Following the success of Khakee: The Bihar Chapter (2022), showrunner Neeraj Pandey expands his crime thriller universe with Khakee: The Bengal Chapter, the second instalment in Netflix’s Khakee saga. This time the battleground shifts from Bihar to Bengal, where political power play, police crackdowns and underworld rivalries rule the land.
This is the first Netflix show to feature leading stars from Bengal, with the powerhouse duo of Prosenjit Chatterjee and Jeet sharing the screen for the first time. The show also marks Jeet’s OTT debut.
Pandey — who serves as the showrunner alongside directors Debatma Mandal and Tushar Kanti Ray — goes for a stylistic shift by tweaking the tone, pacing, and character arcs within his brand of gangster actioners. But he plays it safe, sticking to predictable tropes that have long defined the genre.
Khakee: The Bengal Chapter is set in the early 2000s Kolkata. Unlike The Bihar Chapter, which was inspired by an IPS officer’s memoir, this show unfolds as a work of fiction. The plot revolves around IPS officer Arjun Maitra (Jeet), who is tasked with restoring law and order in a city where political conspiracies and mafia brutality are the order of the day.
Despite the change in setting — from the mixed urban-rural landscape of Bihar to the labyrinthine alleys of Kolkata — the core elements remain the same. There are the politicians, conniving crime lords, and an overstretched police force. The intrigue is familiar, the power struggles are well-trodden, and the betrayals expected. And while there are nods to Bengal’s political landscape, the series doesn’t fully lean into these complexities.
As the city’s de facto puppet master, Prosenjit’s Barun Roy embodies the moral ambiguity of political power, leveraging crime syndicates for his benefit. His influence pits Arjun Maitra against Saswata Chatterjee’s ruthless mafia kingpin, Shankar Baruah aka Bagha, whose empire is maintained by his two formidable lieutenants, Sagor Talukdar (Ritwik Bhowmik) and Ranjit Thakur (Aadil Zafar Khan).
The events are set in motion when an honest police officer, Saptarshi Sinha (Parambrata Chattopadhyay), is murdered by Bagha’s henchmen. The ruling party of Bengal, under heat from Opposition leader Nibedita Basak (Chitrangada Singh) for rising crimes in the state, brings in Arjun Maitra to bring the criminals to book. In the course of his investigation, Arjun uncovers a nexus between the gangsters and politicians, the roots of which run deep.
Prosenjit brings gravitas to the role of Barun Roy, a calculating political heavyweight. Jeet, known for his massy action films, channels his screen presence effectively into Arjun Maitra’s dogged pursuit of justice.
Saswata Chatterjee, best remembered for his eerie turn as Bob Biswas in Kahaani, delivers another compelling performance as the city’s most feared gangster. He exudes a quiet menace, commanding both fear and reluctant admiration. Ritwik Bhowmik and Aadil Zafar Khan, as the contrasting right-hand men of Bagha, fit their roles.
Parambrata as a by-the-book cop is a throwback to police officer Satyaki Sinha from Kahaani. Chitrangada Singh, as Opposition leader Nibedita Basak, reminds you of her dazzling act in Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.
One of Khakee: The Bengal Chapter’s strengths lies in its cinematography. Directors Debatma Mandal and Tushar Kanti Ray — the latter is also one of the show’s cinematographers alongside Arvind Singh, Tarashree Sahoo and Souvik Basu — ensure that Kolkata’s streets, ghettos, and political offices are captured with a certain level of authenticity. You get a sense of the city’s historic grandeur alongside the weight of systemic corruption.
The background score by Sanjoy Chowdhury accentuates the tension, while Jeet Gannguli’s title track, which changes lyrics across episodes, adds to the thematic resonance.