Sacred Games review: bullets, betrayal & belief
"There are three ways of doing things around here: the right way, the wrong way, and the way that I do it," says Robert De Niro in Casino" (1995), as Ace Rothstein. What could be cooler? Gangsters in movies have always fascinated me. For one they don’t do the monotonous and mundane 9 to 5 rigmarole. Power, money, respect, all the excitement and thrill of running around with a gun poised to shoot, and almost always shooting bull’s eye. Just a couple of drawbacks like having to look over your shoulder all the time for all the enemies you have? Never mind.
Having already developed a bitter-sweet taste of violent, gangster flicks such as The Irishman (2019), Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013) No Sudden Move (2021), when I saw Mirzapur [all seasons], I thought I had done my masters in this genre. But then I watched Sacred Games, both seasons, and now I feel I have a doctorate.
In 2019 Sacred Games (SG) was possibly the most popular series on Netflix, their maiden Indian original series which was a clever adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s book of the same name. The lead screenwriter Varun Grover, showrunner Vikramaditya Motwane , and directors Anurag Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan explored the storyline adding perfect masala, validity, credibility and relevance that continues to have global resonance even five years later. Its underlying sociopolitical commentary resonates across the globe, and not just in the subcontinent. It tackled Hindu terrorism, mob lynching, nuclear war and religion exploiting people with dangerous ulterior motives -- all that was real in 2019 and is fascinatingly relevant even in 2024.
To me, SG, a thriller about the nexus between a metropolis’s underworld, police and politicians is a masterpiece. To believe that the prerequisite being that you have gall, guts and gumption to digest the raw grit, the darkness, the violence, gore and the bitter truth that glares at us in the present day’s world rife with increasing hatred and tension between different religious and sectarian groups, amidst fears, mistrust and communal discontent led by political conflict, runs deep in our veins. If you are as addicted to [or afflicted with] this genre as I am, you will love the series that delivers a strong plot and stellar performances — no wonder the show garnered its incredible IMDB rating of 9.4.
Just as in the real world, the series shows how corrupt policemen thrive, honest policemen are forced to lie to protect their jobs, and circumstances always lie behind the actions of people. Likewise, the lead character of Ganesh Gaitonde, is so human, and so born out of the conditions it was nurtured in, that you can’t make up your mind whether he is the hero of the film or the anti-hero. He is just everywhere.
The role of Gaitonde, the most wanted gangster in India could not have fitted anyone better nor be performed better than Nawazuddin Siddiqui. They talk about star aura, brawn, good looks, charisma and screen presence for actors to rule the roost, but Siddiqui is small-sized and scrawny and certainly no eye candy, yet his craft is incredible with which he commands the screen. He is all over and everywhere, and as the show thrills you, it is Gaitonde who with his courage and cunning shoots his way to your heart and you go through every emotion he feels, as he loves, hates, fears, loses and triumphs. Siddiqui delivers his lines with remarkable smoothness and unwavering conviction. Despite his words coming from his twisted, sick, and savage mind, the logic behind his philosophical words becomes clear only if there's a touch of madness within you! If you are not a fan of Nawazuddin Siddiqui yet, you will become a staunch one after watching SG.
If you haven’t seen Being Cyrus and think Saif Ali Khan is an [aging] but a pretty Pataudi, who does glam cinema, you are wrong. It is not easy to be pitched against an actor like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, yet Saif Ali Khan plays Sartaj Singh, a role that is on the other end of the spectrum from Gaitonde.
Singh is a low-ranking, honest cop but somewhat a loser in life. His false testimony in the case of cops killing a teenager is essential to the officers’ getting off. With the morally righteous, and hence tortured Singh running on a misguided path and finally stumbling on the right one, Khan proved his craft even without the dynamism of the pulpy noir role that Siddiqui had. In the 25 days that the characters have in the show, before hell breaks loose in the city, Khan as Sartaj is consistently low-key, yet powerful, his narrowed eyes resembling a tiger on a patient, silent but deadly prowl.
As far as the hell breaking loose is concerned, no spoilers here, but one keeps wondering through the series, if it is a civil war, communal riots or a terrorist attack looming or is it something else. Another Bollywood Khan might have risen above the Sartaj’s character, but Saif does a fine job of being contained within. However, Siddiqui owns the series, as his character is never dull.
In the parallel journey of Sartaj and Gaitonde, these two men from a different time period and starkly different backgrounds and circumstances, are rethinking what their fathers conditioned them to. Both fight their personal wars between nature and nurture in the backdrop of generational conflict.
A lot went wrong and little went right in Gaitonde’s life, to make him the undisputed god of Mumbai’s underworld, with his headquarters in a slum called Gopal Math where he steadfastly disallowed religion to enter as he personally did not give too hoots about religion. Through the season, he rises and rises believing that he is god himself.
What appealed to me most was the vivid portrayal of how devastating is the alliance of politics and religion. The show depicts how religious extremism has always exploited people so that even those who aren’t religious extremists end up demanding that the other community be killed as retribution for the death of their loved ones. Religion holds unmatched power in motivating people to take action. It provides practitioners with a strong influence over the masses, making them easy to sway. Even though they don’t religiously believe in vengeance, yet religious bigots create the desire for vengeance among people so that it dictates their actions. For its boldness on the political front such as severely reprimanding the Gandhi government, the show received criticism from political leaders, and FIRs and cases were filed.
Despite some bad reviews, I found the second season of SG more complex, equally gripping but just a tad stretchy with scenes of psychedelic experiences mainly from the domain of Guruji, a cult leader played by Pankaj Tripathi, who in 2019, we still had to discover as an amazing actor. Guruji double-crosses Gaitonde who represents the brainwashed youth gradually being drawn to modern terrorism. Gaitonde is led to falsely believe a nuclear explosion will herald of the Sat Yuga where gods/truth prevails as the only governing principle. The twisted Guruji believes that the current world needs to be destroyed to make way for a new, purified one. Here, SG disrupts the dominant narrative that Islamic extremists are brainwashing youth around the globe, highlighting Hindu extremism instead, with the driving force ofcourse being religion. Nevertheless, Netflix must have found the globally relevant underlying commentary of the storyline/series viable to work with.
In the second season, having realised that he is no longer the infallible god, he thought he was, Gaitonde is in confrontation with his own legend. He has lost his power and his huge empire, uprooted from his beloved city and packed off to Africa sans his men, and he is not happy.
Despite the nuances of some of the deeper Hindu-Muslim divides that only the audience of the subcontinent would understand, the screen story is timelessly American in its mob-cop-metro theme that it contends with any Martin Scorsese movie, and would appeal to its fans. As bullets rain amidst blood, love, betrayal, religion, daily life, power and politics in the bleak, dark side of a glamourous and modern city, it is all about survival.
Other than brilliant performances, some usual and others unusual, extraordinarily striking plot twists, you marvel at the creative expletives and the glibness with which Siddiqui delivers them.
SG is not just another gangster thriller, it's a visceral exploration of power, faith, and the human condition. It dives deep into the fractured souls of its characters, pulling you into a world where survival comes at a high cost, and choices are always morally grey. The genius of the show lies in its ability to seamlessly merge the personal with the political, blending nail-biting suspense with a biting critique of societal flaws. With Gaitonde’s chilling rise and fall and Sartaj’s complex inner struggle, SG leaves you questioning the very nature of good and evil, and whether anyone can truly escape the gods they create for themselves.