Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sacred Games’ on Netflix, an Indian Crime Drama with an Otherworldly Twist

From Narcos to Money Heist, Netflix has proven that an excellent crime drama can be a cross cultural hit. But its latest international crime drama, Sacred Games, is on a whole other level. The Indian original series starts as a cat-and-mouse game between a worn-out cop and the crime lord who has plagued both his precinct his entire career. As the show’s mysteries unravel, the series starts to question whether this killer is just another bad guy, or something closer to a god. 

SACRED GAMES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: From the beginning, Sacred Games doesn’t mess around. So if dead animals freak out out, fast forward through this first part. As a male voice muses about God’s morality, a dog falls from a very tall skyscraper. It lands on the cement, dead in front of a crowd of schoolchildren, right as the voice concludes, “God doesn’t give a fuck.”

The series then shifts to focus on a woman who is dragging her bloody body down a hallway. A man with a gun casually walks beside her. She taunts him for a few seconds before he raises his gun and shoots her. The camera then pans up to reveal Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), the voice at the beginning of the episode and a notorious crime lord who has been in hiding for the past 16 years. He’s out of hiding now and ready to hit the ground running.

While he surveys people and the police on an elaborate computer setup, a group of men — presumably Gaitonde’s henchmen — storm a restaurant. They murder several people, barely caring about who they kill and how. Gaitonde then gives them a single order: Find Sartaj.

As his pawns work and innocent people cower, the creepily powerful Gaitonde continues his voiceover. “I don’t know how this world came into existence,” he says, “but I do know how it will end.”

The Gist: Despite its love of high-minded rants about spirituality and God, Sacred Games is a straightforward crime drama for most of its running time. But what sets it apart from Sherlock or Breaking Bad is that there’s a very real chance the baddie our hero cop is pursuing is an immortal god.

The series follows Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan), a jaded cop who just wants to use his position of power for good. When Sacred Games begins, Sartaj is pressured to agree with a false testimony during a police hearing. Though he knows his co-worker killed a teenager in cold blood, everyone wants him to pretend like the murder happened in self-defense. Sartaj plays along for a while before storming out, a move that results in his co-workers beating him up. He’s a bleeding heart in a deeply corrupt system, which makes him the perfect target for Ganesh Gaitonde’s elaborate plan.

After disappearing for 16 years, the crime lord has now re-emerged, and for his first move back, he’s decided to taunt Sartaj. Because this exhausted cop loves his city as much as Gaitonde claims to, he offers Sartaj a game. The officer has 25 days to figure out Gaitonde’s elaborate puzzle, but if he fails, everyone in Bombay will die. Can Sartaj work though this plan in time? And who or what is this man who’s taunting him?

Our Take: There’s so much potential in Sacred Games. From The Dark Knight to Catch Me If You Can, countless shows and movies have gotten milage out of the “cop trying to outsmart a criminal genius at his own game” trope, and Sacred Games feels like it could be an especially interesting addition to this genre. The questions surrounding Gaitonde’s identity and mortality inject this common story with a dose of supernatural shock. But underneath all of its good intentions, Sacred Games has a frustrating pacing problem.

At least in the show’s first episode, the series seems far more interested in telling us its story rather than showing us. For most of Sacred Games’ first 50 minutes, Sartaj has absolutely no idea that the man calling him is a notorious crime lord. Based on his profession and what he knows about criminals he correctly comes to believe that the random creep monologuing to him is someone affiliated with India’s underworld. But it takes far too long and too many family stories for Sartaj to realize that he’s talking to Ganesh Gaitonde, a criminal who’s so allegedly notorious that multiple officers can identify him after being reminded of one of his crimes. Even when he finally recognizes the identity of his caller, Gaitonde’s many crimes are only explained through curt conversations with secondary characters. Apparently Gaitonde is responsible for at least 158 murders, but we’re told about these crimes in such a distant way he doesn’t actually feel dangerous.

As a result, Sacred Games feels like a show that’s on the verge of excellence but isn’t quite there. Khan and Siddiqui’s performances are solid. Khan turns something as simple as talking on the phone into a high-pressure investigation, and Siddiqui’s Gaitonde is constantly unnerving. It’s also a drama that’s well shot and directed. Some of this first episode’s best scenes could stand toe-to-toe to Narcos.

But for all the good ideas involved, Gaitonde doesn’t seem like a criminal worthy of Sartaj’s worry, and everything feels a bit too easy for Sartaj. He’s able to talk to and track down one of Bombay’s most powerful criminals in one night. This is probably all part of our villain’s plan, but one episode in it feels a bit too convenient.

Sex and Skin: During one of Gaitonde’s many flashbacks, he tells a story about how his mother used to cheat on his father. There’s an implied hookup, but nothing too risque.

Parting Shot: Sartaj, with the help of a building crew, finds Gaitonde’s hideout and tears it down. While still on the phone with the crime lord, he storms in and finds Gaitonde casually sitting in a chair. The criminal mastermind lays out the rules to his 25-day challenge before calling himself the Ashwathama, a figure in the ancient text The Mahabharata. He then shoots himself in the head. That’s when things get weird.

After witnessing Gaitonde take his own life, Sartaj checks his passport. When he looks back, a still bloody Gaitonde looks back at him. The series ends with a group of cops rushing in to arrest the killer as Sartaj now protectively stands in front of him. What was on the passport? Whose side is Sartaj now on? What will happen in 25 days? And is Gaitonde really still alive? After this first episode we have no idea.

Sleeper Star: That honor belongs to Neeraj Kabi‘s Parulkar. It’s tough to look like the worst person when you’re competing with a man who’s murdered over a hundred people, but Kadi’s crooked cop who gunned down a teenager pulls it off. If Sacred Games showcased Gaitonde’s evils as clearly as Parulkar’s, the series would be in better shape.

Most Pilot-y Line: Setting up a seedy crime drama is a lot of work, but starting things off with a gruesome death paired with a man broodily saying “Do you believe in God?” isn’t a good look for anyone.

Our Call: The first episode of Sacred Games isn’t great, but there’s too much potential to skip it entirely. If you can push your way through the flashback and monologue-heavy 50 minute pilot, it gets better.

Stream Sacred Games on Netflix