Entertaining, punchy and well-written script

Rating: 4.5/5

Season 1 of ‘Pushpavalli’, starring Sumukhi Suresh, was a treat. Last week, eight episodes of season 2, directed by Debbie Rao, was released on Amazon Prime Video and it’s a sigh of relief that the show was still worth the watch.

While season 1 saw Pushpavalli (Sumukhi) trying to win Nikhil’s (Manish Anand) love by extensively stalking him and jeopardising her own safety and of everyone else around her, season two sees her take it up a notch.

It starts off with Pushpavalli decked up for her engagement with Vidyuth (Vidyuth Gargi) but when no one’s looking, she still has plans to “take revenge” on Nikhil for rejecting her.

There are a lot of recaps within season 2 that you don’t feel like you’ve missed out on important points. It’s also a reminder for Pushpavalli to not give up on her plan.

But she does it all by giving out the image of a changed person who is completely in love with her fiance and family, and dedicated employee at the children’s library. She’s not the only one who changed though.

While Pankaj (Naveen Richards) is still the angry, foul-mouthed owner of the children’s library, he’s finally in a relationship with Swati (Preetika Chawla). As rude and disrespectful as he seems, his father-like affection for Pushpavalli is shown quite often, which of course, she takes advantage of.

T Boi (played brilliantly by Ashok Pathak), who used to give Pushpavalli information about Nikhil, starts questioning her psycho character. He still does everything ⁠— from getting her poisonous substance to ruin Nikhil’s okra company to fixing the CCTV she had installed ⁠— whenever asked for.

Special shoutout to the landlady Vasu (Shraddha) and her roommates for tackling dark humour like no other. Vasu’s comic timing is impeccable and she may just be the best thing to happen on the show.

As problematic as Pushpavalli’s character is, one can’t help but sympathise with her sad state of life. She gets thrown out the PG and has to live under the bed of her former roommates. Nikhil finally takes notice of her for being the funny and generous person she is but he’s also doing it because she feels bad for her. She’s always abused by Pankaj for just wanting to be her. Her close ones continue to body shame her which also makes her very scared to get intimate with Vidyuth. The sympathies go on to many other things, but then you also think how messed up she is.

Season two of ‘Pushpavalli’ definitely keeps you hooked and that shows in the scriptwriting. It’s punchy, entertaining and tightly written. At the end of the final episode, all I wanted was season three also to be released. Who was it who got hurt in the blast — Pankaj, T Boi or Nikhil? Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out.