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The mighty Sundarbans, not only the habitat of the Royal Bengal Tiger but also a Hyena resides there. More precisely, a Hyena-man is a man with the willpower to be a Hyena.
To most readers, these lines may sound like the murmur of an unsound mind, but this is what Abar Proloy highlights. Yes, humans can be hyenas, not necessarily being in the shape of a hyena but having obvious hyena-like characteristics.
The story of Abar Proloy Starts with Animesh Dutta, an officer of the special branch of the police, that Animesh Dutta who is familiar to those who have watched 'Proloy', the predecessor film of this series. And this time, Animesh Dutta is on his new mission, to capture the racket of a bunch of human traffickers, in this case, women traffickers, in the dark forests of Sundarbans.
In the first place, it seems impossible for him to sort out the problem and identify the criminals, but as a series of events pass by, eventually, Animesh Dutta, as well as the audiences, starts to have suspicion of one of the main characters.
However, leaving that because of the spoiler, Animesh Dutta meets some peculiar characters there. The most significant one is a spiritual teacher named Shambhu Baba, who regulates a religious 'Ashram' with the help of his assistant, Mohini Ma.
Animesh Dutta's physical and intellectual collision with these two Gurus leads to some astonishing facts. And these facts bring forward Kanu, a legally punished criminal.
Besides, Binod Bihari Dutta rises, or as Animesh calls it, Mr Bachchan, another familiar place from the previous film. Mr Dutta, along with the local police and some previously tortured women, starts helping Animesh and throws the question to the audience, will Animesh be able to solve this mystery?
To talk about the positive sides of Abar Proloy, the series sheds light on the major problem of gender discrimination, violence against women and how they are done business with. All these point to an apocalyptic earth without grounds for ethics or other emotions. Business is the primary thing, and death is the only other thing that can happen!
Besides, the series leads the audience inside the head of a horrible psychopath and how his complex mind works. A good thing is how an ordinary boy turns to be a psychopath gradually is shown here.
But when it comes to the negative sides, Abar Proloy does have many of them. Firstly, the series could not hold the charm of Proloy and failed as a sequel to bear the legacy. The story does not have that solid overall grip, and some of the episodes seem to be excessive usage of the director's creative freedom. The cliffhangers were also not attractive.
What catches the audience's eye badly is the action sequences by Animesh Dutta. A middle-aged man like him may be strong enough to have lightweight actions, but heavyweight ones like a commercial hero?
Also, the series seems to deliver unnecessary emotions with which the viewers can rarely connect. Maybe, it is just the director who wanted the series to be both massy and classy.
However, Saswata Chatterjee has again done justice to the character Animesh Dutta after Proloy. Truly he is a director's artist and has given his best even in the action scenes. Besides, his one-liners and punches are surely going to put a smile on the viewer's face.
Ritwick Chakraborty is one of the finest actors the industry has got, but in this one, he was not bright enough to shine individually.
Koushani Mukherjee, Mohini Ma was surprisingly consistent with her performance until the last part came. Gaurav Chakraborty, in the role of Kanu, was not the best fit and had a pretty trivial presence. The two teenage actors present in the series were genuine in their roles. The rest were good but not highly mentionable.
The cinematography was very good if compared to the screenplay and direction. It shows the Sundarbans from a never-shown perspective. The show is currently streaming on Zee5.