Bandish Bandits season 2 Review: Storytelling takes a good turn, music goes partially reverse

Bandish Bandits season 2 though flawed is much better than season one; but Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s absence is indeed haunting.

Bandish Bandits Season 2 Review

Bandish Bandits

Bandish Bandits Season 2 Review: Plot - Radhe (Ritwik Bhowmik) is now Sangeet Samrat of Jodhpur, and three months after we last met, Pandit Radhemohan Rathod (Naseeruddin Shah) has passed away. A book written by a certain someone creates chaos as the world shames the Rathod legacy for suppressing Mohini’s (Sheeba Chaddha) voice years ago. Radhe now needs to bring the Gharana to the top and clear it of the bad name. Tamanna (Shreya Chaudhry), on the other hand, wants to find her voice and become a musician like Radhe. When an International Band Championship is announced, their paths cross, and the complexities of love unfold parallel to the competition. Will music heal the broken this time? Check out yourself.

Bandish Bandits Season 2 Review: Analysis

Bandish Bandits was one of the biggest shows to have released during the peak pandemic back in 2020. In my r eview for a different portal then, I had written how this broth had the right number of ingredients, that too of the finest quality, and even good books in most departments, but it still lacked a lot. It was a show that was supremely rich but also lazily written because they touched so many conflicts and did not do justice to them, even when some of them met their climax right there. So when creators Anand Tiwari and Amritpal Singh Bindra come back together to make Season 2 of the same show, there is, of course, a lot of reservation. Plus, add to it that the second season doesn't have Shankar Ehsaan Loy leading the music, and that is scary to begin with as a first thought. So will they be able to pull off a season better than the first?

Well, Anand Tiwari and Amritpal Singh Bindra now have a new team of writers with Atmika Didwani, Karan Singh Tyagi, and Hussain Haidry. The best thing that happens to Bandish Bandits (maybe because of the shift in perspective) is that it finally starts looking at things in a more fleshed-out manner. Conflicts now seem difficult; there is so much emphasis on why this situation is life and death. At stake now is not a random trophy given by a man who thinks he is a King in a democratic world. Now we are fighting for acceptance and also our own voice that makes us better singers, and better artists. The shift elevates Bandish Bandits by so many layers because this is no longer about two youngsters fighting over a strained love affair. There is so much backing them both. Conflicts and stories are well intertwined and not separate; they couldn’t survive without each other.

Bandish Bandits gets better with its writing when it chooses to do a counterargument on why the Gharanas need to evolve and branch out in order to bring in the world as audiences and students of it. No one survives inside a fallen King’s court where the same 10 listeners listen and appreciate the same old words. It also flourishes when it writes Mohini with the best pen in sight because it looks at her owning the second season after being in the shadows for most of the first. Her climb to the top is what Bandish Bandits exactly is about and not Radhe and Tamanna for me. She is the lead of this show. Because imagine being suppressed by a promise all these years and finally getting to bloom.

ALSO READ: Bandish Bandits Season 2: Ritwik Bhowmik and Shreya Chaudhry's musical journey to continue on THIS date

Who also wins for a brief bit is Rajesh Tailang, who gets his redemption, and so does Atul Kulkarni. For the most part, Bandish Bandits Season 2 feels fuller and complete. Of course, these storylines were made to find their redemption in future seasons and not the first, but the first didn't even bring most of them halfway, which was the complaint.

However, not everything is merry because Bandish Bandits is still, in many parts, written in very broad strokes. Like the love story between Nandini (Divya Dutta) and Imroz (Arjun Rampal) is beautiful, and you can see the ache, but it is never explored enough to become a highlight this season. So is the stress between the band at Tamanna’s college and her relationships with Ayaan (Rohan Gurbaxani), which is created and resolved so fast that it never really gets to become a danger-level problem. It is always an ‘it will get resolved in the next scene’ situation. This, somewhere, makes the new season of Bandish Bandits dip.

What also makes it dip is Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s absence, which is felt in the gut. Of course, tracks like "Nirmohiya" and "Hichki" are brilliant, and "Araj" is beautiful, but the shelf life of this album doesn't seem as promising as the Season 1 album. The songs do not create a spark in the first viewing like "Garaj Garaj" did, "Labb Par Aaye" did, or even "Chedkhaniyaan." I am writing this review while "Virah" and the "Garaj Garaj Jugalbandi" play in the background on a loop. Ana Rehman and Digijay Singh Pariyar’s (DigV) album is less impactful.

Talking of performances, Ritwik Bhowmik has now gotten into Radhe like a cocoon because he knows exactly where he is supposed to take him, and he does that pretty well. When an actor who is not a professional singer can lip-sync and act on a classical music piece, it is, in itself, a big achievement. Shreya Chaudhry’s Tamanna doesn't grow in a vertical graph, but she stays balanced throughout the season. Sheeba Chaddha owns this season and is such a stellar performer, and so is Rajesh Tailang, who has a very impactful sequence. Atul Kulkarni continues to be unpredictable. Divya Dutta is poetic, and there is no way she is going wrong there, plus, for someone who dreams of playing Amrita Pritam, she gets a lover named Imroz this time.

Bandish Bandits Season 2 Review: Final Verdict

Even with the flaws, Bandish Bandits Season 2 is far better than the first season, with writing that takes a good start, but the music goes haywire in Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s absence.

Bandish Bandits Season 2 hits Amazon Prime Video on December 13, 2024. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.

ALSO READ: Bandish Bandits: Divya Dutta joins Ritwik Bhowmik and Shreya Chaudhary - Here's a complete cast guide

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