Breathe Into the Shadows Season 1 Complete Audience Review
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Breathe Review after seeing all the episodes of Breathe Season 1
Rating ★★★☆☆ Ability to churn you ★★★★★ 🤪Dialogues ★★★☆☆ 🤯Acting ★★★★☆🤩Cinematography/ shots ★★☆☆☆ 😊
For starters, if killing someone who has nothing to do with the kidnapping of your child to save the little one puts you in a moral soup, then apparently the previous series with the talented actor R.Madhavan (also on a similar plot) is going to make you uncomfortable. For desserts, watching the former does not seem necessary as Breathe into the Shadows is a completely different story.
Can I understand Breathe into the Shadows (Breathe 2) if I haven't watched Breathe 1?
Hell Yeah. I haven't watched Breathe 1. And looks like, there is no connection with Breathe 2 other than Amit Sadh and the premise of killing to save your child.
Breathe Into the Shadows Review
Acting ★★★★☆🤩
You really can't even wait for the two-second warning Amazon gives you before jumping to the next episode, primarily because of the actors' work. The overall theme was subtle and realistic. Abhishekh A. Bachchan playing the stoic, practical, silently questioning morality, (only sometimes), as the crime investigation helper psychiatrist doctor Avinash is convincing. Amit Sadh's Kabir is subtly unpredictable and gripping. Meghna (Plabita Borthakur) was a breath of fresh air in the already grim tale.
Ability to churn you ★★★★★😵😱😨
Oh, it sure does churn you! I felt Breathe Into the Shadows does not even want you to be rational. This is not one of those tales where morality is even a question. As an audience, agreeing to step into the dark, deep, grim shadows of the world of BREATHE, you have already bought the franchise that you will kill to save your kid. So, once we gulp that, we move on. You have to operate within the rules of the virtual reality world you're in. I know, I know, it is quite unsettling. But that seems to be the very motive of BREATHE, anyways. It operates on an edge. And keeps you on the edge.
After a few episodes, you're not even concerned who the next target is or how they will kill or even get away with murder but the logic behind each target is what churns your insides, keeping you on the edge of your seat, clicking on next episode again and again. You're dying to know why.
Cinematography/ shots ★★☆☆☆ 🙄😨
If you know me, you know, I am not a fan of dimly lit movies. Guess they took the name too literally. So, we breathe into the Shadows. The style of filmmaking for BREATHE is as poor lighting as humanely possible. Which, also makes it extremely realistic. We have been fed a lot of cinematic experience with fancy soft lights, but when have you ever seen a road in the night lit as you'd see in a film?
NEVER.
Especially the Episode Lights Out is genuinely the chaos that will happen in low light, portrayed absolutely realistic to the point, you feel you're there, in one of those corridors, looking for a flashlight.
And coming back to the actual real world, I had to constantly check the brightness on my device is still at maximum or not as it was becoming more and more impossible to see. Now, that's exactly the paradoxical risk, that has made filmmakers have unrealistic lighting for centuries. Because when you spend that much money you want the damn thing to be visible. But the story plot was such, the darkness did add to the mystery.
When you mentioned BREATHE, Color saturation and warmth have already left the chat.
It makes you feel the devoid, deprived, longing world of being left out in Nainital Boarding School (The movie COLOR of Paradise and Christmas Carol, comes to mind).
Cinematographer S. Bharathwaaj was also behind BREATHE.
Realistic ★★★★★🤩
Have I said Breathe Into the Shadows "looks" realistic? Yes, this deserved a category due to the choice of wardrobe and makeup. Director Mayank Sharma is playing no jokes here. The entire cast is flaunting dark circles. The medical student (Resham Shrivardhankar) looked as real as one you'd see in your neighborhood. Even the lady SI Crime Branch Zeba madam, was the truest to life cop you'd see, worn out and tired. Only Shirley escaped with the glam, due to her role, but she was also seen absolutely non-glam when she wasn't on the job. Nithya Menen's wardrobe again seemed believable and her lip balm obsession is also something clearly picked from real-life people. Shruti Bapna, the stylish one in the whole season, also had quite an odd makeup, but a made-up face on her book launch as if she did it herself. Every single character that came on screen blew my mind, on the level of no-makeup and authentic outfit decisions taken.
Plot 🤫
Now once you have decided to leave morality out the window, you have hopped on to the ride called BREATHE. Psychiatrist Avinash and his chef wife Abha are not asked for ransom for over 48 hours and Avinash seems practical enough to realise he might have just already lost his daughter. Months pass by and then, they get proof of the little Siya being alive. Now to save their daughter Siya (who also needs about four doses of Insulin in a day), they must fulfill the kidnapper's wish to randomly kill some people after evoking certain emotions in them. Ermmmm why?
Well, that why is the point of it all.
Anything beyond this will need spoilers. Trust me, a lot of spoilers. 🤐
The concept of Ravana 👹was cool, with the emotions being either the weakness or the strength and that changes everything
We had to discuss in order to get some perspective. I guess, till the time the kidnapper saw the ten heads of Ravana as strengths, he accepted these vices in all people, forgiving them in a way. But the moment, he felt it was weakness, he wanted to send a message to the world by punishing for being human, for having these emotions. Abhishekh A. Bachchan having played Raavana before, it was weirdly familiar. But this does pose a very important and urgent question for us?
What are we doing as a society in promoting songs like: Raavan, Raavan hoon main?
Of course, he had his intelligence and he knew all the vedas, but what use is the knowledge if there is ahankaar (pride)?
C-16 is the cliffhanger, the worst cliff hanger they could leave us with.
C-16 could be the hotel where J was meeting the girl. But of course, it can also be the number of J's ward from where he is planning his escape. This clearly hints at a season 2 of Breathe Into the Shadows with the exact same story and characters going forward.
Oh, hell naw. Although we see Avinash really trying to convince his wife that he has undergone therapy for 3 years and is completely ok now, he's clearly not. Avinash's J has not actually left him but definitely controlled him even more that he meets Shirley and gives the note C-16 to help him escape.
Abhishekh A Bachchan is clearly the protagonist. Amit Sadh deals with his madness. Siya may have grown up now because they're possibly hinting at time leap.
Shirley is definitely there because she's J's love interest and only friend in the real world. She is going to help him escape from C-16. Chances are season 2 will exactly open at that cliff hanger where they left us in Breathe Into the Shadows Season 1