Abhay Season 3 (8 Episodes)

Directed by Ken Ghosh

Rating: **

Kunal Khemu is back as the sultry sleuth solving serial slayings. This time he looks as bored as we feel. In how many ways are we supposed to relish the sight of victims being disembodied for the pleasure of demented minds?

Khemu’s Abhay Pratap Singh shows heavy signs of fatigue. Ditto the series. As the plot gets thinner the killings get more macabre. Abhay was never fun to watch. Homicide is serious business here. With exhaustion overtaking the shock value we are left with only some portions of the plot that hold our interest in this killjoy series.

There is an interesting subplot in the second episode where a two social-media influencers played by Tanuj Virwani and Divya Aggarwal kill for the fun of it. Aggarwal is excellent as a self-consumed arrogant influencer. Her expressions of disdain and disgust for her ‘fans’ are just about the most interesting plot points.All else, as they say, is lost.

All else is glum , gory and gutted. Vijay Raaz plays a freaked-out mental doctor who moonlights as a cult-leading godman who brainwashes his followers into going on a killing spree.

Really, now. This is way beyond the prescribed limits of aesthetic mayhem. The series wears a haggard look , with no fringe benefits except some unintentional humour in the coroner hitting on the cop(Nidhi Singh) with his hands covered in blood.

The dialogues swing from the silly to the outright offensive.At the centre of the sordid chaos is Kunal Khemu trying hard not to look bored. Failing to do so, he just looks like over-worked cop who would like to go home to his unhappy son.

Almost everyone looks like he or she would rather be anywhere but in the godforsaken series .It is always good to see Rahul Dev in action.But his presence here is of no help.Vijay Raaz playing the sinister see has prophetic lines like, ‘Aaj main sare peedit logon ko sukoon ki raah dekhaoonga’. He is barking up the wrong tree. The only out of this season’s bizarre bedlam in the off button.

Unless you are a sucker for self punishment.