Prime Video is doubling down on their Indian period pieces. Bambai Meri Jaan follows Jubilee from earlier this year, set in the world of 1960s and 1980s Bombay’s underground crime scene. Hindi cinema superstar Farhan Akhtar is an executive producer with a golden track record. Does his stamp of approval translate to another hit series for the platform?
Opening Shot: A phone rings ominously in a dark room. When a mysterious man answers, the person on the other end of the line warns him that they don’t have much time. It’s Bombay 1986 and the man, Dara, hastily gathers his family to flee town but faces opposition from his father who refuses to leave. His father, Ismail, puts a gun to his own head, blaming his son’s sins.
The Gist: Flashing between 1960s and 1980s Bombay, Bambai Meri Jaan is a cat-and-mouse game between a righteous policeman Ismail Kadri and two criminal gangsters named Haji and Pathan. As Ismail becomes more obsessed with bringing these two to justice, his young son begins dabbling in a life of crime and eventually adopts the very lifestyle his father has spent his career fighting against.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Based on the premise alone, Bambai Meri Jaan has shades of two great American gangster films: Heat, which humanizes both a cop and a robber in their own cat-and-mouse game, and The Godfather, as a tale about family entanglements in the mafia world. Of course, the exact stories vary but fans of the genre will find a lot to enjoy in Prime Video India’s latest.
Our Take: If it seems like Indian content is either stories about weddings or gangsters, you might be right. Between Made in Heaven and Indian Matchmaking, and Mirzapur and Sacred Games, the two genres are well-tread. Prime Video’s latest release from the subcontinent, Bambai Meri Jaan, doesn’t exactly steer far from this trend as it centers itself firmly in the latter, but it at least executes its take on the crime genre well.
At its heart, the series is about one man’s rise to power. Creator Shujaat Saudagar and his writing team master the intricate storytelling needed, showing the ruthlessness of both the “good guys” and “bad guys” as well as how one’s nature may drive them to actions that are opposite of their upbringing. The characters aid in this, as they are fully fleshed out with simple and convincing motivations for where they land on the morality scale.
Kay Kay Menon’s lead role as Ismail Kadri is the most important as it’s through his eyes—both as a policeman and a father—that the entire narrative unfolds. He’s equally jubilant when he’s chosen for the special task force to bring down the gangsters as he is when his wife gives birth to a daughter, cementing him as someone whose work is at the forefront of his life and his identity. Menon unearths many shades of Ismail that complicate our view of him and of the supposed good side at large, including a harrowing torture sequence in which he relishes the violence inflicted upon the prisoner. Playing opposite Menon are equally formidable players including Avinash Tiwary as his adult son Dara, who is a conniving foil to his father in the remainder of the season.
While the story may sound like an amalgamation of many crime stories that came before it and ten episodes somewhat stretches the plot thin, the execution by director Saudagar still makes this a worthwhile series to spend some time with.
Sex and Skin: This one is pretty chaste.
Parting Shot: Soon after Ismail’s wife Sakina gives birth to their baby daughter Habiba, Haji arrives at their doorstep armed with intimate knowledge about their family.
Sleeper Star: In the pilot alone we haven’t meaningfully met a lot of the power players yet, including an adult Dara and adult Habiba, but Saurabh Sachdeva’s Haji has an eerie calmness to him that makes him feel even more sinister than his outwardly violent partner Pathan.
Most Pilot-y Line: The pilot foreshadows Dara’s rise to power within the criminal world by showing his penchant for lying and his belief in revenge. “I’ll remember this,” he tells an unhelpful store clerk when his mother is in labor — and it’s certain that he will keep his word.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Prime Video India’s latest crime story is a nuanced story about honor and family, and the lengths one will go to stand up for their cause.
Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Paste Magazine, Teen Vogue, Vulture and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.