This cat-and-mouse game makes up the majority of the first episode, a thrilling introduction in which characters reflect (at times literally, through mirrors and water) on the building blocks of their very selves. Bit by bit, Gaitonde narrates his own story, a tale of violence and self-centered ideology in direct contrast to the morally pure Sartaj, who traces the call before coming face to face with Gaitonde himself. References to SartajвЂ™s late father, a former policeman, and vague threats about some humungous danger to Mumbai that will unfurl in twenty-five days send the good cop on a solo mission to catch the elusive don. Saif Ali Khan in Sacred GamesGaitonde, a self-professed deity, speaks to Sartaj in riddles. Before the kindly Sartaj can wrestle with the transgression asked of him, he receives a mysterious phone call from a legendary gangster long thought to have fled the country, Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). A Sikh member of the Mumbai police force - perhaps a part that shouldвЂ™ve gone to a Sikh actor so few are given roles in the Indian mainstream - Sartaj is an outsider caught in a web of corruption, unwilling to compromise when his superior, DCP Parulkar (Neeraj Kabi), instructs him to change his statement on a fatal police shooting.

In a world of relative morals, Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) is a good man in almost absolute terms. As a whole however, itвЂ™s a haphazard, hamstrung morality play that canвЂ™t seem to balance its moving parts. Its imagery is propulsive, when divorced from any larger context. Unshackled from the censorious constraints of Indian cinema, itвЂ™s an often ambiguous, unapologetically violent work set against MumbaiвЂ™s criminal underbelly. It bleeds street-level authenticity seldom seen in the Indian mainstream - characters speak Hindi, Marathi, English and Punjabi, though the seriesвЂ™ default audio setting internationally is its English dub - trading in the polished poetry of Bollywood dialogue for uncouth, often hilarious swearing. Bollywood mainstay Saif Ali Khan leads a whoвЂ™s-who of tremendous talent in a show helmed by two of the industryвЂ™s most interesting directors, but its spectacle lies mostly in its lurid texture.

Sacred Games, the first Indian Netflix series, ought to have been spectacular.

Sacred games full