Sacred Games

SACRED GAMES Official Trailer (HD) Netflix Drama Series
JoBlo Streaming & TV

Sacred Games is a Netflix series about political corruption in modern day Bombay, India. (Heh, I called it Bombay, not the new, mumbly, made up name.)  The story oscillates between the cops and the gangsters. On the copper side we have an honest cop, his bumbling lackey and his corrupt boss. There is also slender young woman working for RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), the India government's foreign intelligence agency. It's comparable to America's CIA. On the gangster side we have two guys who are both smitten with a sweet transvestite and are competing for her attentions. Inexplicable, but people are sometimes that way, aren't they?

The story links to reality by mentioning the Bofors Scandal. In 1986 the Indian government contracted to buy 400 cannons from the Bofors company in Sweden. The contract was a big deal, and Bofors pulled out all stops to see that the contract was secured, including bribing a whole bunch of people in India. Some smart aleck Swedish reporter got wind of it and, by happenstance, an Indian reporter who happened to be in Europe at the time heard about it and then things got exciting. At the time, the scandal caused the collapse of the Indian government. However, court proceedings are still ongoing. The Indian Express has a story from 2018, the same year this TV show was released. Is this a coincidence? Enquiring minds want to know! 

The show is slightly above average. There are plenty of scenes of ordinary life in India interspersed amongst all the scenes that are advancing the plot, but somehow it fails to grab me. Perhaps because none of the characters have connected with me. The gangster Gaitonde is the best of the lot, but he's gone a little too far round the bend. He starts out with smuggling gold, dealing drugs and other standard gangster activities, but eventually finds his way into politics, which is where the real money is. Boy, does that ever sound familiar.

Update January 2024 replaced missing video.