Sacred Games: Season 1 Episode 7 Recap - Rudra
Many past and present connections are made as Anjali and Sartaj get closer to learning about may happen to Mumbai in two weeks time.
This episode picks up right where the last one left off. Sartaj is going through Zoya’s files and he finds Zoya. She is from Pakistan (not Kanpur) and her real name is Jamila. So this is what Zoya’s been hiding. I am guessing that she met Jojo and became a high-end escort. She probably had an affair with Gaitonde. They helped her with a new identity which allowed her to enter the film industry.
Sartaj doesn’t waste any time. He goes to a film set to confront her with the truth. She immediately calls Parulkar who in turn calls up Sartaj and asks him to back off.
Anjali is dealing with her own problems. Her boss is planning to shuffle her off the case. (Honestly, given the bad way she’s handled everything, I’m not sympathetic or surprised). She tells him, that Malcolm Murad is in India. He’s a famed terrorist who has been behind many attacks. She is trying to stay on it, because she can sense that she’s on to something.
Sartaj is being shady again. No, it’s not his wife he’s stalking this time. It’s Zoya. He tracks her phone and discovers that she called Parulkar. He isn’t surprised. He already knew his boss was a corrupt son of a B. Sartaj decides to try a different tactic. He calls Zoya and tells her that Jojo’s file on her is with him. Zoya is in a fix now. She will have to meet him.
16 Days Left.
Sartaj visits Zoya at her house. Zoya has mandala curtains. This definitely stood out at me because this was the same pattern at the house where Gaitonde died. The mandala also repeated on the painting at Jojo’s house behind which the secret door with stacks of currency was discovered. There is definitely a significance here that we will learn later (hopefully!).
Zoya is revealing her connection. She says that Gaitonde was scared in the last days. He kept asking her if she betrayed him. He also repeated to her that everyone was going to die, except Trivedi.
Who is this Trivedi?
Anjali’s RAW colleague Milkha seems to have had better luck answering this question. But instead of getting a straight answer, we are now back to Nawazuddin’s voice narrating the past as Gaitonde.
1992, Bhopal. Trivedi was a follower of Gaitonde’s third father. He goes to meet Pankaj Tripathi, the third father. Guruji says that the world will change in 25 years. From 1992 to 25 years later would be 2017. This is what is going down in Mumbai right now. But we will have to wait to learn more.
Gaitonde meets Trivedi for the first time. Trivedi continues to be a mysterious character. He speaks in riddles which irritates (not only me, but also) Gaitonde. He leaves in a huff. In the back a Ram Lila play continues. And we learn about the fall of Babri Masjid. This starts the 25 year cycle that Guruji was referring to according to Gaitonde. All of Bombay is burning, riots take place. It is a sad and divisive time. Things are the same in Gopalmath. And while Gaitonde tries to resist joining the communal fighting, he eventually gives in after his wife explains to him the power of religion.
This results in some people showing up at Gaitonde’s house. There is a cross fire in the house and Gaitonde is able to deal with it. But in the aftermath, he discovers that Subhadra has been fatally wounded. Bunty gets shot in the legs and this is how he ends up in a wheelchair. I love the multi-narrative aspect of the show where you can see people’s evolution as well as downfall. Bunty goes on to say that those people were Isa’s men.
Gaitonde then remembers that Subhadra talked to him about Ram killing Ravana. This man really does have a god complex as we’ve already seen before. He then believes that Isa is Ravana and he needs to restore the balance of good in the universe. So he destroys Isa’s entire network, kills Muslim, burns their neighbourhoods down. He is acting like Rudra, the personification of terror. Rudra is an incarnation of Vishnu who goes on a ruthless hunt, a might man with no mercy.
Gaitonde is coming from a selfish place. He avenges Subhadra. But Gopalmath thinks he avenged them and in his own words - he becomes their God. All this power and influence does not go unnoticed by authorities. Parulkar comes to arrest him. It is hinted that Trivedi in involved, but we don’t know how he’s involved.
Sartaj and Anjali - the two misfits of their department - come together to find that they are on the same path. They swap information about Trivedi. He is now a big shot IFS bureaucrat. He was working at an NGO where Gaitonde was also involved and they sent water in tankers to Mumbai. These are probably the same tankers from the meeting between Bunty and Murad!
They decide to go to the registered office for the NGO. The building is packed up and closed. They run into a person who seems them and tries to make a run for it. They corner him and try to get information from him. He refuses to answer what is going on, or what is in the tankers. But he suggests that they check the tankers themselves and gives them the location.
Anjali is pulling up the list of IFS officers from the years when the NGO got funding to see if they can find more connections. Also, the NGO has received no funding in 10 years, so something fishy is definitely going on here.
Trivedi has heard of this trail and calls up Parulkar. He tells him to control Sartaj. Parulkar calls up Sartaj to tell him off, but Sartaj snubs him. He’s had enough of this man’s corruptions.
In hot pursuit, Anjali and Sartaj reach the warehouse. A bunch of men come to attack them, but Anjali singlehandedly holds them off, giving Sartaj the chance to get on the train that is leaving the station with the tankers. You go girl! Finally, an episode, where this RAW agent has done some high quality case work.
Back in 1992, we see Gaitonde in prison being beaten black and blue by Parulkar. Dilbagh Singh is also at the station. Another connection established. This is how Gaitonde and Dilbagh Singh know each other. Singh shows him kindness while he’s mistreated in jail. This is probably why Gaitonde decided to call Sartaj in the first place.
Anjali locks all the men in an empty tanker. I’m really impressed with her. She gets a call that connects the fundings with Trivedi conclusively. An address associated with the donations is available. She decides to go investigate the house. She enters and the house is abandoned. She sees something interesting and calls RAW HQ asking for urgent backup. Before we learn what she’s learned, a gunshot is heard. Murad was hiding in this house and he goes straight for the kill.
Anjali Mathur, the RAW agent is no more! We can’t keep losing all these great characters. Now it looks like Sartaj Singh will have no choice but to go at it alone. Then there was one.
Episode Rating 4.5/5