‘Laakhon Mein Ek’ Season 2 mirrors our social & political realities
As creator and co-writer of this Amazon Original show, Biswa Kalyan Rath has managed to put together yet another story with the usual suspects of ‘business, politics, and elections’.
Being a successful comedian, Biswa Kalyan Rath knows how to tickle the funny bones of viewers but everyone was surprised when he came up with ‘Laakhon Mein Ek’, a dark commentary on teenagers forced to take up STEM streams. The show makes viewers come face-to-face with the dejected and disillusioned with a harsh, but much-needed reality check about IIT coaching institutes, and the subsequent pressure on the aspirants. The marquee series is back with a second installment with a fresh story. As creator and co-writer of this Amazon Original show, Biswa Kalyan Rath has managed to put together yet another story with the usual suspects of ‘business, politics, and elections’. Directed by Abhishek Sengupta, the second season of ‘Laakhon Mein Ek’ features Shweta Tripathi, our protagonist, as a dedicated junior doctor Shreya Pathare. The series traverses her journey as she attempts to navigate through the corrupt and power-hungry professionals of the medial sector.
The storyline of ‘Laakhon Mein Ek’
The narrative of the second season of ‘Laakhon Mein Ek’ begins at a cataract camp set up by the government when elections are just around the corner, but the story goes beyond just medical care. Highlighting the class differences, age-old superstitions practices, and ignorant yet TRP hungry media houses vying for the attention of TV viewers, Laakhon Mein Ek is a tale that boldly takes on such paradoxical aspects still lurking in the society.
Sent to a remote village to organize and administer a cataract camp under the instructions of chief medical officer Dr. Gopal Patwardhan (Sandeep Mehta), Shreya soon learns that medicine is not the only things she will have to handle. While Dr. Patwardhan’s character is genuinely hard-working, who strives to provide the best possible conditions to help Shreya conduct the camp, he merely can go as far as politicians allow him to. As a pawn in the hands of politicians like MLA Abhimanyu Kashikar (Pushkar Jog) and his goon Raja Babu (Suyash Joshi), Dr. Patwardhan gradually emerges as the main antagonist of the show without his own choice in the matter.
As Shreya goes against all odds including ignorance and narrow mindedness of villagers, poor power source, mosquitoes etc. to set up a cataract camp at Sitlapur. But her perseverance finally brings good results after she manages to convince people into attending the camp and getting themselves treated. Accompanied by an enthusiastic assistant, Bhola (Rupesh Tillu), Shreya manages to pull off the impossible.
But her sweet victory is short-lived as Shreya faces flak when she gets a self-proclaimed doctor Jagmohan Vaidya (Ramakant Dayama) arrested for misguiding villagers into taking steroids instead of actual medicines. The arrest of Jagmohan stirs villagers into violent action as they demand a public apology from Shreya as well as complaint withdrawal. But the story takes its turn once again and Shreya saves a man’s life in a road accident, which warms up villager’s hearts and they finally see her the doctor she is.
The story takes a violent turn here as the viewers are introduced to the main villain of the series – the lack of medical supplies. Although Dr. Patwardhan tries to talk to higher bosses and agree them to send medical supplies on time, Shreya stumbles upon a black market of medicines. Shreya is forced to illegally transport the medicines from the black market when she witnesses the death of a child due to the untimely arrival of medical supplies.
As the day of surgery arrives and doctors begin to look at patients back to back, the next day brings another bad news. One patient starts to complain about red eyes and pain. The number increases from one patient to too many compelling Shreya to shift them to the town hospital. With the media getting involved and names being flashed on every TV screen, the patient suffers and this becomes a huge scandal. Within the chaos, hospital authorities desperately work toward whitewashing their names, everyone forgets about the innocent and elderly people who lost their eyesight, except for one person.
The entire show is very well-crafted with all the stars doing justice to their characters, and if you liked the first season of ‘Laakhon Mein Ek’, this second season will also stay you hooked to the screen. Not only does this season bring out the political element that practically runs through every village and their innocent people, but ‘Laakhon Mein Ek’ season two also shows that the protagonists can sometimes fail too.