Sacred Games is back with Season 2. The revolution has eaten its child. After the ultra-promising season 1 with its Tarantinoesque overtones, Sacred Games S2 turns out to be a dud. And what a vapid, foul-mouthed, grating dud at that. While there are some fine performances especially by Surveen Chawla and partly by Kalki Koechlin, the big bad boys, that is, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Pankaj Tripathi are either sporting a soporific daze or a beatific smile, both doing injustice to their enormous talent.
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There’s one scene in episode 15, however, that breaks the mould and is terrifyingly beautiful. The series had so much potential, hence I feel betrayed as a viewer.
In my view, the biggest problem is the script which is all over the place, pretentious and messy. It attempts to cover a wide canvas but doesn’t have the requisite depth, nuance and gravitas.
The second major let down is the direction. Despite my favourite Anurag Kashyap being at the helm, it’s linear, bare and self-indulgent. These aren’t necessarily negative attributes, but they didn’t work for this series. Sometimes you need to take a balcony view, be detached and then recoup. That the directors singularly failed to do. Or am I missing something?
So, what we get in the end, is a mishmash of a grand ambition poorly executed and a banal and bizarre script that aims at creating a new world order but is so cliche-ridden and convoluted that it fails to inspire.
That said, I like the sheer audacity of this cinematic experiment. What’s your take? What did you think about it?
Where to Watch: Netflix
Rating: 2/5
By Sanjay Trehan
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