Matka King review: ‘Matka King’ is loosely based on the infamous exploits of real-life cotton trader Ravi Khatri, who created a highly addictive gambling game out of the humble earthen pot in the Bombay of the 60s. Vijay Varma plays Brij Bhatti, whose sharp brains and an endless capacity to keep his eye on the end result, refuses to labour under his canny seth (Gulshan Grover) when push comes to shove: slowly but steadily, his efforts take him out of his chawl, where he lives with his younger brother Lakshman (Bhupendra Jadawat), wife (Sai Tamhankar) and little boy, to spiffy mansions and fancy boudoirs of the rich and famous.
Co-writers Manjule and Abhay Koranne take eight overlong episodes to tell their tale, set during one of the country’s most tumultuous eras. And that, right there, is the problem: the storytelling lacks zest and sharpness. You want to tell me about a man who made his fortune by holding out fragile hope to those who had so little, whose so-called principles of truth-telling, underlined at every opportunity, is doused in hypocrisy, I’m here for it.
But to insist that Brij’s honesty– he will take out the cards which lead to the winning numbers only in the presence of others, in the interests of transparency– makes him a hero, leaches interest. Varma tries hard to keep us engaged, and he is skilled enough to do so, but the writing lets him down. As it does the others, with Sidhharth Jadhav as Daghdu, the loyal right-hand man of Brij, who is also the sutradhaar, and the most striking character in the show. His track with a naive telephone operator (Jamie Lever) who becomes a cog in the matka wheel trails off after a while, but his conflicted relationship with Brij remains the rock of this show.
The thing that has made Manjule one of the most powerful storytellers working currently is his ability to infuse his best work (Fandry, Sairat) with social and political inequities. In this one, what should have been the most important element of the show, the matka-addicted mill-workers and their unions whose movement kept Bombay’s greedy sharks at bay, remain a scratchy backdrop.
Equally thin is the connection between netas (Kishore Kadam, who has, unsurprisingly, one of the best lines in the show) and the creation of lottery systems, as addictive and damaging as the much-reviled matka. The name of ‘Antulay’ (one of Maharashtra’s most powerful ministers) is such a throwaway that I wondered if I heard it right.
Amongst others in prominent parts are Girish Kulkarni as a doughty reporter who wants to expose the matka king and his rings; Jadawat as the ambitious younger brother desperate to get out from working under Brij’s shadow; Grover as the horse-racing seth who has no empathy for his workers; Sahukar, lip adorned by a thin moustache, as a slippery Muslim superstar named Maqsood, who wheedles funds out of Brij for his blockbuster (Bharat Ka Beta, good touch there) but refuses to acknowledge the contribution. Their potential stays unrealised.
Also Read – Bhooth Bangla movie review: Akshay Kumar’s dated, ungainly film makes you miss Monjulika
Story continues below this ad
The two ladies as the opposite-yet-complementary sides of Brij’s coin, Tamhankar playing the unhappy wife, and Kritika Kamra as the high-society Parsi widow who becomes his willing accomplice as the Matka Queen, occupy space, but leave little impact, something you can say for the show as a whole.
Matka King cast: Vijay Varma, Siddharth Jadhav, Bhupendra Jadavat, Girish Kulkarni, Sai Tamhankar, Kritika Kamra, Gulshan Grover, Kishore Kadam, Cyrus Sahukar, Jamie Lever
Matka King director: Nagraj Popatrao Manjule
Matka King rating: 2 stars
