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Drugs, religion & politics: Sacred Games Season 2 doesn’t paint a rosy picture of India

Like the first season of Sacred Games, the second season too has some really powerful women — but they are mere catalysts in the men’s lives.

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The second season of the Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Saif Ali Khan-starrer Sacred Games on Netflix is Season 1 on drugs — literally and metaphorically. What other recent Indian show has been able to combine Partition, ISIS, lynching, Afghanistan, corrupt home ministers, an Arnab Goswami-lookalike, nuclear threat, Mombasa and Mumbai?

The credit clearly goes to Varun Grover and the team of writers for the brilliant adaptation and editor Aarti Bajaj for making every scene meaningful. Taut storytelling that almost resembles a Persian rug — for the number of plots and characters it weaves together — and nuanced editing make for an intriguing watch.

This town needs an enema, says Jack Nicholson as Joker in the 1989 film Batman. After marathon-watching all eight episodes of Sacred Games Season 2, you are bound to feel the same way.


Also read: With Sacred Games, Bollywood finds a new home for its politics in Netflix


Sartaj and Gaitonde — the gangster and the cop

Do you believe in God?

God doesn’t give a fuck.

If these were the first words Season 1 of Sacred Games began with, Season 2 goes on to prove it — in flesh and blood.

The series picks up where we last left Mumbai gangster Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and earnest-but-struggling cop Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan). While the story car is reversed for Gaitonde, we go full speed forward for Sartaj.

Sartaj must save the city of Mumbai. Gaitonde had given him only 25 days. Sartaj’s storyline is directed by Neeraj Ghaywan — who made his debut as a director with Masaan — and is more about a personal journey. It is the bildungsroman of an ageing man. A cop trying to live up to his father’s image and struggling with self-worth. He must hurry and decode the riddles in the ‘Sacred Game’, face corrupt peers and politicians, his pregnant ex-wife, and, of course, live with a bleeding four-fingered hand.

Gaitonde’s storyline — directed by Anurag Kashyap— is more of a physical journey, crisscrossing continents, jobs and political eras. Gaitonde juggles with it all after his life as a small-time Mumbai gangster comes to an end. There are drugs, rhino horns, money, Bollywood and, of course, his constant desire to be God. He is rescued from prison, where we last saw him in Season 1, and makes his way to Africa, where he does the Indian government and RAW’s bidding in exchange for protection.

Can Sartaj decipher Gaitonde’s cryptic words before he shot himself (Season 1) and save Mumbai?

Enter Guruji.

The godman

As the series unravels, the parallels between Sartaj and Gaitonde’s lives become clear. Both become intertwined with a Guruji and his ashram. Played masterfully by Pankaj Tripathi, Guruji may remind you of Osho from Netflix’s Wild Wild Country. While Osho was busy with bioterrorism and sex, Guruji is busy with nuclear bombs and sex. (Sex must be treated as an exercise, he tells his disciples.)

Although Guruji’s characterisation can often border on the ludicrous, it still isn’t far from reality. Think Asaram, Ram Rahim and Sadhguru.

Guruji only wants one thing — destroy the current tamsik world and lead it to the satvik age or the Satya Yuga. Just add fuel to world’s flames, and it will set itself on fire, he says — as montages of hate crimes across the world play out on screen.

And of course, we get our own Ma Anand Sheela in the form of Batya Abelman, played by Kalki Koechlin. Batya’s constantly mutating accent aside, Kalki essays the role of a calm and cunning sidekick to perfection. Power and narcissism fucked each other and gave birth to the thing we all love — materialism, Batya says, urging the ashram’s disciples to opt for a better world. Her eyes calm and her plot sinister.


Also read: I was part of Osho’s spiritual whorehouse cult & flushed his mala in disgust: Mahesh Bhatt


The women

Like the first season of Sacred Games, the second season too has some really powerful women — but sadly, they too are mere catalysts in the men’s lives.

