Review of Web series SANKALP (Amazon MX player)

by 

S. Prabhakar

After a long wait, another web series comes from the stable of Prakash Jha, an expert in churning out engaging political thrillers.    Sankalp also has heavy doses of political games, moves and counter moves between the team of Delhi CM (Sanjay Kapoor) and his shrewd political advisor, Waqar (Neeraj Kabi) pitted against razor-sharp strategist Maat Saab, brilliantly played by Nana Patkar, supported by civil servants in every department who were trained in their childhood and student days in the gurukul run by Maat Saab.   The misuse of the police and other Government machinery, the goons, media, and tapping by politicians, all facets were well covered.   With each move, the fortunes keep swinging from one side to the other, keeping the proceedings engaging.  

Nana's character is so calm, composed and calculative, and the normally fiery brand Nana is shown in an altogether different Avatar by Prakash Jha.    Neeraj Kabi turned out to be a surprise package, standing tall with his performance shoulder to shoulder with Nana.   He made us feel that no one could appraise that role, so calculative and menacing.   Zeeshan Ayub is competent as Aditya, IPS officer who plays into the hands of CM and his advisor,  and all other actors did well in their respective roles.  

The biggest drawback has been the length of the web series, spanning to 10 episodes and a total run time of over 460 minutes.   Howsoever, the writing and direction are good, it makes the proceedings slow and dragging.   As long as Nana camp or the CM camp was on the screen, the proceedings were interesting, but there are many sub-plots where the proceedings dropped and dragged and could not get connected to the main plot, and one feels that the series would have been better served without them.  

 

Whether it's Gangajal, Apaharan, Mrityudand, or Rajneeti, Prakash Jha is known for racy political thrillers, and that element was sadly missing in this long-drawn web series.   At the end of over 460 minutes, the story is not concluded, and Nana says that aur ek Sankalp karna padega, so you can expect season 2.   The directors should desist the temptation of dragging a web series too long and should end it with a maximum of 7 episodes of 35 minutes each.   Beyond that, it becomes tiring and painful to watch.   I would rather enjoy watching Prakash Jha’s Gangajal or Apaharan one more time

Though there can be no comparison between Sankalp and Dhurandhar, one point which Sankalp proves is that you can make an engaging and thrilling movie/web series with a bare minimum of violence, over-the-top action scenes and abusive language and definitely directors like Prashant Neel, Sandeep Vanga, Aditya Dhar and Boyapati Srinu can take a leaf from Prakash Jha and tone down violent action scenes and still can have same effect.      

There are lot of plus points in Sankalp, strongly recommended if you have the patience and time to sit through 10 episodes of 45 minutes each

S. Prabhakar

22.3.2026

 

 

Review of Dhurandhar – 2 – The Revenge

By

S. Prabhakar

Unlike Bahubali-2, the audience were not made to wait for long for Dhurandhar -2, which was released within three months after the first part, and hence there is continuity and fresh recall of the Dhurandhar-1

Dhurandhar – 2 opens tracing back the younger days of Hamza (Jaskirat Singh Rangi) back in Punjab, with an elaborate and gruesome violence scene of the hacking of dozens of people in a private party and subsequent arrest of Hamza and his being drawn into being trained as an Indian agent in barter to an honourable death in enemy country rather than going to the gallows in an Indian jail.

Then the scene shifts to the last journey of Rehman dacoit and Hamza's efforts to make Uzair Baloch believe that he is the heir apparent of Lyari and make him kill  Arshad Pappu by beheading him in public.  After Uzair gets arrested, Hamza takes over Lyari and impresses Major Iqbal to such an extent that he takes him to Bade sahed, who becomes a bedridden vegetable but still plots terrorist attacks in India.

Compared to the first part, the second part has more direct references to many incidents that have happened, like fake Indian currency making in Pakisthan, the pumping of thousands of crores to manipulate Indian general elections, plans to distribute it in UP through Atif Ahmed (Atiq Ahmed), Modi winning general elections, demonitisation, pumping in drugs in Punjab and making Punjab youth drug addicts, and the elimination of Atif Ahmed and all the terrorist attacks including the infamous Mumbai attack.

The second part starts where it was left in the first part, as far as extreme and brutal violence is concerned, beheading, dismembering parts of the body, punching eyes, pumping bullets in the buttocks, and the most direct abusive and curse words.    This malady, which was unique to South Indian movies, has spread to Hindi movies also, and we definitely need relief from it.   After seeing the violent scenes and abusive language, I really wonder what purpose our Censor Board serves except to trouble producers of movies like Jana Nayagan for political reasons.    These scenes are difficult to digest, even to ardent action movie fans, let alone for a female and family audience.     Someone needs to counsel our directors that an action scene does not mean hacking goons by dozens.   Our directors need to watch Jackie Chan action movies before directing action scenes.  

As far as acting goes, unlike Bahubali-2, Dhurandhar–2 has to make up for the absence of Rehman Dacoit's role, brilliantly played by Akshey Khanna; it's like not having Katappa in Bahubali-2.    In his absence, Ranveer has to shoulder heavy responsibility, and he has not disappointed.   He is intense in action scenes, competent in emotional scenes, and expresses himself well through intense looks when he is quiet.   Arjun Ramphal has a bigger role in his part, and he did very well.   Mahadevan, Rakesh Bedi, Sara and Sanjay Dutt were as good as they were in the first part.

 Shashwat Sachdev's music and BGM were very good.   Like the first part, many popular Bollywood hits and the Rasputin of Boney M were used.     The action direction team, consisting of Aejaz Gulab, Sea-Young Oh, Yannick Ben, and Ramazan Bulut did a great job, well supported by the cinematographer Vikash.   The editor has not done a great job; one wishes it had been more crisp, and the running time should have been trimmed by a good 20 minutes.   At 3 hours and 50 minutes, it is tiring and taxing.    

All praise is due to Aditya Dhar, writer, director and co-producer, for the way he handled a controversial subject without any fear.    There are direct references to real-life characters, political bigwigs like Pakistani terrorists, Pakistan ISI, Pakistani politicians, including Nawaz Shariff, Indian National Security Advisor, drug lords etc.   We used to watch such movies in Hollywood about Heads of State, the plot to overthrow them, the assassination bids etc.    Good that Part – 1 has broken all box office records in Hindi, and part-2 is on its way to do so  

For reasons best known to them, the people with left-leaning views are up in arms criticising the movie that it is a propaganda movie.   Every terrorist attack in India referred to in the movie has actually happened. The terrorist camps across the border and their infiltration into India to carry out attacks, including the Mumbai attack, were facts, and if they are shown and made a backdrop for a movie and woven a story around, how does it become a propaganda movie?   Hypotetically, even if it is a progaganda film by BJP / Hindus against Pakistan, so be it, what is the harm?   We have large doses of Pathans from Zanjeers to Pathan, and anti Hindu movies like PK, OMG, pro Pakistan/Terrorists movies like Mission Kashmir, Haider, Pathan.   For decades Hindi film industry was financed by across the border gangs who dictated the narratives.   Let them make a movie golorifying Pakistan and terrorists like Kasab, who is stopping them.    The very fact that the first part has broken all records and second part has a bumpers openings, shows that the audience has accepted it and who cares about validating from the left-wingers. 

Box Office: As expected, Dhurandhar – 2 has opened to a record advance booking and reported to have made Rs. 150 crores in the very first day and is living up to the hype created and surely march towards Rs. 1000 crores mark.  

I give 4/5 and strongly recommend it if you can stomach extreme violence and have patience to sit through for close to four hours. 

 

S. Prabhakar

20.3.2026