Cast: Aftab Shivdasani, Raai Laxmi, Pooja Chopra, Rahul Dev, Vin Rana, Zain Iman, Asmita Sood, Gaurav Sharma, Taher Shabbir, Sakshi Pradhan, Joy Sengupta, Pawan Chopra

Director: Vishal Pandya

Rating: ****

Platform: ZEE5

Crime-Thriller web-series or films always take us to the world of guessing what will happen next, and ZEE5's Poison 2 is all about that. With the new season and new players, it's a full package of heist-thriller and all about the revenge that picks up some threads from season 1 but not wholly connected to the previous one, so it's not mandatory to watch the first part to understand the second one.

The story is full of plotting, twists, and deceives. It starts with the diamond robbery case in which Jaiveer (Karan Veer Mehra) got arrested. A boy from a middle-class family and a true to form, who has everything perfect - family, friends, girlfriend, and a good career further. Unfortunately, it's until he and his father are blamed for a diamond heist and packed off to jail. This insult becomes the reason for his father to commit suicide, and the mother goes into a coma. He's one of the members of the team 'JOSH' (Jaiveer, Oscar, Sara, Harsh), a group of four friends. After five years of this robbery incident, three members of JOSH - Sara (Raai Laxmi), her husband, Harsh (Zain Imam), and Sara's brother, Oscar (Vin Rana) opened their own big company in Goa, named 'Josh'. But after a long time span, a person with some motive enters in their life and that is not other than Aditya Singh (Aftab Shivdasani) who by winning the stakes at the racecourse, leaves the Josh company dumbfounded. From here the story begins where you'll find the actual story behind his identity and motive behind his moves.

Moving further with the episodes, you'll find other characters too in the story in prominent roles who indirectly connected with each other. And the story is all revolving around three major things: Diamonds, Race Course and Gold.

As a director, Vishal Pandya has done a commendable job by screening the story in a way it should be. With a lot of characters, it becomes a little difficult to make things clear to the audience and he did it well. In fact, if we talk about the editing part then, every episode starts with a flashback of the year 2015 and the further story revolves around that only. So, it's easy to get the point where the story is going. But, yes, at some points in the starting episodes, the pace is quite fast where scene one after another is changing like a blink of an eye. For instance, those hot love scenes, it occurs where there is no need and you'll feel like it's not necessary at this time and also ends like this only. Though, the overall direction and editing, in terms of understanding and grabbing the interest of the audience is so well-done.


Written by Rehan Khan, the story is well defined and you'll not feel that anyone is doing anything but, it's all a well-planned tale that has every logic behind everything. Plus, the background music is also amazingly composed and matches the theme of the series.

You'll find the events of the past that unfolds slowly with the moving episode, to make you feel like 'What will happen next' and the most amazing thing about the series is, it brings together a plot of revenge filled with deceit, passion, rage, and redemption, very beautifully. As the plot unfolds, episode by episode, the hidden agendas of each of the characters are revealed leaving us even more intrigued than before.

Some series are very predictable even in the name of thriller, but unlike them, Poison 2 sticks to its genre till the end. And you'll find what's the relation between Aditya & Jaiveer.

The acting of all the actors is superb, either in negative or in positive roles. It's an OTT debut of Aftab and he nailed it as Aditya by justifying his role with perfect expressions, perfect emotions and perfect cunningness. Not only Aftab but Zain Imam and Vin Rana also act so well. Apart from team Josh, there are many important characters also like Tina (Asmita Sood) who is the best friend of Aditya and helps him every time, but what's the real relation of them that's also you'll find in the folds of past. Though Pooja Chopra as Isha (sister of Jaiveer), she gives the mixed outcomes in the role as her emotional scenes are justified but get weak in the scenes where she has to be tough. Another standout performance is delivered by actor Raai Laxmi as Sara, who's the owner of 'Josh' company and can do anything to complete her dreams.

With the multiple layers to their personalities, every character plays according to the circumstances. The whole series is neatly packed into tension, mystery, drama, danger and lust. Therefore, if you are a fan of crime thrillers, book yourself for viewing of Poison 2 this coming weekend.