Indian television series
Beyhadh 2 (transl. Extreme 2) is an Indian revenge television drama series which aired from 2 December 2019 to 31 March 2020 on Sony TV. It starred Jennifer Winget, Shivin Narang and Ashish Chaudhary.
Plot
Maya Jaisingh, internationally best-selling author, plans to destroy her biggest enemy Mrityunjay "MJ" Roy, to avenge the atrocities committed by him 10 years ago. She plans to get revenge from those who betrayed her using Rudra and Rishi, MJ’s sons.
Maya starts by saving Rishi from drowning, who falls for her while she tricks Rudra to accept her offer to publish her latest book, Beyhadh. Rudra takes an instant dislike to Maya. Elsewhere Maya manipulates Rishi to propose to her. Rudra's business partner, Ananya, loves him, but he considers her only as a friend.
MJ's facade of a loving husband is exposed when he threatens and mistreats Antara. He invites Rudra's investor to his Masquerade party, but Rajiv Chandra, Maya's accomplice, introduces himself as the investor, saving Maya. Elsewhere, Rudra falls for Maya after she helps him get his company's share from MJ. It is revealed that MJ had an affair with Rudra's girlfriend. Thus he hates him.
Maya urges Rishi to ask MJ regarding their wedding, but he refuses to listen. Maya takes advantage of it and tricks Rishi into slitting his wrist to convince MJ of their wedding. Rishi does so and dies. MJ vows to kill Rishi's murderer but kills Myra, who was Manas's girlfriend. Maya sees MJ occasionally and is constantly frightened as she recognised his footsteps, but she tries to remain strong to avenge herself. Later, MJ asks Rudra and Ananya to marry. Elsewhere, Maya plans to kill him and tricks him into following her to Rishikesh. Maya and Rudra realise their love for each other and tie the wedding knot. The Roys were left shocked when he introduces Maya as his wife.
Later, Maya recalls her nasty past (10 years ago) wherein Manvi Singh (Maya's original identity) was betrayed by MJ, whom she had an affair with and promised to marry. Still, after learning she is pregnant, he tortured her with his partners (which resulted in her miscarriage) and threw her into a muddy pit, but she still survives. Manvi was close with Antara, Diya and Aamir, but they betrayed her and helped MJ ruin Manvi’s life. MJ also killed Maya's brother Manas with the help of goons, leaving Nandini to suffer from amnesia who gained consciousness after 7 years.
Back in the present, Maya knocks outs Diya and traps MJ to send her to a mental hospital. Later, MJ gets evidence confirming that Maya is Rishi's murderer. He gives the same to Rudra. Later, MJ and Maya shoot each other.
Few days later
Maya is shown to be suffering from memory loss and meets a psycho stranger Vikram Jaisingh, who wants to get her, but she doesn't recognize him. Vikram gets some edited photos in Maya's house and claims to be her husband.
Later, it is revealed that it was Vikram who saved Manvi and took her to his house. Then, Vikram proposes marriage which she accepts but only gets a new "Maya Jaisingh". So, after their marriage, she escapes with important papers. She finds Nandini and helps her start a new life. She becomes a writer whose books becomes internationally famous for the next 3 years. In between, she meets Rajeev Chandra (whose company was destroyed by MJ) to devise her revenge.
At present, Rudra vows to kill Maya and is constantly searching for her. Vikram kills Rajeev. Later, frustrated by Vikram, Nandini cuts her wrist and dies, helping Maya recover her memories, and she decides to manipulate Vikram to defeat MJ and reunite with Rudra.
Production
Beyhadh 2 is a spiritual successor of 2016 series of Beyhadh starring Jennifer Winget, Kushal Tandon, Aneri Vajani The first promo was released on 1 October 2019, featuring Winget as Maya Jaisingh.[1]
Talking about the show, Winget said, "In Beyhadh, Maya was looking for love and was hungry for Arjun's attention. But in Beyhadh 2, Maya is back with an agenda and she has hatred in her mind. Everyone wanted to know, who Maya is in the first season but now everyone is aware of the lengths Maya can go to get her things done".[2]
Due to the COVID-19 lockdown in India, on 20 April 2020, the show was cancelled by the channel along with two other shows, Patiala Babes and Ishaaron Ishaaron Mein. A producer, Prateek Sharma, conceded to the network's actions, describing them as being "in the best interest of all the concerned parties, including producer, actors, writers and the rest of the crew". In a statement to Times of India, the channel stated that production on the shows stopped in March, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They noted that the Beyadh 2 narrative was "time-bound", and the Covid delay made it difficult for the network to finish telling the series' story to the end.[3]
Reception
Times Of India stated, "The plot of the show is intriguing and fast-paced. The sequence of events is well-aligned and it makes for an interesting watch. What stands apart is the outstanding cinematic visuals, something that the viewers were also a witness to in the first season. The background score adds to the mystery element".[4]
