I haven't reviewed on imdb since 2009 (when I had to review Cage's Bad Lieutenant). I now had to login and give a review after hating this so much and swearing at the screen (in Hindi). Surely the "good reviews" here are planted by crew or paid shills.
I waited over 10 years for this. I read the 1,000 page book twice. I truly loved it. Gave it to key friends as a gift and did loads of word nk of mouth for it. I visited Leopold's in Bombay fgs!
So for those of us that loved the book, laughed, cried and had a sense of wonder about it. I'd still say watch this as see how they have totally butchered and worse, disrespected the book. I've reached episode 8 and cannot take it anymore without venting my venom. Few points:
1. The casting is dire. Khader Bhai & Abdullah CAN'T speak Hindi!!!! English viewers won't notice. But Asians will. This will play worldwide so authenticity is vital. Khader is the head of the mafia and he can't speak the language. Played by an effete, bony useless actor.
2. Abdullah Taheri, the muscular, handsome, crazy fighter that so impresses in the book is played by the actor as what I see as a chuckling, gay, bony Arab. It's obvious from his work, that the actor has not had enough respect for the material to read the book first.
3. The actor playing Prabhu gives it his all. But he IS NOT PRABHU. He misses the character totally.
All 3 of these are, apart from Lin (we'll come to him) are the SPINE of the story. There are amazing Asian actors that could have played the above roles and correctly delivered the dialogue. But they spat in the fans' faces and did this.
4. Charlie Hunnam plays Lin, the Alpha male ex-con, bodybuilder and hard fighter, philosopher as a pussy, hunched over, apologetic, skinny pansy. He is literally "sorry and looking for redemption" in every scene! He does the same acting and "poor puppy" apologetic expression in LITERALLY EVERY scene! He even gets seriously bullied by slum kids, grannies and Prabhu! It's unbelievable. And his Aussie "accent" is basically a watered down scouse Liverpool accent! What is going on? A totally invisible performance.
4. And yes, it is like a soap opera as others here have said, pure melodrama. He's doing some pseudo doctor work on slum dwellers in scene after scene. And we genuinely don't care if the random granny he's crying about kicks the bucket. That's the "tension" in this dross. No pace, rubbish action and direction.
5. Not only is the casting fake and flawed. In a book that took over 10 years to be filmed, they couldn't wait for lockdown to end and shot it in Thailand and Australia!! This, in a book where the main character IS the CITY OF BOMBAY! It looks fake and bloodless with rubbish CGI.
6. The idiots actually thought they'd get commissioned for season 2!! Unbelievable arrogance. They've added lightweight, cheap subplots and story changes for zero reason. The way the arrogant Game of Thrones did at the end. Look how that ended. When you therefore understand that they thus could have had at least 24 episodes and done justice to the 1,000 page book just as GDR wrote it, none of this makes sense! They could have made it amazing.
GDR has been promoting it on his Instagram. He's a gentleman. But this, ironically, will badly damage the book and future sales. Because people will think this was rubbish and then tar the superb book with the same brush.
Such a massive letdown. I'll tell you the truth, I knew from the trailer it was bloodless trash. That's why I waited 3 months to finally put it on. But if you're a fan of the book, still watch it. Why? Because you will at least get a perverse pleasure in seeing how they've butchered one of your favourite books of all time and you'll see, film life can be unfair :(
I waited over 10 years for this. I read the 1,000 page book twice. I truly loved it. Gave it to key friends as a gift and did loads of word nk of mouth for it. I visited Leopold's in Bombay fgs!
So for those of us that loved the book, laughed, cried and had a sense of wonder about it. I'd still say watch this as see how they have totally butchered and worse, disrespected the book. I've reached episode 8 and cannot take it anymore without venting my venom. Few points:
1. The casting is dire. Khader Bhai & Abdullah CAN'T speak Hindi!!!! English viewers won't notice. But Asians will. This will play worldwide so authenticity is vital. Khader is the head of the mafia and he can't speak the language. Played by an effete, bony useless actor.
2. Abdullah Taheri, the muscular, handsome, crazy fighter that so impresses in the book is played by the actor as what I see as a chuckling, gay, bony Arab. It's obvious from his work, that the actor has not had enough respect for the material to read the book first.
3. The actor playing Prabhu gives it his all. But he IS NOT PRABHU. He misses the character totally.
All 3 of these are, apart from Lin (we'll come to him) are the SPINE of the story. There are amazing Asian actors that could have played the above roles and correctly delivered the dialogue. But they spat in the fans' faces and did this.
4. Charlie Hunnam plays Lin, the Alpha male ex-con, bodybuilder and hard fighter, philosopher as a pussy, hunched over, apologetic, skinny pansy. He is literally "sorry and looking for redemption" in every scene! He does the same acting and "poor puppy" apologetic expression in LITERALLY EVERY scene! He even gets seriously bullied by slum kids, grannies and Prabhu! It's unbelievable. And his Aussie "accent" is basically a watered down scouse Liverpool accent! What is going on? A totally invisible performance.
4. And yes, it is like a soap opera as others here have said, pure melodrama. He's doing some pseudo doctor work on slum dwellers in scene after scene. And we genuinely don't care if the random granny he's crying about kicks the bucket. That's the "tension" in this dross. No pace, rubbish action and direction.
5. Not only is the casting fake and flawed. In a book that took over 10 years to be filmed, they couldn't wait for lockdown to end and shot it in Thailand and Australia!! This, in a book where the main character IS the CITY OF BOMBAY! It looks fake and bloodless with rubbish CGI.
6. The idiots actually thought they'd get commissioned for season 2!! Unbelievable arrogance. They've added lightweight, cheap subplots and story changes for zero reason. The way the arrogant Game of Thrones did at the end. Look how that ended. When you therefore understand that they thus could have had at least 24 episodes and done justice to the 1,000 page book just as GDR wrote it, none of this makes sense! They could have made it amazing.
GDR has been promoting it on his Instagram. He's a gentleman. But this, ironically, will badly damage the book and future sales. Because people will think this was rubbish and then tar the superb book with the same brush.
Such a massive letdown. I'll tell you the truth, I knew from the trailer it was bloodless trash. That's why I waited 3 months to finally put it on. But if you're a fan of the book, still watch it. Why? Because you will at least get a perverse pleasure in seeing how they've butchered one of your favourite books of all time and you'll see, film life can be unfair :(
Tell Your Friends