Khakee: The Bihar Chapter: The picture is as ugly as it is bleak, observes Deepa Gahlot.

Khakee: The Bihar Chapter was produced and written by Neeraj Pandey, based on the book by police officer Amit Lodha Bihar Diaries: The true story of how Bihar’s most dangerous criminal was caught.

Karan Tacker plays Lodha, the engineer-turned-IPS officer who sincerely tells his interviewers that he wants to make a difference in society. Because of his naïve optimism, he is called up to the Bihar squad and sent to a “penalty post” behind Sheikhpura, where he arrives with his wife (Nikita Dutta) and young son.

His immediate superior is the opportunistic Mukteshwar Chaubey (Ashutosh Rana: Excellent!), whose superpower is being in the right place at the right time.

Amit is thrown straight in at the deep end when he’s sent to deal with a group of villagers who are blocking a railroad track so someone in power will listen to their demands.

He offers himself as a hostage, sure his colleagues will come to rescue him.

In the end, the villagers take pity on him and dump him home.

The lesson he learns is that everyone is in this hell hole of injustice for themselves.

Bihar has a reputation for being the most lawless state in India for a reason; it is a seething cauldron of official apathy, caste, crime, corruption, and politicians stirring it for their own benefit.

An honest government employee faces hurdles too high to jump.

In a powerful and black humorous sequence that explains how the state works (or doesn’t work), a police force led by Ranjan Kumar (Abhimanyu Singh) waits to arrest an outlaw, but they can only proceed if they receive the orders from above, and that depends on who – that is, the candidate of which caste – wins the election.

After several career zigzags, Amit is given the task of capturing Chandan Mahto (Avinash Tiwary), who is cunning and fearless and cultivated by leaders who want his lower-caste vote bank on their side. But after orchestrating some brutal massacres, he has no choice but to hunt down the man and his loyal followers.

The problem is that Bihar (and Uttar Pradesh) has been the site of several fictional cop and crime saga, much gory and obscene because they get away with it on OTT.

khaki‘s origins in reality don’t make much of a difference – people who are gunned down look the same, evil is the same shade of black.

This show leaves audiences with the difficult choice of which side of the moral divide to stand on – Chandan and his chief assistant Chyawanprash Sahu (Jatin Sarna) are ruthless and bloodthirsty; It is also true that their low caste left them no choice but to fight for their people.

The actual manhunt with technology and cell phone eavesdropping is reminiscent of the underrated film seer.

khakiwhich runs for over seven hours, keeps the plot twists going and then goes on for much longer than necessary, even in the interests of truthfulness.

Amidst the crowded cast, a few interesting characters stand out.

How can a project about Bihar be done without Ravi Kishan?

In this macho culture, Sahu’s wife Meeta (Aishwarya Sushmita) unabashedly uses her rustic sex appeal to survive.

As usually happens by accident or design, the righteousness of good pales before the audacity of evil. Avinash Tiwary tries to look good, discolored teeth and all, and almost always steals the thunder from Tacker.

The series, now filmed in real-world locations like so many others, continues to give urban viewers a glimpse of how the other half lives, and the picture is as ugly as it is grim.

Bihar will need a lot of real development or some PR spinning to get out of the rut it’s gotten into. Until then, it will continue to provide film and web show producers with material for voyeuristic violent content.

Khakee: The Bihar Chapter is streaming on Netflix.

Khakee: The Bihar Chapter review Rediff Rating: