Starring: Zahan Kapoor, Rahul Bhat, Paramvir Cheema, Anurag Thakur, Saamya Jainn, Sidhant Gupta, Joy Sengupta
Creators: Satyanshu Singh, Vikramaditya Motwane
Sunil Kumar Gupta (Kapoor) is an inexperienced young man who applies for a job as a jailer at one of India’s most notorious prisons – Tihar in the capital city of Delhi. His soft-spoken manner and diminutive figure almost rule him out for the task of managing violent prisoners, but he scrapes through thanks to the unlikely intervention of a celebrity inmate Charles Sobhraj (Gupta) – who he goes on to find holds much sway with the authorities.
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Gupta soon forms a bond with fellow new recruits – Shivraj Singh Mangat (Cheema) and Vipin Dahiya (Thakur) – and tries hard to emulate their much tougher approach to maintaining order within the cells rife with gang wars, drugs smuggling and many such illicit activities. Their boss, Rajesh Tomar (Bhat), is determined to impart his hard-won wisdom among the newbies, even as he is battling some serious personal family demons.
As Gupta settles into his duties, he can’t help but be struck by the many injustices that the poverty-stricken inmates are up against. After his first experience of executing a “Black Warrant”, the court order for the death penalty, he does find himself toughening up. However, it also brings with it a determination to fight the system and introduce a legal aid process that gives the poor a fair chance at justice. Will Gupta win this war against injustice or will he be overcome by a deeply corrupt network at play at Tihar?
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The seven episodes of this intensely gripping series seem to whiz past, as each one zeroes in on very specific criminal cases from the 1970s and 80s. The triumph lies in the storytelling, which achieves the rare feat of fleshing out multiple characters in a well-rounded manner. Each of the actors deliver impressive gritty performances, with Rahul Bhat standing out as the flawed yet caring boss. This one is a must-watch for fans of well-crafted true-crime dramas.
