‘Khakee: The Bengal Chapter’ review: A great cast and solid detailing elevate a familiar plot

The title song of Khakee: The Bengal Chapter lists the various things for which the state is famous and then promises “ek aur rang” – the kind of macho, gruesome violence usually seen in shows set in the lawless Hindi-speaking belt. Neeraj Pandey’s Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, based on a true story, was one such series.

The second season in the Khakee series is fictional – created by Pandey, directed by Debatma Mandal and Tushar Kanti Ray, with three writers and four cinematographers to capture colonial-era backdrops, traditional mansions, Ambassador cars, grungy streets and crowded padas. The ghettos are where armies of unemployed men are locked into unwritten pacts of loyalty to gang lords, who, in turn, are protected by the ruling party.

The seven-part series gathers together some of the best actors in Bengal to speak Bengali-sprinkled Hindi. Barun Roy (a chilling Prosenjit Chatterjee) is the de facto mover and shaker of a party that has a dessicated old man (Subhashish Mukerjee) as Chief Minister in name only. The opposition troublemaker is the cotton sari-clad Nibedita (Chitrangda Singh), always ready with a mob and a protest procession. That these characters resemble real-life politicians will not be lost on the attentive news watcher.

Barun’s cohort includes the ferocious Bagha (Saswata Chatterjee),...

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