Breathe Into The Shadows Review: Abhishek Bachchan holds this new web series together

"Kaise karoge iss bar," Abha asks Avinash at the breakfast table. The question we all had in our minds as we sat down to watch Breathe: Into The Shadows, the second part to the highly successful, Breathe. By the ninth episode of Breathe Into The Shadows, we can breathe a sigh of relief.

Abha (Nithya Menen) and Avinash (Abhishek Bachcha) your picture-perfect couple, with high-paying jobs and a luxurious house. But it is after the sunset, that their demons come crawling out. Their daughter Siya has been missing for eight months, what do you expect? Avinash lets out a disdainful laugh, all the while pondering over the unexpected turn their lives have taken.

As humans, we are prone to feel and feel strongly. We pay the price of running the rat race and facing the wrath of the unkind world, only to return to our safe haven, our home, to our loved ones. They are our tonic, who give us the strength to carry on with the fight. When this tonic is taken away from us, we have no choice but to raise hell to find it. A 6-year-old Siya, who goes missing after a birthday party, is Avinash and Abha's tonic. After eight months, the abductor calls them, but not for ransom. He wants them to carry out murders.

The love that a parent feels for their child knows no bounds, and thus, why should there be any limit to how far one can go to protect their own flesh and blood. Director Mayank Sharma understands this emotion, and both his series Breathe Part 1 and Breathe Into The Shadows are proof.

In the first series, we saw R Madhavan go on a killing spree to save his dying son. In the second series, Abhishek, a psychiatrist by profession, is forced to turn a murderer to get his daughter safely back.

So is that all that's new? By the first four episodes, you might feel the show has a predictable storyline, but don't jump to conclusions yet. This 12-episode series is a ride worth taking. Mayank just sets the base in the first four episodes, the real game starts after that. The director and his writers have woven this series intricately, with each thread, each loop clearly visible.

Like a patient teacher, Mayank explains every part to his audience. Sub-plots, that might feel irrelevant in the beginning, play a key role in the ending. Much like a Venn diagram, where every overlapping region has one centre, everything falls in place in this series.

Breathe: Into The Shadows isn't related to the first series. But, to understand the mannerisms of Inspector Kabir Sawant (Amit Sadh), and why he is the way he is, you will need to watch the previous series. Kabir is a man of few words, a tough nut to crack, who likes to keep his thoughts to himself. Staying true to his character, Amit is just deliciously miserable in the show. You almost feel like Kabir is an extension of the actor himself. In the previous show, we saw him as a brilliant cop, who turns to alcohol to cope with certain hellish past experiences. Here, however, we see him sober, and probably in love.

Nithya Menen as Abha is a delight to watch. Worrying for the safety of her missing daughter, Nithya's eyes are moist throughout the series. The sense of doubt and guilt never leaves her face. But a mother's got to do what a mother's got to do.

Our protagonist, Abhishek Bachchan, is at the centre of Mayank's intertwined Venn diagram, if you will. Being a father himself, Abhishek understands the joys of having a child around and the acute pain that parents feel by the mere thought of losing them. His fatherly instincts, along with the fury in his eyes to save his daughter at all costs, come screaming to us through his performance.

Abhishek exudes both calmness and madness though his role, and the actor flips between these two emotions seamlessly. Abhishek made his digital debut with this role, and there is no doubt that he made a good choice.

If you have watched the first season of Breathe and were impressed by the show's writing, hold your breath and start watching Breathe: Into The Shadows. Because it just gets better.

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