Film Review: Sacred Games
“Based on Vikram Chandra’s 2006 thriller novel of the same name and touted to be the first Indian original series from Netflix, the eight episodes have Saif Ali Khan as the scornful cop, Sartaj Singh, coerced and frustrated by his superiors, on the trail of top crime lord and gangster Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddique).
The first of the hour-long episodes has Gaitonde delivering a chilling ultimatum to Singh, “the entire city of Mumbai would be wiped out in 25 days,” besides the former’s rise to g(l)orydom.The subsequent episodes would undoubtedly have backstories in addition to the reason behind Gaitonde personally seeking out Singh.
The series is directed by Vikramaditya Motwane (Udaan, Trapped) and maverick Anurag Kashyap (Black Friday, Gangs of Wasseypur) who began his career writing the screenplay of ‘Satya’. Nawazuddin is his usual brilliant self while Radhika Apte as RAW analyst Anjali Mathur hasn’t much to do in the first episode. Production values are sleek and the short runtime of one hour ensures the viewer’s sustained interest. But if you cannot stand extreme profanities and violence, you should look around for other sources of entertainment.
