Ronit J

Black Warrant Synopsis:

When an upright officer accepts a job at Tihar Jail, he vows to make amends after witnessing cold-blooded corruption within its walls.

Black Warrant Review:

I’ll start by saying this: If I had to guess, this is a second-screen-friendly show: a show that you can enjoy whilst browsing your phone. You can skip an episode, and you’d probably still follow the whole season without any qualms. However, if you do keep your phone aside, the show has some really compelling experiences to offer. Especially episode 2 (the Ranga-Billa case).

Bleak and unsettling, bordering the absurd

The first episode—although not the strongest—clearly sets the bleak tone and punishing setting. Tihar is not a place for the kind and gentle folks of the real world. Sunil Gupta (Zahan Kapoor) is your everyman with a good heart who is slowly entrenched in this world of criminals, corruption, and moral dilemmas. He wants to change the system, but this isn’t your mass Bollywood flick where good deeds and pure-hearted efforts pay off; this is a brutal world of hardened criminals and unfortunate innocents locked in like cattle and treated like sub-humans.

The episodes navigate different cases from India’s history whose key moments played out inside the infamous jail. From Charles Sobhraj’s (Sidhant Gupta) candid freedom, to the Ranga-Billa case, to even the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, we see snippets of India’s history affect the ecosystem inside Tihar, and in turn the lives of its jailers and staff. Sunil continues to hold his ground, but even he lets his patience slip. By the end, he is no longer the no-cuss, no-violence officer. He learns to play the game, learns to outsmart the system, all while retaining (most) of his moral high-ground.

Black Warrant does a lot right, especially showing us the harsh realities of the world inside Tihar. The tensions are almost perpetually high. Tihar’s weird power dynamics and corruption often border the absurd. Many inmates serve as bodyguards, Sobhraj enjoys a luxurious imprisonment, while other inmates are denied basic utilities like blankets because the SP & DSP have sold that inventory to fill their own pockets.

Black Warrant is a bleak confirmation of all those horrid rumours that we have all heard ever since we were kids.

Music kills the mood, Personal life stories slow the pace

My biggest complaint with the show was its use of music. With the exception of episode 2, every other episode featured music that neither added to the narrative, nor established mood or atmosphere. It was just… there. As a distraction, much like those processions passing by below your building playing loud and out-of-tune music that’s less melody and more noise pollution. If a character is doing something inspiring, I don’t want to listen to a funky EDM track. If a character does something corrupt, a hero track is probably not the best mood-setter. And that’s barely scratching the surface. I found myself constantly breaking out of the show’s immersion purely because of the music. It seemed to cry out to me, trying to attract more attention that the scene itself.

And if that isn’t enough, the jailers’ personal lives seem to interfere with the narrative more than they support it. Dahiya’s (Anurag Thakur) affair with the SP’s wife, Mangat’s (Paramvir Cheema) alcoholism stemming from his brother’s involvement with the wrong crowd, even Sunil’s affair with Priya, all feel forced into the narrative to humanise our protagonists. But… do these folk really need more humanising? They’ve already shown their humanity through hesitation towards many of the prison’s wrongdoings. They’re flawed characters in a terrifying setting. Sunil’s family drama made sense, but other than that I didn’t find the point of the other personal stories. Mangat’s brother could have been a compelling plot, but it remained a background story that was merely told. Most of these personal life stories end up slamming the brakes on the show’s pacing, with many plot points—especially the two love affairs—seeming pointless and forced.

Black Warrant Finale

The tensions rise significantly by the end. The character dynamics are in shambles. Everything seems like it’s falling apart. With such a brilliant set up, I was excepting some kind of hard-to-swallow pill that will result in a bittersweet finale. Instead, we got a magical resolution that felt too rushed and too good-to-be-true. Reminiscent of a Raju Hirani story, all character conflicts are resolved almost too conveniently in favour of a faux-inspiring conclusion where our characters achieve the reforms they wanted, breaking up all gang tensions and virtually solving every problem that until the penultimate episode were glaring and seemed unsolvable.

Only a few of these resolutions feel earned. