Releasing on October 13, 2023, the newest Milan Luthria directorial is a Hindi gangster drama miniseries that stars an ensemble cast including Tahir Raj Bhasin as Arjun, Anjumm Shharma as Bangali, Vinay Pathak, Nishant Dahiya as RP, Anupriya Goenka as Shankari, Mouni Roy as Nayantara, Harleen Sethi as Preeti and Mehreen Pirzada as Sanjana. Co-written and co-directed by Suparn Verma, the series has been produced by Namit Sharma under the banner of Reliance Entertainment.
Set in Delhi in the 1960s, the action thriller show is based on Arnab Ray’s book Sultan of Delhi: Ascension and is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
-No Spoilers-
Sultan of Delhi Synopsis
Arjun is a young survivor of Partition, and at this delicate age, he has to learn not just how to survive but live and thrive. His journey is further laid with chaos and strife as he ambitiously finds his calling to take the lead as Delhi’s Sultan. The road to success formulates a game of deception, politics, betrayal and ruthless power that disposes of people as nobodies. Will Arjun make it to the top? What sacrifices must he make along the way to become the leader he’s always envisioned to be? Watch the series to find out the harsh truth.
Sultan of Delhi Review
Starting off on a hardcore gory note, Sultan of Delhi movie makes its ties to a traumatic history. The first episode pitches in jarring visuals that take some time getting used to. The painful grief of the Partition’s aftermath is brought on screen, but just as jarringly it’s introduced into the storyline, even more quickly it’s all pulled away.
However, history’s context doesn’t do much for the show in general. The initial present-day scenario introduction comes off too vague, and even with the plot connecting in later, most of it’s too over the top for me to get behind.
With the ever-blaring music score that channels the old school charm of Sholay‘s background score, even the colours of the cinematography fall in suit. In that way, the series has its moments. The gun-handling scenes make a kick worth some excitement, but the narrative doesn’t always do great favours to its characters that come across as stereotypical imaginations of the olden days fit into the new ones.
After a certain point, I almost started believing in the idea that Tahir Raj Bhasin’s Arjun and Anjumm Shharma’s Bangali would make a solid duo making us count on their brotherhood. While they do try their best to make it work initially, it’s not well fleshed out. On top of that, certain initially introduced characters vanish out of nowhere, and only step back in to fill in the gaps of other characters’ chapters, especially the men in this story.
Also read: Movies and Shows Set in Mumbai That Are Fun, Dark and Romantic
Despite all the betrayals that come our way in this show, they don’t necessarily come up as hard-hitting memorable messes. Heavy dialogues try to cover up for the lost essence of the old days, but they fall down as instances of hyper-exaggerated attempts. What does work to make the world-building aesthetic stand out is the production value instead that works well to make the music complement the theme, along with all the timeline-fit outfits, certain hairstyles and cars that justify the vintage style.
Some can start feeling the fatigue early on while watching this series because its release is fuelled by the premieres of endless titles from the same category coming out, one after the other.
Then we have the essence of rivalry attempting to consolidate the concept of the show, but Arjun and RP’s feud doesn’t bleed enough for us to gasp out in fear or to conjure up strong emotions in us. Sultan of Delhi 2023 eventually gets lost in the same vicious repetitive cycle. The characters lack an intimidating fervour and barely inspire any fear in us for what may happen to them or what they may to do their enemies.
Mouni Roy’s name appears at the top of the cast list credits rolling out at the beginning of every episode, and yet her addition to this project seems purely tokenistic for the sake of associating her star status with the show. She remains severely underused in the series and it’s heartbreaking to watch her character fade in and out into the story without any particular purpose serving her characterisation.
Other women characters too are basically an afterthought. They barely play a significant role or stand on their own as intriguing people. Their identities are solely linked to the men they’re associated with. Anupriya Goenka’s character could’ve been so much more as her portrayal attempts to revive the classic vamp archetype of the olden cinematic aesthetic. Anupriya does her best to embody the aura of a deceptive seductress we should look out for, but her character’s writing falls short in establishing her as one.
Final Thoughts
The final episode of the series brings in heavy crossfires and initially, it all builds up intrigue, but the closer we step to the final moments of the show, the more inevitable the series of betrayals get. Ultimately, everything culminates into one big unfulfilling mess that grants us brief pensive moments of Arjun’s character in the dark, but none of them ever attempt to pierce through his fractured psyche and the innate motivations keeping him going. Sultan of Delhi has a well-paced approach, but a lot of its action blasts out of nowhere, without ever fully developing the conflict running underneath.
There’s been some good buzz around the show owing to Mouni Roy’s involvement. Unfortunately, her die-hard fans may be flabbergasted on seeing how reductive her character has been made out to be in this series. If you still want to go ahead with the binge-watch session for this title, I suggest you do that with a grain of salt. The lesser the expectations from your end, the better it will be.
All 9 episodes of Sultan of Delhi are now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Also read: Mathagam Part 2: What to Expect From Atharvaa’s Tamil Series Sequel? Release Date, Plot and More