Breathe: Into the Shadows Review: Abhishek Bachchan & Nithya Menen attempt to carry a shabbily written show

Series Name: Breathe: Into The Shadows

Breathe: Into the Shadows Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Nithya Menen, Amit Sadh, Saiyami Kher, and Shruti Bapna

Breathe: Into the Shadows Director: Mayank Sharma

Imagine you are learning how to ride a bicycle. Your parent/partner is holding on to your cycle as you find your balance. You finally hold your centre and you request the person to let go. But the person refuses to oblige. You plea but you finally give up and just follow the lead. That's exactly how I feel while watching Breathe: Into the Shadows. It takes the series four episodes for the director to let go of the viewer's hand and ride into the plot. The Amazon Prime Original series sees Abhishek Bachchan and Nithya Menen debut on the online streaming platform while Amit Sadh makes a return to the franchise.

*WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD*The new season follows the same outline. A father goes above and beyond for the sake of his child. In this case, Avinash (played by Abhishek) leaves no task undone to save his daughter, who is kidnapped and safeguarded for nine months. The masked kidnapper forces Avi and Abha (played by Nithya), into ending a few lives in return for their daughter Siya.

The drama strays far away from the OG series featuring R Madhavan. In the new season, psychiatrist Avi deals with his inner demon, instead of being driven by emotions as seen in the first season. The inner demon in this scenario is J, a split personality who lives in Avi's head sans his knowledge. The alter ego forces Avi and Abha into committing the crimes while Avi doesn't seem to be aware of it.

J channels the ten qualities of Raavan, as taught by his pseudo father aka Avi's school principal, to zero down on his prey. Associating lust, anger and other emotions, J takes revenge against all those people who harmed Avi. While the concept looks good on paper, the execution fails to hit the mark. Let's start with Avi vs J. The biggest issue with both the characters - although played by the same star - is that there are no differences between the two. They are supposed to be "split" meaning two different personalities.

Instead, the writers resorted to a mere limp, a jacket and a change in attitude to portray the change in behaviour. Movies like Split, Frankie & Alice or for that matter even Anniyan (dubbed as Aparichit The Stranger in Hindi) would have given them enough material for references.

The lack of differentiation results in Abhishek being underutilized. We've seen him juggle two different personalities in a movie like Bol Bachchan. (I know, I could have given a better example but that's the first movie that crossed my mind.) Thus, proving that it would have been a challenge he would have taken up with pride. The script fails him for the story goes haywire as the director trying to layer the past and present is not blending with ease. The story also failed Nithya Menen for that matter.

With minimal character growth available for the actress, she has presented her best in the minimal experimental space she was given. There are scenes where she overshadows Abhishek with her life like pain over losing her daughter, proving she was a great casting choice. Apart from her emotional scenes, I bow down and applaud Nithya to have agreed to a particularly bold scene in the movie. Not many mainstream actresses would step up for that scene. It reminded me of Nivin Pauly's similarly bold step with Moothon. They are truly changing the way we see cinema.

Coming back to Breathe: Into The Shadows, Amit Sadh was one of the returning actors from the first season. The actor shined against Madhavan in the first round. But the second season hasn't offered him anything juicy. He did deliver a good performance but I was left asking for more. Sayami Kher was another star that was underutilised.

The pace is lethargic, the least to say. Given the linear graph of storytelling, lack of establishment in subplots, and the attempt to hide the big twist long enough, the viewer is lost and disinterested after a point. Had the series stayed to the OG 8 episodes format, it would have served as a gripping tale. The music managed to keep the plot together but it doesn't take the series too far.

Breathe: Into the Shadows comes at a time when viewers are consuming OTT content from across the world with edge-of-the-seat thrillers available in abundance on various platforms. Given the options, Breathe: Into the Shadows is going to struggle to keep viewers hooked.

Final Verdict: The concept of Breathe: Into the Shadows is intriguing but the lack of substance to explore and leisure pace acts like a spoilsport. There are a few edge-of-the-seat moments that pop up a couple of times to entice the viewer but the uneven storytelling shove those moments into the shadows faster than you think.