Adapted from Arnab Ray’s 2016 novel, “Sultan of Delhi: Ascension,” and co-directed by Milan Luthria and Suparn S. Varma, the Hindi web series “Sultan of Delhi” dropped on Disney+Hotstar on October 13. The nine episodes of the first season of the series narrate the story of Arjun Bhatia (Tahir Raj Bhasin), who flees Lahore in 1947 with his father during Partition and stops in the mid-1960s. Arjun hails from a wealthy family and overnight loses not only all the wealth but also his entire family in Lahore. He ends up in a refugee camp in Delhi and grows up in a lawless jungle where he strives to become king one day. Arjun is ruthless and fears nothing, and he starts working for Jagan Seth (Vinay Pathak), who takes a shine to him when he repairs his car.
Nilendu, also known as Bangali (Anjumm Sharma), becomes Arjun’s partner-in-crime, and the two are inseparable in both good and bad times. They become part of the city’s illegal activities, thanks to Jagan Seth. It’s during this time that Arjun meets the arrogant, power-hungry aristocrat Rajender Pratap Singh (Nishant Dahiya), who is a puppet in the hands of Shankari Devi (Anupriya Goenka). Arjun and RP Singh are always at loggerheads and instantly dislike each other, perhaps because both are vying for the same thing—the powerful king’s throne. Being in Delhi, power and politics obviously go hand in hand, and the mafia involved in illegal activities want one leader rather than many.
So, who ends up ruling Delhi? The initial episodes of the series are a little too by-the-book and stiff. At nine episodes, ‘Sultan of Delhi’ is perhaps a tad too long. The biggest let-down is the lack of consistency in the screenplay; it’s slow in parts and racy in others, and it gets highly engaging only when the rivalry between Arjun and RP Singh intensifies. The fights between the various dons and the struggle for power are mostly par for the course, filled with the usual betrayals, manipulation, and so on. The two standout relationships are the bromance between Arjun and Bangali and the contempt between Arjun and RP Singh. While the former may be clichéd, the latter is more gripping.
Speaking about the performances, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Nishant Dahiya, and Anjumm Sharma have performed their roles quite well. But sadly, all the women in the series—Anupriya Goenka, Mouni Roy, Harleen Sethi, and Mehreen Pirzada—are all just stereotypes. Anupriya Goenka, for instance, is not only RP Singh’s vampy mistress, but she was also his father’s mistress a decade ago. And she doesn’t age a day. Mehreen Pirzada ends up playing a suffering wife, and Harleen Sethi flits in and out of the series with no significant purpose.
‘Sultan of Delhi’ tries to marry storytelling with the world of mafia dons, tawdry glamour, and vintage 1950s and 1960s India, similar to Bollywood cinema. But it comes alive only when it delves into relationships and goes beyond gang violence. Pulp and pop culture aside, Milan Luthria’s ‘Sultan of Delhi’ is an earnest attempt to showcase Delhi of those times. And it looks like a second season is well on its way too.
