This latest Netflix series is a formulaic cop-and-crime thriller that starts promisingly but gets ponderous in the middle before ending on a predictable note. Based on the book, The Bihar Diaries - The True Story of How Bihar's Most Dangerous Criminal Was Caught, by serving IPS officer Amit Lodha, the series dramatises his journey through the criminal juggles ensconced in the anarchic political landscape of Bihar of the 90s as he chases and eventually captures the dreaded criminal Chandan Mahto, famously known as ‘Gabbar Singh of Sheikhpura’.
With such an infinitely dramatic content, given the fact that the notoriety of the location is still dreaded for its lawlessness, and the added attribute of it being a ‘true story’, the series could have aspired to reach the heights (or depths) of Paatal Lok or Gangs of Wasseypur.
The fact that the real hero (Amit Lodha) was in the news right through the making of the series for breaking service rules, and an FIR was finally registered for the same reason on Thursday, added an extra edge.
The FIR says Lodha, despite not being permitted to write a book for commercial purposes under service rules, ‘allowed his book to be made into a web series in a bid to convert his black money into white’. Enough stuff to excite a legion of fans to watch the series.
But Neeraj Pandey (of A Wednesday, Special 26 and Aiyaary fame), who is credited with ‘creating and writing’ the series, and director Bhav Dhulia falter terribly when it comes to resurrecting real life characters on celluloid.
As a result, the seven part series (of an hour each) lacks the traction and tonality of some of its predecessors on the same screening platform. With popular Hindi serial actors (Karan Tacker as the cop and Avinash Tiwary as the criminal) chosen to essay the key roles, the series fails to make an immediate impact which is vital for a series of this genre. Fresh faces may have added an unpredictable element to the proceedings or proven talent carried the burden of expectations more firmly on their shoulders. Tacker and Tiwary fail in both aspects.
Tacker makes a sincere effort, no doubt, to get into the uniform of a determined cop, adding a Singham-style moustache with the hope of making an innocent-looking face appear rough and tough, but it barely helps. He just fails to work up an Ajay Devgn-like intensity in important moments and ends up looking like a poor man’s Akshay Kumar in most of the scenes.
Tiwary as the dreaded Mahto makes a fine changeover from his glamorous Hindi serial roles to a fearsome gangster. But he fails to produce the spark that could have matched the notoriety of the character he plays. By contrast, the senior actors, all proven performers like Ashutosh Rana and Vinay Pathak, slip into their characters with finesse and deliver their lines with customary flair. Rana in particular thrives in the role of a scheming cop despite limited scope and mouths his pithy one-liners with relish.
Lack of suspense or tension and any shades of grey (the secret behind Sacred Games and Mirzapur’s success and the strength behind its undimmed popularity) are the other negative aspects. The narration too lacks the gripping nature of say, Paatal Lok, or the rawness of Gangs of Wasseypur.
Technically, Khakee is a fine product with some good cinematography, the drone cameras catching large fertile fields in rural Bihar as gangsters race in their SUVs to catch and butcher each other, and the background music keeps pace right through, but what lets it down is the lack of creativity.
Khakee had the potential to become an intense cat and mouse thriller. But, sadly, it ends up as a Tom and Jerry sitcom.