Sacred Games 2 Review: In season 1, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Ganesh Gaitonde considered himself as ‘sarv shaktishaali eklauta bhagwan’, but here he was mellowed down to have a reality check. This might spark a few debates because that’s what the season 1 was all about, the undying machoism of Gaitonde. Saif Ali Khan’s Sartaj Singh is in turmoil about where he has to go to next.

As the headline suggests, there will be spoilers ahead (and some abuses because why not?) but trust me none of them could kill your excitement to watch the show. So, let’s start with that traumatizing ending first. Makers have, with all their brains and balls, stepped into the ambiguous zone.

Sacred Games 2 Review: Let's Start With That 'Ending' First!
Sacred Games 2 Review: Let’s Start With That ‘Ending’ First!

What started in season 1, those 25 days, finally ends with the D-Day in the climax. We see Shahid Khan (Ranvir Shorey) planning to explode a hell of a nuclear bomb in Mumbai, which apparently is 6 times larger than the one of Hiroshima-Nagasaki. It all concludes, in Utopia style, finding a pattern from a book called ‘Kaal Granth’.

The show doesn’t really start where it ended. With a masterstroke, best in business, non-linear storyline, we see, in a flashback sequence, Ganesh being forcefully transferred to Mombasa, Kenya by Kusum Devi Yadav aka Yadav Sahab (Amruta Subhash). She had certain plans for Ganesh and uses him to do well for the nation. But Gaitonde being Gaitonde, he manages to fuck everything up and leave the country.

All of these dots later get connected with Guruji (Pankaj Tripathi), who’s a root to all of this mess. This season excels for me, as far as the technicalities are concerned, because it’s rich on everything. From the austere appearance of production sets in the 90s to just a glimpse of the city post-Nuclear holocaust, the screenplay is unordinary.

This season is bold with its choices because it gambles with its lead character Gaitonde by presenting him in a way none of us predicted. It also serves as a part-prequel, shows the rise and fall of Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s character. The Mombasa spin-off gifts a very interesting angle to the story. But, that’s just the start. The show gets darker by the second, starts messing with your mind big time towards the end.

“Do you have a single reason to save this world?” asks Batya Ableman (Kalki Koechlin) from Sartaj. Everything, in the latter half of the season, revolves around this line. The show lands in its prime when it forces you to think, whether you’ve any single reason to save this world. Mob lynching, a very strong and controversial commentary on the religion, backing up facts with the mythological references, there is much more to the season than meets the eye.

All the actors give their best shot, but its the writing of their characters that help them to achieve a certain level of madness. Towards the climax, the confrontation scene between Ranvir and Saif had every chance of pulling off a Joker-Batman conversation, but it’s okay. This happens when a show is so good, you start to expect crazy things from it. Special mention for Nakash Aziz’s ‘Tune Jo Toda Hai’, served in a nostalgic platter, Varun Grover’s lyrics make this a fascinating track.

Screenplay excels because it joins everything the makers are dropping the hints of since season 1. It’s like having a Rubik’s cube in the hand and watching it solving itself. During several scenes, we see certain characters going through hallucinations and that’s where the insane screenplay comes to the play. There’s a hint of ‘Vikram & Betaal’ in a scene and in its immediate next scene, we see a medium close-up shot of Ganesh & Guruji placed as those mythological characters. That shows how accomplished the show is when it comes to the technicalities of filmmaking.

Varun has confirmed in a recent interview, the makers aren’t planning any upcoming season and this is it. So, those who hated the ending of the show, watch it again with an open mind to understand why this was a perfect end to bid adieu to the insanity. A heartbreaking farewell to the best show coming out of India’s digital space.

If you still need a rating, Four Stars!

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