Sacred Games 2 review: wicked, untied and inevitably better than the predecessor.

Netflix aired Sacred Games 2 at the midnight hour on August 15, 2019. Watch online or download from the official link.

Before talking about the season 2, lets rewind the first season of Sacred Games. The main plot of Season 1 had two consciousness. While Sartaj Singh (Vikramaditya Motwane’s portion, played by Saif Ali Khan) was tragic in search of hope, Ganesh Gaitonde (Anurag Kashyap’s section, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui) was a agony advancing towards doom. Season 1 has its best and some delightful satirical lightness and charisma. 

Motwane had the best deliverables in the form of the race-against-time segment with Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) and Anurag again mastered the screen with his eccentric and kinkiness cinematic approach through Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). The only running gag in the Motwane-department was how the super-baddies, who otherwise showed no remorse to pull off a fast death on their opponents, acted out of character with the dewy-eyed Sartaj Singh; how they chose to forewarn him, or engage with him philosophically, rather than being done with him already.

Sacred Games 2 in nutshell:

Sacred Games 2 is in different avatar. In season two, neither the supporting characters held back to raise our curiosities nor Sartaj panted for our empathy. You realize that things have begun to pace up when Neeraj Ghaywan takes over as the director of the Sardar Cop sequences. With Ghaywan at the back of the camera, the story keeps moving better and so does the characters. It is backed with many amazing drone cinematography, let it be chase sequence or the ashram of Guruji (Pankaj Tripathi). 

The portion helmed by Anurag Kashyap continues to be crafted as per the sensibility of the source material. Extravagance is Kashyap’s trademark, as with Vikram Chandra and his novel. The show carves out all over, with Neeraj Ghaywan to give him company. Season 2 feels nicely put together and feels like a one-piece. Character feel richer as multitudes emerge in.

The Sartaj-Majid combo in this season shows how ill-treated both the characters are, it also shows how they are dealing with the major personal problems parallelly. Both the directors sees to it that this plot-heavy elements get enough behavioral touches. Anurag Kashyap maintains the dualism in Gaitonde’s tale, despite scooping him out of Mumbai and smuggling him into Kenya and other places where he infiltrate gangs and slash people open. Ganehs’s character arc goes by various flavors – killing for personal revenge, muddling violence with religion, blood as a means to fire up a soul that fears about losing its vigor, changing loyalty and favorism and so on as per the situation. He even fancies to become an expert kisser!

The story line of Sacred Games season two more focuses on Ganesh Gaitonde becoming saner, to attain total insanity. And this plot is overwhelmed with character exchanges, treated almost like set pieces. Watching Bunty (Jatin Sarna) – Gaitonde character interactions is like watching two jazz players at it. It set out some comic relief. In Season 2, Sarna’s Bunty swears just as much as in Season 1, but his outbursts carry more burden now, as they are a result of real confusions and boiling pain.

The Jojo-Gaitonde set piece is a substantial love story where the madman finds his crazy equivalent. He cannot intimidate to kill her because, as it happens, she is trying to end her own life. Does it ring bell to Joker and Harley Quinn! And finally, there is this set piece with Guruji played Pankaj Tripathi, where you see Gaitonde, along with other gangsters, surrendering to the ultimate truth the Guru of Love, is, indeed, the baap of all gangsters.

Amruta Subhash delivered a very forced performance as the RAW agent, who takes Gaitonde under her wing. In some scenes, her nuances are amazing. She worked swiftly and gave proper acting justice to her role. Shahid Khan played by Ranvir Shorey had done full justice to his character. Batya Abelman (Kalki Koechiln) is just fine. But in comparison, Nawazuddin touches new heights as Ganesh Gaitonde in second season.

Ever come across a more entertaining monster in the history of the Indian arts, do let us know!

Sacred Games 2 ending explained:

What we had experience with each season of GOT (Game of Thrones), the ending of Sacred Games season 2 is made of open ended / loose threads with standing still on D-Day.  

Various questions are still unanswered. The biggest two will remain regarding the password pattern and does the nuclear weapon explode or not. Well, we all know one thing that the later can’t be true. We know very well that both the patterns are not matching. It will be interesting to see how the directors handle this scenario. The season 3 will be much more on the evil worshiped and master mind side of Guruji. Kalgranth can be a game changer. 

Suicide of Malcolm (Luke Kenny) is still not traced. The answer to it will also open new story plots. Suleiman Isa (Saurabh Sachdeva) can also come in some pivotal role, you never know. Like they sacrificed Anjali Mathur (Radhika Apte) in first season and cut Sartaj’s major helping hand, by this time it is Inspector Majid Ali (Aamir Bashir). 

One more major twist indicates that Sartaj and Shahid are cousins. We can also expect some more insights of the life of Sartaj’s father Dilbagh Singh (Jaipreet Singh).

Let’s talk about the letdowns: 

The complete season 2 plays in back and forth format. The final editing, the cohesion of both the worlds, has made much more complex than first season. You need to monitor all the sequences meticulously, or you will surely miss some hints. Inter cut dialogues and scenes are used more than often to grip you, may be it is more interesting than to follow it methodically.

Sometimes it also feels like the story is progressing like puppet show. There is no definition of distance between various locations, day and night, time and space. Anyone can be anywhere at any point of time. Various major turning points of these season are concluded by this manner. And everything is rushing so fast, that you loose track of link scenes. 

The Final Verdict:

Right now, Nawazuddin is one of the best actors in the country, who has wired his strong execution skills into best performances. Right from Gaitonde’s humorous-savage morality to his need to amplify the self- everything just oozes out of him. The most delightful thing about this season is that the whole of Sacred Games 2 has been raised to Nawazuddin to specific perfection. This web series of Netflix is turning out to be one of outstanding shows. 

Sacred Games 2 is a lot more than just the worlds of Ganesh Gaitonde and Sartaj Singh. In command of Anurag and Neeraj, this season is about everything that afflicts India today – from religion as opium to corrupt system which controls government. The series gives us a glimpse of the dirty politics of our time. It hits the nail right in political circles. Kashyap knows what and how to show. The filmmaker puts across one hell of political comment on present-day India with his newest of episodes, the directing credits of which he shares with Neeraj Ghaywan (Masaan).

So, do give a watch and have a long wait for Sacred Games season 3. 

And before leaving, enjoy interview of Anurag Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan to Hindustan Times regarding Sacred Games 2.