Solid: Vijay Varma, Kritika Kamra, Sai Tamhankar, Bhupendra Jadawat, Siddharth Jadhav
Creator: Abhay Koranne, Nagraj Popatrao Manjule
Director: Nagraj Popatrao Manjule
Streaming On: Prime Video
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 8 episodes of fifty minutes each
“Jungle mein sher maans soonghta hai to baaki toli naachti hai. Kyun? Kyunki sabko pata hai ki khana milne wala hai,” tells a pointy and assured Brij Bhatti, who desires to rule the gambling world, to a neighborhood money-lender goon. And with this dialogue, Vijay Varma opens the primary season of Matka King – an online series directed by Nagraj Manjule, based on the lifetime of Ratan Khatri, a Mumbai-based businessman who ruled the betting world!
Set within the Sixties, the show tells the story of an unusual cotton trader, Brij Bhatti, played by Vijay Varma, who devises a brand new way of gambling that takes Mumbai by storm. It’s a rags-to-riches tale of a person who builds an empire out of numbers, but soon realizes that holding onto the crown is harder than winning it. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving Bombay within the Sixties, the show traces the rise of a typical man, who realizes that the masses don’t wish to work for money – they wish to dream of it.
Matka King Review: What’s It About:
The series is split into 8 episodes that show the progression of a person who takes charge of his life and turns it into successful, if financial gains could be defined as success. In one in every of the episodes, a personality says – Ameer ho ya Gareeb, sabka petrol ek hi hai – Ummeed. The show builds its premise on this one dialogue; nonetheless, because it spreads its wings and dives into Brij Bhatti’s personal life, all the pieces, including the screenplay, starts turning into a large number!
Matka King Review: What Works:
Bhatti introduces Matka, a really interesting gambling game that traps the lower class and tries to be its messiah, only that it’s a trap! Brij Bhatti decides to start out this gambling game after a fallout together with his employer, Lalji Bhai. What starts as a revenge business turns into an empire when Brij Bhatti finds a approach to let the struggling working class imagine that he’s helping them gain financially! Nonetheless, as he builds an empire based on honesty toward his punters, his personal life becomes an online of lies and dishonesty! He’s an imaandaar businessman in a rigged world, but a dhokhebaaz man in his own residence. It’s a classic rise-and-fall saga that attempts to portray a gray man split in two.
Matka King Review: Star Performance:
Vijay Varma is effortlessly sensible. He brings a certain authenticity to Brij Bhatti, making even probably the most mundane scenes watchable. Meanwhile, Sai Tamhankar provides the emotional anchor the show desperately needs. Kritika Kamra as Gulrukh plays the anchor in Brij Bhatti’s life, and he or she commands the screen. She brings grace and a certain mystery to her character, however the writing doesn’t give her enough meat. The ensemble of the series is its best strength! All the supporting forged, right from Siddharth Jadhav playing the right-hand to Girish Kulkarni playing a sincere journalist, every character shines on this web series. However it is barely the script that starts losing the plot after the primary three episodes that set the narrative at a really high pedestal! Gulshan Grover’s character comes across because the weakest despite being some of the vital ones!
Matka King Review: What Doesn’t Work:
If you walk right into a project helmed by Nagraj Manjule, you expect a certain socio-political sting. You expect the person who gave us the raw emotions of Sairat and the undying spirit of Jhund. Unfortunately, Matka King is Manjule’s weakest work so far. The direction keeps falling right into a confused spiral, attempting to strike a balance between reality and glamor! The gritty, grounded storytelling is Manjule’s signature, but it surely is replaced here by a confused narrative pace.
The series fumbles through its mid-section, unable to make your mind up if it’s a thriller, a biopic, or a every day soap. Even Amit Trivedi’s music doesn’t help one bit, and it’s a large letdown. It fails to mix with the heartbeat of Bombay of the 60s. As a substitute of elevating the drama, the songs keep stumbling alongside a script that’s already struggling to maintain its pace.
Matka King Review: Last Words:
In one in every of the scenes, Brij Bhatti’s wife tells him, “Tum theek se bure bhi to nahi ho, Agar hote to hume itni pareshaani nahi hoti. Zindagi aasaan hoti, kuch bhala ho jaata.” This tries to focus on the fundamental issue with this series as well! It tries to be good, but doesn’t set the usual of storytelling it must have! The honest gambler narrative, actually, backfires in the long term! Every criminal in Indian web series nowadays is a great man at heart. The narrative sounds heroic, but it surely will not be once you see it through a weak script!
The visual grammar of the Sixties is arguably the main drawback of this web series! The sets never take you to the 60s and 70s. The series is a gambling bet that forgot to take the risks! It’s a story a few man who redefined gambling, however the creators themselves were too afraid to gamble. Brij Bhatti is each the hero and the villain, but doesn’t commit to either of his sides wholeheartedly, and the show finally ends up hanging loose somewhere between the great and the bad. Allow us to just call it regular, and nobody likes regular stuff!
It keeps fumbling and stumbling till the very end. For those who’re searching for the Nagraj Manjule who changes cinema, nothing is changing here. If you must see Vijay Varma look cool in 60s collars while the plot meanders, then perhaps, just perhaps, give it a watch. But overall, this can be a missed opportunity!
PS. An Imaandaar gambler but a cheating partner, doesn’t qualify for me in any legit world!
PPS. Sai Tamhankar & Kritika Kamra each win for me ultimately!
2.5 stars!
For more reviews of web shows, stay tuned to Koimoi.
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