I don’t know about you but I spent the better part of my weekend binging on Netflix’s new Bollywood show, Sacred Games.
It sucked me in good.
Saying that it’s just another great digital show (there’s a lot of them out there) would be a gross understatement. It’s a high-octane, compelling show that holds its own with any of Netflix’s best offerings including the show its most similar to – Narcos!
My favorite thing about the series, apart from its sharp writing, first-rate production value and Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s powerhouse performance, is the fact that Saif Ali Khan is in it.
Saif’s career has been in, for lack of a better word, the shitter for the past decade or so with his last two great films (the Othello adaptation, Omkara and the arthouse flick, Being Cyrus) being both released in 2006.
Released in 2006, Being Cyrus was Saif Ali Khan’s last great film.
Ever since then, the man has been down on his luck with one massive flop after another. The onus must be on Khan though; he should have known better than to sign on to films with horrible, at times godawful, scripts.
Remember Humshakals? I wish I didn’t.
Most of those flops were a result of Khan trying to play it really, really safe by purposefully choosing formulaic, substandard scripts (Bullet Raja, Chef) or blindly following acclaimed filmmakers (Phantom, Rangoon) hoping all these films would be successful. On the contrary, they all backfired on him in a cataclysmic way.
Bullet Raja – one of Saif Ali Khan’s many, many recent flops.
Now the actor is back with a vengeance in a gripping, edgy digital show that is setting a precedent for all Indian digital shows to come.
Here’s hoping this positive turn of events for Khan also signals a return to his real home – the multiplex.
