Gambling dramas are exciting to watch and make you believe that earning quick money is easy-peasy. However, they always show the harsh reality and downfall in the end. Now, a new crime-gambling drama has arrived on Prime Video. Titled Matka King, it is directed by Nagraj Manjule and stars Vijay Varma, Sai Tamhankar, Kritika Kamra, Gulshan Grover, Siddharth Jadhav and others. After watching all eight episodes, here are my honest thoughts. So, read on!
Plot
The series tells the story of Brij Bhatti, a simple cotton mill worker in 1960s and ’70s Mumbai. Tired of his low-paying job, he decided to enter the gambling world. He creates a matka game based on total honesty and transparency. This unique style quickly becomes popular among regular working-class people and his small business soon grows into a huge empire. But as his power increases, problems also grow. Police, politicians, rival gangsters, and media start targeting him.
Performances
Vijay Varma is excellent in the role of Brij Bhatti. He plays the character with power and confidence and shows all emotions naturally. His eyes, voice, and body language are very strong and carries the entire show on his shoulders and makes the character very authentic and interesting to watch.
Sai Tamhankar plays the role of Brij’s wife with a lot of grace and emotion. She shows the pain, love, and strength of her character very well. Even though it’s a quiet role, it is very powerful and brings a lot of heart to the story.
Kritika Kamra portrays her character with softness and strength at the same time. Her chemistry with Vijay Varma is very natural and nice to watch.
Gulshan Grover plays the role of the gambling don very well. Even with a few scenes, he makes a strong impact. His voice and presence suit the character perfectly.
Siddharth Jadhav is very entertaining as Dagdu. He brings great energy and funny moments to the show. Siddharth Jadhav also shows the serious and emotional side of his character nicely.
The other actors also perform very well. They add emotion, strength, and realism to the story and their performances make the show enjoyable and believable.
Verdict
Vijay Varma is the biggest reason to watch Matka King. He is amazing as Brij Bhatti. I was really amazed by how deeply he got into the character. He moves smoothly from a struggling young man to a powerful and confident Matka King. You simply cannot take your eyes off him. The visuals of the show are beautiful. The retro Mumbai look, vintage fashion, houses, and lighting are done nicely and make the series visually appealing.
The background music and songs are well made and add much-needed energy to the important scenes. Also, the makers showed and explained the matka business and its politics in an interesting way.
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In the end, I feel Matka King has some strong points but also some weaknesses. Vijay Varma’s performance is easily the best part and carries the whole series. However, the biggest problem with the series is that the story becomes very slow and stretched in the middle episodes. Many scenes feel repetitive and unnecessarily long, which makes it hard to keep watching. Even though the performances and visuals are nice, the weak pacing and lack of uniqueness make the show drag. It follows a very familiar rise-and-fall formula that we have seen in many crime dramas before. Because of this, the series doesn’t feel new or exciting after the first few episodes and tests patience.
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