Pataal Lok: An ‘objective’ fiction of our Society

"From the outside, this system might look rotten, but from the inside, this system is well-
oiled machinery"- DCP Bhagat

Amazon Prime Original Web series Pataal Lok is making news nowadays. On one hand, it has
received a lot of praise from both critics and commons folks alike, while on the other hand,
the right-wing propaganda eco-system has accused the web series of being 'Hindu phobic'
and left-wing propaganda. Also, the web series has become a meme factory for netizens
who have found a lot of dialogues and scenes which resonates with our contemporary
situation.
The nine-part web series based in Yamunapar Delhi has been created by Sudip Sharma and
directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy. It stars Jaideep Ahlawat, Gul Panag, Neeraj Kabi,
Swastika Mukherjee, Ishwak Singh Jagjeet Sandhu, and Abhishek Banerjee among others,
who come together to deliver a very powerful performance.
The show makers have been able to weave together elements from caste-based
discrimination, mythology, media, politics, class, toxic patriarchy and masculinity,
communalism, bigotry, criminal-police-politician nexus, etc. to bring a gripping investigation
thriller. A multi-layered and nuanced story backed by impressive and powerful
performances, Pataal Lok- which according to Hindu religious beliefs is the netherworld
inhabited by demons and lowlife- is a true ‘objective’ reflection of contemporary society.
The story is simple and common: There is an assassination attempt on a prominent citizen. A
‘looser’ policeman and his colleague are assigned the “high-profile” case. Their investigation
takes them into the heart of rural North India which is replete with feudal social structure
and power struggles. The investigation also exposes the Criminal-Politician-Police nexus and
how ‘plots’ are manufactured to serve political purposes
The makers of the web series have perfectly employed the literary device of ‘backstory’.
Almost all the major characters have a back-story which takes us into their personal history
which also is a commentary on the society where they come from respectively. The
Shakespearian phrase "past is the prologue" has been applied brilliantly throughout the
show.
The story of Tope Singh is the story of caste relations and notions of patriarchal feudal
'honor' in Punjab; the story of Kabir M. is the story of how Muslim community has been
criminalized for their religion and even if they shed their ‘Muslim Identity’, the ‘Muslim
Identity’ will not shed them. The fate of Kabir M. is the embodiment of Sahadat Hasan
Manto’s famous answer “I am Muslim enough to get killed”; the story of ‘Cheeni’, is the
story of everyday racism faced by people from North-Eastern states, the story of child abuse
and everyday discrimination which transgender people face and of the stigma attached with
it; the story of Vishal aka Hathoda Tyagi is the story of the extreme vulnerability of women
in rural India, the practice of honor killing and lack of understanding of mental problems;
the story of Hathiram Chowdhury is the story of a single father deprived of sex, trying to
raise his son.
The device of ‘backstory’ is basically employed to reaffirm a common wisdom that “nobody
is born a criminal, it is circumstances which turn a person into a criminal”. Pataal Lok looks
into the ‘circumstances’ in which people become ‘criminal’. But, it does not stops here; the
social circumstances which Ptaaal-Lok uncovers are not some impersonal forces, rather they
are embedded in the very structure of our society, i.e. Caste, Communalism, Feudal notions
of honour and property disputes.
As far as depiction of social issues goes, Pataal Lok is a dense cinematic text. It covers
everyday life of women from lower middle classes who try to speak English and ‘loves’ her
son to the point of spoiling him, problems faced by children of lower-middle-class
background in elite schools, everyday inter-departmental politics, the careless and
extremely unprofessional attitude of Police, phenomenon of fake news, WhatsApp
university, mob lynching, beef, child abuse, communalism, Batla House, everyday racism
and sexual abuse, rampant homophobia, the extremely vulnerable lives of street children,
mental health issues, class hatred, caste, and gender-based discrimination, social banditry,
etc. It shows how different forms of social stratifications, norms and behaviour reinforce
and re-constitute each other.
The series covers and reflects on a lot of issues that have an immediate contemporary ring
to it. There are scenes and dialogues which seem too familiar.
Even though the shooting of the web series took place in 2019 and script was written
before, the show successfully depicts the communal character and bias of Delhi Police,
which became evident during the February 2020 Riots. This biasness exist not just on the
outside but also in the inside of the police force. The show perfectly depicts how minorities
should discipline themselves in accordance with the mainstream narrative. When the
Muslim aspirant is asked a ‘politically loaded’ question of whether minorities feel unsafe or
not, during a mock IAS interview, the aspirant is advised to take a “positive and progressive”
approach to answering the question.
The BoisLockerRoom incident brought to light how sexism and 'rape-talk' are common
among the school-going children. The incident shocked a lot of people as the participants of
the chat room belonged to elite English medium schools and therefore it was perceived as
an “aberration”. But if one goes to Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns, rape-talks and everyday sexual
harassment are quite common among the school-going children. The makers of Pataal Lok
have been able to capture and bring out this horrific ‘reality’ in a manner which can only be
called depressing.
