Abhay (Season 3) review: Kunal Kemmu is impressive in this predictable crime drama

Zee5's Abhay is a rare Hindi crime web-series to have a third season. Each of the previous two seasons brought to light different kinds of crimes instead of focusing on one particular offence. The third season follows the same template.

The latest season revolves around Abhay Pratap Singh (Kunal Kemmu), a senior officer of the Lucknow police. Abhay is an introvert who does not speak much or show emotion, but he is known to be ruthless when it comes to dealing with criminals. He heads the STF (special task force) set up to deal with serious offences.

The third season begins with Abhay and his team, consisting of Khushboo (Nidhi Singh) and others, being given the task of nabbing a serial killer. Meanwhile, a non-resident Indian couple (Tanuj Virwani and Divya Agarwal), who are Instagram influencers with a huge fan following in India, are set to perform a secret task; something they have been doing for a while.

Just when Abhay and his team feel they have solved the case, a weird-looking man who walks like an animal starts wreaking havoc in the city by killing innocents with his teeth. The story also features another ruthless serial killer Avtar (Rahul Dev) and Anant aka Mrityu (Vijay Raaz), who runs a shady ashram where he provides people mukti (salvation).

Like the previous two seasons, this one, too, scores high marks on the technical front. The colour grading and creative camerawork always produce interesting visuals which keep the viewer engaged. The background score is impressive. too. as it changes with the situation and does not resort to mindless repetition. The other positive aspect here is the fast-paced screenplay.

However, the show itself is quite disappointing. When a web-show advances, one expects the newer seasons to be bigger or better than the previous one. If nothing else, one certainly hopes the newer seasons offer something different.

But Abhay fails to do any such thing. The best one can say about the third season is that it is decent. The problem is that all three seasons so far have followed the same format with the same set of positive characters. Hence, like the second season, the third one is also predictable. The cops solve various cases in the same tried-and-tested manner and the season moves ahead exactly how one expects it to.

You may well turn around and point out that this season explores an unusual case involving an ashram. But there isn’t clarity on why the people running the ashram have such weird ideologies towards life and how they fool people so easily into becoming their followers. There is also a question mark on how they are able to operate openly without the authorities or anyone else noticing. The show also does not provide proper closure to the subplot featuring the character of Natasha (Elnaaz Norouzi).

Kunal Kemmu’s performance is one of the biggest positive points for the show. He consistently gets into the skin of Abhay, expressing himself subtly through facial expressions and body language. But the character of an introvert who does not speak much or betray his emotions is beginning to become uninteresting now. It was okay till the second season.

Nidhi Singh carries on with her good performance. Despite some issues with his character, Vijay Raaz is easily the best performer this season. His intensity coupled with his dialogues and delivery are sure to win the viewer over. Rahul Dev is also impressive as a calm and calculative killer.

All in all, Abhay (Season 3) certainly has a few things going for it, but there are no surprises.

Abhay (Season 3) is streaming on Zee5.