"Kaise karoge iss bar," Abha asks Avinash at the breakfast table. The question we all had in our minds as we sat down to watch Breathe: Into The Shadows, the second part to the highly successful, Breathe. By the ninth episode of Breathe Into The Shadows, we can breathe a sigh of relief.

Abha (Nithya Menen) and Avinash (Abhishek Bachcha) your picture-perfect couple, with high-paying jobs and a luxurious house. But it is after the sunset, that their demons come crawling out. Their daughter Siya has been missing for eight months, what do you expect? Avinash lets out a disdainful laugh, all the while pondering over the unexpected turn their lives have taken.

Breathe: Into The Shadows isn't related to the first series. But, to understand the mannerisms of Inspector Kabir Sawant (Amit Sadh), and why he is the way he is, you will need to watch the previous series. Kabir is a man of few words, a tough nut to crack, who likes to keep his thoughts to himself. Staying true to his character, Amit is just deliciously miserable in the show. You almost feel like Kabir is an extension of the actor himself. In the previous show, we saw him as a brilliant cop, who turns to alcohol to cope with certain hellish past experiences. Here, however, we see him sober, and probably in love.

Nithya Menen as Abha is a delight to watch. Worrying for the safety of her missing daughter, Nithya's eyes are moist throughout the series. The sense of doubt and guilt never leaves her face. But a mother's got to do what a mother's got to do.





This recap of Amazon Original series Breathe: Into The Shadows episode 1, “Papa’s Princess” contains spoilers. And we’re off ladies and gentlemen, into the faintly bonkers world of Breathe: Into the Shadows. This first episode, “Papa’s Princess”, opens with an ominous kidnapping and the courtroom mental health assessment of a 21-year-old so-called “psycho killer” who may not be as schizophrenic as she claims, but the main purpose of this opener is to introduce family-man psychiatrist Avinash, his wife Abha, and his ill-fated daughter, Siya, who’s going to a party.

Needless to say, Siya is not safe, and she’s taken. Despite police and media involvement and lots of concern, she isn’t found, either, as fruitless months pass and the situation becomes increasingly dire. In the meanwhile, as a reminder of Breathe, we see Kabir getting into a prison fight.



With the setup established in the previous episode, “Filthy” continues from where we left off, with the kidnapper and his supposedly eerie mask watching on as Gayatri tends to Siya, while Avinash and Abha debate their predicament and decide on the next step to take. Will they do the logical thing and go to the police? With Siya’s insulin requirements putting time at something of a premium, chances are that they won’t.

Thus, Avinash starts tailing Pritpal and plotting with Abha, all while theorizing about Siya’s kidnapping and the presence of Gayatri, whose medical experience might mean she’s present to administer Siya’s insulin. Is it complicated enough to require the expertise of a medical professional? Who knows. Let’s just roll with it.


Meanwhile, Kabir is released from prison, feeling rather contemplative, and he’s picked up by Prakash. The two of them are being transferred, presumably from the previous season into this one, for all intents and purposes.



You know how it is – you commit a brutal murder and you expect to hear from the villain who kidnapped your daughter straight away. But no such luck for Avinash and Abha, who are left with the guilt, the media attention, and the nightmares of what they’ve done, but no communication.

Perhaps, though, Siya will be able to free herself, at least if Gayatri has anything to say about it. She’s been working on an escape, presumably for a while, and so when the ‘napper refuses to give them some time outside, it’s cool to see him remain blissfully unaware of this plot.

Breathe: Into the Shadows episode 3 also keeps track of Prakash and Kabir, making for a three-pronged narrative. The police are investigating the crimes Avinash is committing, and Avinash is committing crimes at the behest of the kidnapper, whose captives are planning on making their own escape. Standard stuff.


Just like that, another parcel for Avinash arrives in “Wings and Chains”, just like the one before. And like the previous one, it contains an eerie message and another target, this one a girl by the name of Natasha – at least the killer believes in equality. Natasha has sinned; Pritpal’s sin was anger, hers is lust. This is a played-out theme, but whatever.



The clue’s in the title sometimes, and Breathe: Into the Shadows episode 4 is fittingly about mind games – those being played by the kidnapper with both Avinash and Abha, as well as, in some sense, the losses that continue to haunt Kabir a year on.

Who’d have cause to not just kidnap Avinash’s daughter but torment him in this way? He theorizes perhaps a former patient, which given his career makes some degree of sense. Meanwhile, Kabir goes about his investigation, visiting Meghna, the girl who occupies much of his headspace, and also Avtar, the officer with a foggy memory who was present during Avinash’s time in Pritpal’s house. What, Kabir wonders, is the reasoning behind Pritpal’s bizarre death and the taunting circumstances? He – one imagines correctly – assumes that it’s the first of plenty more to come.




