24 days to Mumbai’s destruction. This episode wastes no time in picking up where we left off last time. The police are at the crime scene. Sartaj notices that the dead girl in the hallway is holding a pair of car keys in her hand. He obviously isn’t able to do anything about this because he’s obviously getting shuffled off the case. 

Parulkar asks him why he didn’t call for backup? (A reasonable question) Sartaj makes lame excuses. His department is not happy with him. 

 

In the rest of Mumbai, the news of Gaitonde’s death is sending shockwaves. A politician named Bhonsle and a Bollywood female actor are shown disturbed and shocked by the headline. Gaitonde must’ve commanded a lot of influence. 

 

RAW and IB are also at the scene of the crime and are fighting over who gets to investigate the case. Anjali asks if Sartaj has been interviewed and it looks like he hasn’t. 

 

Bhonsle the politician calls Parulkar and tells him that no serious investigation should take place. Everything they find must be covered up. Looks like he is involved in at least some of Gaitonde’s crimes. He threatens to transfer Parulkar out of Mumbai to a Naxal area if he doesn’t comply. The Bollywood actor gets on a call and asks for her “file”. She threatens to expose everyone if her name comes out in connection to Gaitonde. She seems to want to speak to a Jojo who is missing in action. 

 

Back at the station Sartaj narrates what happened the night before. He mentioned everything except the connection with his father. The questions remain. What will happen in 24 days? Who is Trivedi? As soon as Sartaj leaves the room, Parulkar goes to discredit him to the IB and RAW agent. He’s trying to keep the investigation with IB, assisted by one of his trusted men from the Mumbai Police. They decide to track down a man named Bunty, who is Gaitonde’s friend. For those of you who forgot, Bunty is the same person that the shootout killer was looking for in the beginning of the first episode. 

 

Anjali realising that she can’t get the case with RAW without help, enlists Sartaj unofficially to find out about the dead woman for her. Anjali needs to prove a link to international issues in order to get the case reassigned to RAW.

 

Sartaj is then reprimanded by Parulkar. Parulkar asks him to comply with his testimony about the encounter killing in the Bengali Bura case. He also suspends him. He’s basically saying that if Sartaj backs up his story, he will cancel his suspension. The mother of the dead boy is making rounds in the police office trying to find out what happened to her son. Poor woman hasn’t even been told that he’s dead. 

 

Ah, good old fashioned Indian corruption and bureaucracy! The first half of this episode is different from the previous one, because it takes care to show the aftermath of the death of Gaitonde. Like a child jumping into a pool with a splash, his death has sent ripples in every direction and the effects will be felt for a long long time. 

 

Sartaj can’t get last night’s call out of his head. Why did Gaitonde call him? What was the connection with his father? He goes back to the crime scene and steals the car keys from evidence in order to track down the dead girl (perhaps encouraged by Anjali’s persistence). Gaitonde’s voice ushers him out, he is not going to let this one go so easily. 

 

Gaitonde’s voice also takes us back to 1984. We pick up from the death of Salim. Gaitonde finds a businessman to turn his smuggled gold into clean money. 

He realises that in order to be someone he needs to get a gang together. He finds the goons easily, but needs to find a brain. Enter Kanta bai. She runs her own desi tharra operation which he gets involved with and then slowly recruits her to his team. I like that they chose a woman as the brains of the operation. She lets him know that the money lies in the garbage business. The king of that business is Momin and Gopalmath is his kingdom. 

 

Gaitonde tries to bribe a government official, Talpade, to sell him the land on which garbage dumps are heaped during a government auction. He leaves with a threat - that he will make the necessary payments, but if he gets double crossed, then Talpade will face consequences. Gaitonde is rolling in money with his gold and alcohol businesses. However, this money does not give him any influence. He is turned away from a club where he sees a man named Suleiman Isa enter with a beautiful girl. Gaitonde wants everything Isa has - from his shiny red car, to the girl, to the influence. He gets beaten up immediately after, in the shady bar that does take his money. It’s Momin’s men. They threaten that if he comes near the garbage trade, he will be finished. Talpade ratted him out!

 

This fight lands him in the police station. His first case which Parulkar works on. Shoutout here to the make up department. Everyone looks very age appropriate through the meandering timelines. Even in the past you can tell that Parulkar has a corrupt and smug air about himself. Kanta Bai’s alcohol operation gets vandalised and Mathu is shit scared by these threats. He is planning to leave Mumbai. Gaitonde sees that everything he has worked for is vanishing in front of his eyes. Kanta suggests that Gaitonde show daring, in order to make a name for himself. It’s the only way, she tells him. 

 

Gaitonde kills Talpade. Revenge must be exacted. 

 

He then takes a match and petrol and burns the entire garbage dump down!

 

There’s a great shot of him sitting on a couch in the middle of the burning garbage dump with Kanta bai standing as his right hand woman. His voiceover tells us. 

“Momin ka bees crore ka dhandha, ek raat main raakh. Aur Momin ki laash tak nahi mili.”

What a bad ass!

 

With that he is the new king in Kailashpada. 

 

Back in the present, we see Sartaj trying to find the car that matches the keys. 

Anjali is still trying to figure out a connection to take the case under RAW. During her interception of the Sartaj-Gaitonde phone call, she is able to get a single document from his computers before everything gets erased. On it she finds Mathu’s number and begins to trace his whereabouts.

 

We then see a slice of life from Constable Katekar’s world. He is fast becoming one of my favorite characters on the show. Simple, hardworking and always there for Sartaj when he needs him. He took a bullet during the 26/11 terrorism attack. It’s been 10 years and it hasn’t healed. The government has provided no support and his wife is upset about this. But he’s not complaining. He’s making the best of the life that he has. We see him making love to his wife, when Sartaj calls to inform him that he has found the car. Katekar immediately gets into work mode and tracks down the registered address for the car. 

 

This is getting exciting. Two solid leads getting checked out simultaneously.

 

Anjali’s lead takes her to a house where everything is silent at first. Then as she steps in, the viewers recognise that this is the same house where the shootout took place in the first episode. It’s the same place where the shootout killer asked for Bunty. Everyone is seemingly dead. Anjali picks up a gun and starts to make her way through the house. Is this a smart move, I wonder? As a RAW agent, I’m guessing she can take care of herself. 

 

Sartaj breaks into the house that the car is registered to, with Katekar. This house looks totally normal. Though there are no living human beings in this house either. 

 

Cut to Anjali, who goes to the bathroom and finds Mathu lying dead...no, heavily injured.

 

Sartaj walks further into the house and comes across a mandala painting on the wall. This is the same design that was on the floor where Gaitonde died. He takes it off the hook to find a small knob. When he pulls the knob, it opens up a secret doorway. (And suddenly I feel like I’m watching a 60s Ajit movie).

 

Inside the room filled from ceiling to floor are stacks of cash! Netflix sure knows the value of leaving its audience on a cliffhanger. That’s how they’ve enabled an entire generation to binge watch their content. 

 

This episode is titled Halahal. Halahal was a deathly poison that needed to be extracted from the sea in order to get to the amrita or elixir. Gaitonde had to burn down an empire to set up his own. Sartaj, it seems, will have to go through a similar transformation. Can’t wait for the next episode!

 

5/5