

Mike Hale for The New York Times praised the alternating styles of the show in a review, writing: " The combination of dark humor and operatic violence may call to mind 'Fargo' the slightly hyperbolic characterizations and stylized dialogue are akin to those in 'Luke Cage.'"
Sacred games rating series#
"Sacred Games" represents a renewed effort from Netflix to reach India's more than 1 billion potential viewers.Ĭritics lauded the series in advance of its release on Friday, highlighting it as a fresh take on the crime genre and commending Saif Ali Khan's performance as Singh. Netflix India officially launched back in 2016, but its growth and viewership in the country has lagged behind its streaming rival Amazon in the intervening years. "Sacred Games" is Netflix's first original release in a campaign to reach India, one of the largest potential international markets for the streaming service. At the start of the series, Gaitonde calls Singh to inform him of an impending attack on the city that is set to take place in 25 days.Īdapted from a best-selling 2006 novel by Vikram Chandra, the series currently has a 100% "fresh" rating on the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The show centers on a Sikh cop in the Mumbai police force named Sartaj Singh (played by Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan), and an enigmatic Mumbai criminal, Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Netflix's first original series from India, crime thriller "Sacred Games," debuted Friday to overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics.

The supporting cast consisting of Radhika Apte, Luke Kenny, Rajshri Deshpande, Jatin Sarna, Aamir Bashir, Jitendra Joshi, Neeraj Kabi, Kubbra Sait, Elnaaz Norouzi, Shalini Vatsa, and Nayanika Sehgal, all deliver stellar performances. Siddiqui goes one step above and keeps us gripped as a powerful gangster who would stop at no length to become the “God” of all men. It can be said to be one of his best performances since Omkara. Saif plays a restrained, anxiety-ridden, hapless honest cop and delivers a really masterful performance. There are references to Babri Masjid demolition, the Shahbano Case, Bofors, Emergency, and the 1992 Mumbai riots, etc., and how these incidents played a role in shaping the lives of Gaitonde and the general population.īoth the leads deliver masterful performances. The ‘present’ involves a storyline about Sartaj trying to prevent the supposed calamity, avoiding the impediments posed by his superiors, colleagues, and politicians, maintain his integrity, and eventually make a name for himself. Gaitonde informs Sartaj that something will happen in 27 days and all of Mumbai will be destroyed.Īs we, the audience, gets hooked onto the interviewing storyline, we are taken via flashbacks through the life of Gaitonde, from a Brahmin boy to being an internationally wanted don. Hence, a call from him sets him into frenzy, and begins the chase which continues till the very end.


The crime lord was missing for several years and was presumed to be dead. Sartaj had lost out on promotions, his wife, and respect of colleagues due to his honesty and had not solved one major case in ages. The series begins with an anonymous phone call by underworld gangster Ganesh Gaitonde, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, to honest inspector Sartaj Singh, portrayed by Saif Ali Khan.