It’s only fitting that “Reflection” opens with Avinash making a very questionable decision since that seems to be the only thing he’s capable of doing. His bright idea now is to work alongside and around the police, visiting Kabir in the hopes of… well, who knows what he’s hoping for, really? The kidnapper’s fixation on the deadly sins suggests plenty more themed murders to come, though, and getting a sense of where the police are with the case makes, I suppose, some degree of sense. But only some.


It’s a race against time for Avinash, really, since his blood on Pritpal’s pen is going to foil his nice-guy act, though he works with Abha to give himself an alibi. Returning to Siya and Gayatri’s escape plan, Breathe: Into the Shadows episode 5 finds their hole close to discover, though they’re able to continue obscuring it for now.




It’s flashback time! No show seems able to suffice without them, and Breathe: Into the Shadows episode 6 enthusiastically leaps backward in time in order to contextualize the big revelation that capped off its previous episode. Thus, “Turning Point” introduces us to young Avinash, orphaned in the wake of an accident, and sent off to boarding school.

Of course, boarding school isn’t fun for Avinash, since it never seems to be for anyone. He’s welcomed by Professor Krishnan but relentlessly bullied by the other kids, which leads to the manifestation of some psychological issues including, unsurprisingly, multiple personality disorder. Of course, all the usual conceits are in full effect here. When the second personality is in control the primary has no idea what they’re up to, which means that Avinash is totally unwise to the machinations of his mysterious alter-ego, “J”, but J is aware of Avinash. He’s kind of like his secret protector, there to defend him from others and himself; a stronger personality less inclined to fear and depression.



The power of the media is in full effect in Breathe: Into the Shadows episode 7, as news of Natasha’s death begins to spread like wildfire and Kabir himself, after being absolved of his guilt by Meghna, finds himself watching it reported second-hand. It isn’t long until he’s given leadership of the case, as the police, now with even more to go on, including Abha’s dopey video, turn their investigation towards the motel.

There in “Relay Race”, they find Abha’s lip balm, which tips off a present Avinash to their closing in on his wife’s involvement – I suppose you could consider his gamble to be paying off here, though of course, the sheer visibility of what’s happening would have probably ensured all of this getting out anyway. No matter. Either way, Avinash gives Abha a right old telling off for her idiocy, before revealing that someone else got to Natasha before he could – he’s unaware, of course, that the someone else is really him, or at least a version of him.



Gayatri and Siya are getting closer and closer to finagling an escape in Breathe: Into the Shadows episode 8, but close isn’t quite far enough. Luckily, though, they have plans for fooling “Bad Uncle”, from whom the episode takes its title, which I suppose is a start.

After tampering with some evidence in the previous installment, Avinash continues to exert some influence over the case, which is obviously in his best interest. But Kabir is switched-on enough that a later meeting with Meghna leads him to a realization – it’s about time someone had one, and this links all the killings together, so fair play to him.




As we rocket towards the end of this woeful season, Breathe: Into the Shadows episode 9, “Lights Out”, shows that Siya and Gayatri’s scheme in the previous episode was fruitful – their note is picked up! They might be back in captivity for now, but it doesn’t seem as though they’ll be there much longer, one assumes to the benefit of all of us.

We’re also reminded that Avi and Abha still have a target, Angad, whose daily routine they go over, but there’s a bit of a complication when Avi sees something of himself in this man of difficult personal demons and hard-fought change. Does he deserve to die? Isn’t it a bit late to be asking this question?

Blimey, how tedious. And things are even worse for the police. Zeba, the force’s public face, takes the brunt of the criticism, but with go-nowhere DNA, tampered evidence, and no real success, they’re a deserved laughing stock. The media have obviously seized on this, as they are wont to do, and I personally find it rather refreshing that the stupidity of this show is being taken to task, even if it is, admittedly, by other, equally stupid elements of the very same show. But whatever.

Amazon Prime’s Breathe: Into the Shadows, a nominal follow-up to 2018’s bizarre Breathe given the ominous subtitle treatment but precious few organic narrative links, is woeful. That isn’t a term I use lightly, you understand, but it’s probably the best one for this ridiculous tale of a man who is forced to become a serial killer in order to rescue his kidnapped daughter. That man, Avinash, played by Abhishek Bachchan, is a thriving psychiatrist with a chef wife, Abha (Nithya Menen), and a diabetic daughter, Siya (Ivana Kaur), who promptly disappears from a friend’s birthday party.