'Human Beings Are Like Trees, We Keep Growing Till...' (6

'Your relationship with your child is changing every single day, ditto your relationship with your parents.'

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What makes interviewing Gul Panag always interesting is that she will never duck a bouncer or play a ball quietly to the covers. She is honest, straightforward and fearless, giving her 100 per cent to everything she does, be it running a half-marathon, flying a plane, campaigning for elections, running an enterprise or playing a character who is the polar opposite of her. Season Two of the Amazon Prime Video series, Paatal Lok, sees her play Renu, the wife of Jaideep Ahlawat’s Inspector Hathiram Chaudhury. The actress says, “In our patriarchal society, there is a Renu in every middle-class household but we don’t realise this till she holds up the mirror.”

Not just Hathiram Chaudhary, even his wife Renu has struck a chord with the audience in Season Two of Paatal Lok. What would you attribute this growing empathy to?

Well, like an average homemaker, Renu’s life too has so far revolved around her husband, Hathiram, who is never around, and her son, Siddharth aka Siddhu, who has gone off to college, leaving her alone and lonely, grappling with the ‘empty nest’ syndrome. There was always a gap between Hathiram and her which in Season One was filled by the child. The core of any married couple is how they raise the next generation and, in this case, since both Hathiram and Renu were on opposite ends of the spectrum, the relationship was fraught with conflict.

But that’s changing now, right?

Yes, they may still not be on the same page but now, we see a consensus building. There’s a newfound maturity even in Renu who, towards the end of Season Two, is open to the idea of meeting her son’s girlfriend which signals that the relationship is evolving. Professionally, Hathiram is still where he was in Season One but personally, the inspector has grown.