Kayakalp: Why Sacred Games could be Indian television's Lagaan moment

The first Netflix original India series, Sacred Games, represents a brave new direction that Indian television could take

Note: This article contains spoilers

“Ja ke dekh record mein, kaun hai! Insaan hai ke bhagwan?”

Ganesh Eknath Gaitonde calls Sartaj Singh one night, like a god, and thus begins a story that would eventually take hold of both on-screen characters and audiences off it.

“Aham Brahmasmi,” he tells Sartaj later on; underlining the god complex that Gaitonde is suffering from in the story. Sartaj is the confused soul and Gaitonde pretends to show him the way. Sacred Games is a story of these two voices, their story arcs intersecting somewhere in different time periods.

Gaitonde is played by the