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Netflix's latest Indian web-series, Betaal, began streaming from May 24. Backed by Blumhouse and Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment, Betaal is a four-episode mini-series that falls under the horror genre. The show is directed by Patrick Graham and Nikhil Mahajan, and stars Viineet Kumar, Aahana Kumra, Suchitra Pillai, Manjiri Pupala, Jitendra Joshi and Ankur Vikal. Betaal Review: Viineet Kumar Fights The Walking Dead in Shah Rukh Khan’s Nerve-Racking but Thrilling Netflix Zombie Series.
Betaal is about how a group of soldiers, instigated by an evil industrialist, opens up a forbidden tunnel, against the warnings of the locals, and then unleashes the evil within. Now the humans have to survive the night fending off an army of the walking dead, controlled by a reanimated British general.
The series has received mixed reviews from the viewers. While we loved the tight treatment given to the show and its technical aspects, Betaal suffers from some pretty unimaginative writing and its reluctance to go beyond the tested. Some decisions taken from narrative point make little sense, and even the characters behave the same dumb way as you see in a lazy horror movie. The best thing about Betaal was it was a more contained series, that doesn't stretch itself to tax your patience. Betaal: Shah Rukh Khan's New Venture for Netflix Receives Mixed Reactions from Twitterati, Some Hail its Storyline, Others Beg to Differ.
And yet, it does leave some very lingering questions to prick your mind long after the series is over. Like these 10 questions below:
How Did Ahlu Get The Scars?
The series offers little flashbacks into how its protagonist Vikram Sirohi (Viineet Singh) got his mental scars. But what about his subordinate Ahlu (Aahana Kumra)'s physical scars on her face? We know that it happens during an earlier mission, but are curious to know the details.
Why Were The Humans Allowed To Even Reach The Hideout?
When the tunnel is first opened, a set of construction workers goes in and they are immediately killed off by the undead. Then a group of CIPD members, led by Commandant Tyagi (Suchitra Pillai) enter the tunnel and they are ambushed and most of them are killed. The third wave contains only Vikram and rookie Nadir Haq (Siddharth Menon). They find Tyagi, who is barely conscious and deeply in shock, before the undead attack them. Despite heaving an incapacitated Tyagi and an injured Nadir, Vikram manages to take them out of the cave alive even though it is shown that the undead can move fast. Apart from the fact that they have to stretch it for four episodes, there is no reason why the undead could not have easily outrun the fleeing humans even before they could have reached the barracks.
Why Does Vikram Continue To Take Orders From Tyagi?
The series shows Vikram to be blindly loyal to Tyagi, kind of epitomising the followers of a certain real-life leader. But even that kind of symbolising causes a little disbelief, especially when he has been seeing Tyagi acting weird and knowing that she could be infected. Sure, later he was being hypnotised by her to do Betaal's bidding. But that doesn't explain his stubbornness prior to her control. Especially after he sees what happens to Nadir, who is infected and gets turned to a zombie.
Why Do The Infected Have Different Turnaround Time?
Forget the time Nadir took to become a zombie after getting bitten, let's talk about the dead bodies that get reanimated. Some of them get reanimated instantly after dying, like Puniya's husband. Some take a long time to reanimate, like Mudhalvan's wife and the first two soldiers. Why the lack of consistency? Does the zombie curse work like virus, different time spread for different people?
Is Puniya a Secret Naxalite?
Puniya belongs to a village that isn't connected with the rest of the country. Her villagers are seen handling weapons like guns, but they are local ammunition. So it is surprising to see her handle automatic weapons with the ease of an experienced soldier. So what gives? Is she really trained by the Naxalites in the skill of handling sophisticated weapons?
How Did Mudhalvan Get The Better of Ahlu?
Mudhalvan (Jitendra Joshi) is the most antagonistic character even worse than the demon general. And also the most dumb too. Even though he is pure evil, going far as being okay to giving his daughter as sacrifice to the zombies to save his skin, he isn't the physical type. Most of his dirty work is done by the others. So it makes not much sense for him to slyly and swiftly slash the throat of a person, a military person no less, with the precision of an assassin. Ahlu should have seen his treachery from miles, considering she was smart enough to know Tyagi was compromised.
Why Was He Captured in The Cage Near The End?
The totally idiotic Mudhalvan goes into the tunnel alone to coerce Lynedoch into sealing their deal. Instead of killing this moron, the zombie leader keeps him caged for reasons best known to him. Why?
Why Did Lynedoch Sacrifice His Son?
In order to summon the powers of Betaal, Lynedoch sacrifices his son in the tunnel and then goes on to kill the rest of his men, turning them into his undead minions. Later, when his journal is read, it is specified that the sacrifice of a girl who hasn't hit puberty is essential so that Betaal can escape from the tunnel. So when Lynedoch knows that he needed a young girl for sacrifice, why couldn't he take one along with him when he entered the tunnel in the first place? Instead he and his army had to be stuck in tunnel for more than a century before some idiot humans allowed them out.
Can We See A Second Season?
In the end, while Lynedoch and his undead army are killed by the bomb blast (along with Vikram and Mudhalvan). The survivors drive away to civilisation only for them to learn that the destruction of the shrine meant the power of Betaal is unleashed on the world. The final scene sees a slew of ghostly British ships heading to Mumbai. The cliffhanger is pretty amazing, even if rushed. But what does this mean? Are we getting another season? The protagonist is already dead, and with the undead rising everywhere, the show, if it returns for the second season, becomes much bigger than the first one. This is Game of Thrones' 'The Long Night' kinda ambitious stuff, and we really don't think Indian OTT is yet up to that dynamics yet.
Who is Betaal?
Considering it is powerful enough to take over the entire and reanimate the dead a la The Night King, we are pretty curious to know who exactly is this monstrosity. And what made him or her or it trapped in a tunnel? And why did it even need a vessel like Lynedoch to get out of the cave? Can we have a prequel series explaining this please?
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 26, 2020 05:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
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