The most striking of these characters is Yadav, played by National Award winner Amruta Subhash. A RAW agent, who wears crisp cotton sarees and has Gaitonde on a leash in Mombasa, Yadav holds her own in every scene that she is part of. Subash’s acting prowess here makes you wonder what injustice Zoya Akhtar did to her in Gully Boy, where she was reduced to Ranveer Singh’s mostly silent mother.

Suvreen Chawla as Jojo, Gaitonde’s muse and confidant, is captivating and portrays an uncommon tenderness.

Even Kalki Koechlin as Batya flows through her scenes effortlessly, realising she is a mere pawn on Guruji’s chessboard.


Also read: Women in Netflix’s Sacred Games act as motivators for men, their own motivation is a mystery


Kafka-esque India

Netflix reportedly pumped in Rs 100 crore for the second season, which featured 3,500 cast members and was shot across 112 locations. And it shows.

Based on Vikram Chandra’s novel of the same name, Sacred Games is a compelling watch. Very rarely does India make a web thriller of international quality. However, Season 1 was certainly more compact and thrilling than Season 2.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the master of his craft, no doubt. Saif Ali Khan’s Sartaj is unputdownable. Khan is more suited to Netflix than Tashan.

In one of the scenes where the home minister is being interrogated in a college library, look closely at the poster of the book in the background. It is Franz Kafka’s The Trial. It is a sign that there are no clear answers or right or wrong anymore, because India and the world have become Kafka-esque. Religion, money, politics, power, gender divide us and we keep going in spirals.

If you just celebrated India’s 73rd Independence Day and are convinced that things are fine and the nation is doing great, don’t watch Sacred Games, it is not for you.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. This is a poor review – the author herself rationalizes the decisions taken by the script writers, instead of critiquing what is seen.

    The season is ordinary – a nuclear bomb is going to explode, and parliament, the PMO, the UN, the security council, the media and Pakistan apparently are not bothered by the prospect of a full fledged nuclear war – two mid level officers of Mumbai Police are effectively running the investigation which will help save the world.

    It appears the reviewer is warning jingoists to not watch this show. She is wrong. This is a season everyone must be warned not to watch.

    @ShekharGupta – This is not a case of subjectivity in reviewing art. This is a case of going soft in a review for reasons nothing to do with the art in question. An average reader of ThePrint would know the loopholes in this script. The reviewer has neither displayed integrity nor competence. She is just impressed with herself. This reviewer called Season 2, ‘Season 1 on drugs’. I want to know what she is smoking.

  2. अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता अनुशासन भी मागती है ,जिसे सस्ती लोकप्रियता पाने के लिए उत्साहित होकर बाहरी-भीतरी कालम निगार और कानूनी मुसीबत से छुटकारा पाने के लिए ,, पर्सनल व्यूज,नाम देकर छापने वाले मीडिया घराने अपनाते हैं।

    कालम निगार के कालम का सिर पैर ही समझ नहीं आता वो क्या कहना चाहता है? एक भटकन जिसकी मंजिल नहीं।

    अब सवाल आता है कालम छापने वाले रिसाले, अखबार आदि के मीडिया घराने पर , दूसरे के कन्धों पर रख कर बंदुकें नहीं चलती ।अगर तुम्हारे एडिटर और टीम में मौरेल करे है तो अपने नाम पर कालम ठोक के दिखाओ। सरकार और जनता दोनों आपको अपनी औकात दिखा देंगे।

    कांग्रेस, अब्दुल्ला,मुफ्ती और अब नया मुर्गा फैजल सब अपनी सियासी नौटंकी कर अपनी दुकान बचाने के लिये वहीं कूछ बोल और कर से है जो पाकिस्तान कर रहा है,रोज सिर फोड़ता है, विलाप करता है, नयी नयी नौटंकी करता है ।
    ये जो पब्लिक है सब जानती है।

  3. Excellent review! I am on the fifth episode already and love the show. You are right if you are a Hindutva you do not want to see what your India is capable of . But movies and shows reflect reality!

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