The second episode of Tandav begins right where the previous one left off. Samar Pratap Singh and Ayesha are cleaning up the crime scene. Ayesha panics - are there any stains left? The window was open, did someone see?

Samar tells her to calm down and just then Devki Singh’s phone rings. It is Anuradha calling him back. 

Samar Pratap Singh ensures that any evidence of his crime has been eradicated. He then calls a top news channel NNN and informs them about Devki Singh’s demise. News spreads like wildfire - the party that is coming to power has lost their leader. The nation is in shock, international press is reporting it and everyone has the same question in their mind - What happens next?

Elsewhere, the students from VNU are scared that their friend Imran will not be released and will be murdered in jail. They realise that they need to create buzz in the media. So they go to NNN with the story of the Malakpur protest but they are turned down. The people of India are mourning the loss of Devki Nandan Singh. This story will die with a whimper. 

Samar is standing over his father’s chair and admiring it as a seat of power for himself. I’m getting proper Game of Thrones vibes here. Samar with his right hand man starts figuring out how he will manage his soon-to-be new position. He’s already brainstorming on how to divide ministries, manage constituencies. He does this on the way to his father’s funeral. Devki Nandan is given a proper hero’s salute and against the backdrop of this exalted ceremony, Samar cries a few crocodile tears lamenting the demise of his father. 

He then holds court with Gopal Das in the same room where he murdered his father. We see a shot of a chessboard - political games are being set up and played. Gopal Das comes at him in the offensive. Gopal Das knows that Samar can’t make Prime Minister without his support. So Gopal Das says that he will go along with Samar’s bid for Prime Minister as long as a few of his demands are met. Samar refuses to engage, instead leaning on the fact that he is still grieving. He tells Gopal Das that he will abide by the party decisions and he need not worry. This melts Gopal Das into a pool of tears, his politician demeanour relaxes and he feels like he can begin grieving for his friend. What a shrewd move by Samar Pratap Singh! By deflecting this way, he has bought himself time to plan his next move and figure out a way to diffuse Gopal Das as a threat. 

Samar then goes to another senior party leader named Vikram Singh. He offers the Railway ministry in exchange for some drama. Vikram Singh is eager to please. After all, Railway is a highly sought after ministry. He goes on the record saying that Gopal Das has coveted him for support for being a Prime Minister. Then somewhere in the back of beyond, a fake IT centre who’s job is to make conversations trend on Twitter, frame Gopal Das as a greedy, insensitive politician. The hashtag #GopalDasChorHai trends everywhere. This “trending” frenzy translates into actual party workers rioting and mobbing Gopal Das at his own home. Gopal Das being shrewd himself realises that he is being framed. 

Back at VNU, the students are figuring out how to get their story about Malakpur traction in the media. They decide to take a leaf out of the cops’ playbook. They re-enact the farmer’s protest, except this time, they make sure to take lots of videos and post them up on social media to the chant of Aazaadi. It’s an interesting comment on society - it’s certainly not okay to fake violence, but is it alright to re-create violence in an effort to raise awareness? While the show raises this question, it certainly doesn’t answer it. Instead the one thing that’s clear is that social media trials and trends matter more than reality - both in the case of the VNU storyline as well as in the Gopal Das storyline. 

Coming back to Samar - he pours his heart out to his dead father’s body. He is resentful about being held back, not given his due, about having Anuradha and her son Raghu as a pseudo family in his life. It is clear that he does not care about anyone except himself (and perhaps his wife Ayesha). He heads back to the room and watches the farmers’ protest getting traction. Shiva Shekhar, the leader of this agitation from VNU is now on Samar’s radar. 

As Gopal Das pulls into Devki Niwas to attend his friend’s funeral, he is once again mobbed by crowds. In anger and frustration, he steps out and tells the media that a false narrative has been painted about him. He is not interested in the Prime Minister position and will not be making a bid for it.

And thus Samar has removed his biggest threat…or so he thinks!

As Samar sets fire to his father’s pyer, he is smug. He has finally won. Except…his father’s mistress Anuradha, hugs him. While doing so, she lets him know that she is aware that Devki Nandan was murdered. She has proof that he was poisoned by his son but she will stay silent. Her one condition, however, is that Samar will use his IT centers to make the following trend the next day:

#AnuradhaIsOurPM

You go girl! Samar was so busy focusing on Gopal Das, he didn’t realise that his true competition was Anuradha. She knows so much more than she has let on - about the murder, Samar's ambitions and even the IT centers that targeted Gopal Das. The real question is - How does she know all these things? The political game is heating up and I can't wait to watch the next episode.

Episode Rating: 4/5