Season 2 Review - Pushpavalli is back with a vengeance

Season 2 of Pushpavalli (titular role played by Sumukhi Suresh) kicks off with her engagement.

Please note before you read further – there are some spoilers ahead!

We see Pushpavalli sitting in a room, dressed in a traditional saree with montage of flashbacks that left her heartbroken. Tears roll down her face. Just when we think she has learned her lesson and moved on, she wipes off those tears and we see revenge in her eyes.

In Season 2, Pushpavalli is back with a vengeance and will go beyond just stalking Nikhil!

She is hurt, bitter and more deranged this time around.

In the first episode, while her mother and friend, Pankaj (played by co-writer Naveen Richard) run from pillar to post to ensure Pushpavalli’s engagement goes smoothly, her primary goal is to manipulate everyone around her to get Nikhil to the ceremony. Her only focus is to make her way back into Nikhil’s life.

While all this is intended to be humorous with a layer of crazy, it’s all too over-the-top. The writing may be consistent with Season 1, but the characters and hammy dialogue delivery can be very distracting. It’s incoherent and hard to follow or keep up (we suggest keeping the subtitles on).

Character development and analysis:

Pushpavalli is obviously disturbed and dangerously unhinged this season. Though she is extremely toxic, there are times when we empathize with her (kudos to Suresh for sensitively portraying such a dark character). You sense the wires in her brain getting hopelessly muffled. It’s only when she gets slapped by a cop, she snaps out of the crazy … though briefly.

Pushpavalli’s childhood friend/boss/crèche owner Pankaj is unreasonably loud and abusive, and particularly unjustified for someone who works with kids. However, his character and reactions towards Pushpavalli is how we feel watching it all unfold before us – Though he’s constantly irritated by her, he still tries to help her.

Even Vasu, the landlady whose house Pushpavalli decides to crash at illegally, seems to be too aggressive and brash. She may be a shrewd businesswoman, but the demands towards the tenants are too unrealistic. Why are the PG’s putting up with this… ?

Not much seems to have changed about Nikhil (played by Manish Anand), except there are times when you notice some grey shades to his character. He knows how to manipulate Lee (as he refers to Pushpavalli) and knows exactly what buttons to push to get her attention.

Vidyuth (played by Vidyuth Gargi), Pushpavalli’s fiancé, is a new entry to this chaos. He is sweet, gentle, naïve and lovable. You feel for him when he realizes he’s fallen for someone delusional and a psychopath.

T-Boi (played by Ashok Pathak) is a delight to watch. He innocently goes out of his way to Pushpavalli in all her irrational plans.

Some clever bits:

There are some hilarious and clever moments in the season, but they are too far and too little.

When Pankaj asks Pushpavalli to look up the definition of “blinders,” implying that she should stay away from trouble (Nikhil) and keep her eyes on the prize (Vidyuth).
When Pankaj gets jealous of Nikhil and nicknames him “ankle socks” – very relatable given that “cool guys” are often seen wear ankle socks these days.
Nikhil being goofy to cheer up an old friend and boosting her morale.
The subtle integration of Suresh’s stand-up show also streaming on Amazon Prime.

The build-up to the climax is thrilling and even educational when Nikhil and Pushpavalli prepare for the quality clearance at his “okra” factory. The drama intensifies when she discovers that Nikhil has been dating a doctor; Pushpavalli suddenly hits the next stage of insanity. She is determined to destroy everything that comes in her way, even if she hurts people who really care about her. Toward to end she is completely maniacal and wouldn’t stop till all goes up in flames (literally).

Overall, the season tests your patience with some exaggerated moments and unrealistic twists and turns. In comparison to Season 1, Season 2 is darker, but not as riveting. It picks up only after episode 3, by which time you’re only watching because you’ve committed to the characters from season 1.