Pataal Lok also reflects upon the inner tension in contemporary 'English- liberal' media,
which at one point of time provided the hegemonic model for Journalism. In a completely
changed scenario, where the object is not reporting, but creating sensation, judgments and
aligning with power, the erstwhile doyens of 'liberal journalism' are in a fix; they have to
choose between their career and ethics of journalism.
In midst of all the chaos and darkness, there is the beautiful love story of Queer ‘Cheeni’ and
Kaliya; two street children who grew up together against the Hobbesian 'state of nature'.
Their love story is perhaps the only part of Pataal Lok which gives you some hope and
solace.
A lot of netizens have praised the series for showing the ‘reality’ or in words of Gul Panag,
the series “unravels inconvenient truth of society". But the question is, what is the truth and
reality of society? Who decides that something is an "inconvenient truth"?
What is referred here as ‘the reality' or 'inconvenient truth' is the everyday life of lower and
marginalized segments of the population. This obsession of the upper and middle classes of
society, with "reality" and the "inconvenient truth", which gets expressed every time a ‘dark
and rusty’ cinema gets released shows that the ‘reality and truth’ for a majority of them
have become a 'commodity'; a source of entertainment!
This fictionalized 'reality or truth' which the urban middle classes consumes with all passion
and emotion is contradictory to how this class has behaved in recent times to the plight of
migrant laborers and criminalization of Muslim community and other issues which Pataal
Lok has covered.
The ‘reality and inconvenient truth’ which Pataal Lok brings out are not about showing
caste-gender-religion based discrimination or the police-politician-criminal-business nexus.
All these things are common knowledge. Instead, Pataal Lok brings out the hypocrisy which
lies at the heart of contemporary society and its custodians. The base consciousness across
different sections of society remains the same. What changes is the expression and
manifestation of that consciousness. Thus the Hindi abuse ‘chutiya’ becomes ‘choots’ in
English speaking world!! The communal consciousness which is expressed though slangs like
‘katua’ to address Muslims among lower middle classes, becomes ‘image of the community’
among upper sections of the society.
This series brilliantly reflects on how the question of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ is subsumed under
the concept of professionalism, aspiration, and self-preservation in contemporary society.
The question of 'doing the right thing' is merely a stage of life determined by the availability
of opportunity for any individual. Hathiram Chowdhury is not motivated to discover the
'truth', instead, he is out there to prove himself. For Sanjeev Mehra, exposing a top
politician and businessman is not about ‘truth’ and ‘ethics’; it’s just about making one’s
career. In the end, no one cares for 'Justice'; what matters is career, aspirations, and upward
mobility.
There are few scenes and dialogues which are too powerful to be ignored. One is when
Hathiram Chowdhury takes out his frustration upon Queer Cheeni, and beats her
mercilessly; just because she is a transgender. Later Hathiram is momentarily haunted by
the episode, but it’s just momentary! Another is a dialogue by Kabir M's father when he
says that "I did not allow my son to become a Muslim and you people (police) made him a
Jihadi terrorist!!" This scene is an answer to all those who think that Muslims should stop
'being Muslim' to ‘integrate’ with the majoritarian society.
The popularity of the series has also invited some criticism from the different ideological
points of view and concerns. It has been accused of being 'Hindu phobic' by the right-wing
eco-system, for showing Muslim as victim of the system (which essentially is Hindu) and
society and at the same time by showing Hindus as criminals- a reference to “Dunaliya”
(who comes from Gujjar community) aka Masterji who more than a criminal is like a ‘social’
bandit, a Robin hood figure, and embodiment of power worshipped by the poor. On the
other hand, Pataal Lok has been criticized for showcasing extreme forms of caste-based,
gender-based and racial discriminations in a way that normalizes the social structure which
propagates these different forms of discrimination.
If we just go around walking in our neighborhood we will come across almost every form of
discrimination and power relations which the makers of Pataal Lok have captured. In the last
few years, we have come across almost every scene of Pataal Lok in an around us. We know
how Indian citizens from North-Eastern states have been called 'corona' and spit upon
during this ongoing pandemic and they referred collectively as 'chinki'; we know how Dalit
community has to face discrimination on an everyday basis; we have seen the
criminalization of 'Muslim' identity itself; we have seen BoisLockerRoom; we have seen
homophobia, victim-blaming, child abuse, criminalization of transgender persons, honor
killings, the apathy of state machinery, etc.
Pataal Lok does not give you a happy ending, of which we are accustomed to, instead, it is
just a mirror of our society; a true reflection and therefore its quite depressing. At the end
of the day, it is up to the audience as to what will remain with them after any cinematic or
literary experience ends. What will haunt their minds after the show is over.
If the audience- most of whom are going to be upper-middle sections of society as the
subscription of Amazon Prime is Rs. 999- is not able to develop any critical reflection and
empathetic approach to marginalized social groups and their ‘realities and truth’ depicted in
Pataal Lok, it is not the problem of the creators, but lack of empathy of the viewer.

Author
Harsh Vardhan