Sacred games is how the Indian Tv series made its mark locally as well as globally. This Tv show made Netflix a household name and Millenials who till now watched only Hollywood Tv shows now could proudly say they had something as good as a Narcos or Game of thrones.
I was so mesmerized by Sacred Games as the world of Ganesh Gaitonde & Sartaj Singh that after binging the first season, I could bear waiting till the second season and hence I brought the book written by Subhash Chandra and read it in a week ( 1000 pages long ). I loved the book and couldn’t wait to see how the second season would materialize.
When you have a great first season, you as an audience are excited as well as petrified on how the second season would turn out to be. So when I saw the trailer of the second season of Sacred Games, I was a bit skeptical.
So yesterday I binge-watched the entire 8 episodes.
Here’s my review of Sacred Games Season 2Â
Story
The Story picks up from where it left. Sartaj keeps following the clues and tries to understand who was planning an attack on Bombay. Meanwhile, Ganesh has been put in Kenya where he is working for a RAW agent under the disguise of Vivian Shah and doing all the dirty work for the govt. Soon Ganesh gets fed up of the Govt leash and runs away which has its own repercussions that make him go and stay at Guruji’s Ashram.
Sartaj too following a clue ends up at the Guruji’s Ashram in the present and that’s where both the characters flow gets intertwined showcasing the Ashram, their bizarre belief system, and the entire structure.
The attacks, Guruji, Trivedi, Ganesh, Hijbul everything is connected to the attack that’s going to happen in Bombay and Sartaj finally connects all the dots.
What’s good
- Pankaj Tripathi gives a powerful performance as Guruji and you understand why the character has such huge following. Right from the tone to the body language Pankaj truly becomes a godman
- Saif Ali Khan as Sartaj gets better in season 2. He gets a meatier part in this and Saif shines in it. I especially loved his performance where he is undergoing withdrawal symptoms of a drug called Gochi but needs to question the chief minister. You could actually feel the struggle the character is going through.
- Locations chosen are magnanimous as well as realistic. The Ashram location especially is spell bounding and reminds you of Osho Ashram in Wild Wild Country Tv series
- Cinematography is again as good as the first season. The drug hallucination part is portrayed beautifully through clever use of dolly shots along with VFX and bright colors
- Background score remains edgy and adds to the drama
What could have been betterÂ
- Nawajuddin’s character Ganesh Gaitonde looks out of place in the sophisticated suit and in foreign countries. That character shines bright only in Mumbai and Gopalmath. So even though Nawaj gave his everything for the character but Ganesh through the season looked like a toothless tiger.
- Jojo as a character didn’t resonate and her pairing with Ganesh looked artificial and forced ( that’s not how it was shown in the books and they should have stuck with that)
- The first 3 episodes are a drag with nothing much happening and you start wondering if the story has anything interesting left at all ( thankfully it picks up from 4th episode )
So overall Sacred Games 2 is a good Tv show but nowhere as good and crisp as the first season.
They end the season with a cliffhanger and I am not sure where the story will head from there. Because as per the book was written by Vikram Chandra, the story is complete.
Being India’s most successful Tv/Web Series, I am sure Netflix is planning to milk at least 2 more seasons out of this cash cow. How … I don’t know.
Plus It has always been the trend that the Tv show based on books lose their grip when they have they start treading the path of the unknown and no book to fall back or refer.
The brightest example of that was Game of Thrones Season 8
So all we can do is wait and watch
and by the way
BHAGWAN KO MANTE HO ?
