-Brian Mendonca
It may be difficult to imagine but the last word in the gripping web series Paatal Lok (2020) on amazon Prime is by a dog - or bitch if you prefer. The series is a debut venture produced by actor-producer Anushka Sharma and her production house, Clean Slate Films.
The last episode - the ninth - provides an allegory from the Mahabharata to wrap up the series and tie up all the loose ends. The scene in the Mahabharata is a famous one. The Pandavas are on their journey heavenward. Yudhisthira is the only one left. As he is about to enter heaven Lord Indra objects to the dog that is accompanying him. Yudhisthira, the righteous one, demurs saying, 'If the dog cannot enter heaven, I find no use for heaven. After all, when all my 'friends' left me, it was this dog who never left my side.' Lord Indra says he was only testing Yudhisthira.*
The dog becomes more and more important when Sanjeev Mehra's wife Dolly turns to rearing a bitch and her pups to compensate for the fact that she cannot have the child she so desperately wants. As Inspector Hathiram Chaudhary of the Delhi Police reveals to Mehra, 'The dog saved your life.'
'Hathoda' Tyagi the contract killer sent to eliminate Mehra - a media moghul - arrives on location in Delhi with his squad to perform his job. At the very last moment Mehra's wife runs out of the gate to fondle her dog Savitri. Tyagi, who is closely watching all this, has a soft corner for dogs. 'If a dog loves a man, he is a good man. If a man loves a dog he is a good man,' is the reasoning. Tyagi cancels the hit. He calls up 'Masterji' to express his doubt and seek advice whether he should go along with the plan. But he gets no answer. He aborts the plan.
The dog is nowhere on the publicity material of Paatal Lok. But without it there would be no story. The web series highlights the man-animal bonding. In fact, dogs seem an extension of Tyagi. He fondles them, he feeds them and if someone is unkind to a dog - as in the prison area - he makes them pay. Even in the time he is in hiding performing his practices to be a killer for Donullia - the local Gujjar chieftain - he is surrounded by dogs who seem to clarify his purpose.
As the series comes to a close there is a rare moment of amity which is a bit forced. The Inspector is on a family outing with his wife and kid in a park. His son offers him a cheap ice-cream stick to bury the hatchet. The Inspector takes it and bites into it. His wife leaves his side on some pretext. His son disappears. The camera zooms in on the inspector. And pans towards - a dog, who seems to be watching him intently in the halflight. The expression on the Inspector's face speaks volumes. He just loses it. He appears as if some cosmic force is watching him. Visibly shaken, he goes to the dog and throws his uneaten ice cream in front of it.
Inspector Hathiram Chaudhary invites comparison with Yudhisthira. He is in search of the truth, wherever it takes him - even to Chitrakoot, in Uttar Pradesh. His total dedication, with scant regard to his life, is inspiring. At the end of the series Inspector Chaudhary is a transformed man. He has sniffed the belly of the underworld and is a mediator between the three worlds now, viz. swarg (heaven), dharti (earth) and paatal (underworld). His validation is for himself now and himself only. As he puts it, 'For half my life my father saw me as an idiot. I don't want the other half, having my son call me one.' Setting the record straight, and cracking the case, frees him from self-doubt to become a more self-accepting person. He has the courage to stand for his convictions and follow his dharma - which is what the dog in the episode with Yudhisthira stands for.
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*See my poem, 'Pinjore' (2000) written at Pinjore Gardens, Chandigarh: 'Of provenance unknown / came the Pandavas by /And vanished northward / followed by a dog.' Pic of Dolly and her dogs in the series; courtesy indiatv(dot)in
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