon realise that was the end of surprises. Rest of the journey you only tirelessly watch through everything that you have already predicted.
The mythological angle seems a result of FOMO or a forced formula for a psychological thriller.
The background score overcompensates for the weak writing by giving a false sense of urgency every now and then.
Abhishek Bachchan does a decent job. But for a character that is supposed to be so twisted, he plays it too safe. With his familiar stern expression and peculiar accent he remains Abhishek and never entirely becomes Avinash. Nithya Menon looks gorgeous and brings hope every time she is on the screen. I would have been way more interested to see her as the protagonist.
We as the digital audience today are open to bizzare concepts, multi-dimensional characters, long episodes and possibilities in general, that said, Breathe still pushes us to the end.
With all its flaws, my biggest complaint remains the length, rest is palatable.
Skip a few scenes; forward a few episodes and Breathe 2 can be watchable.
2.5/5
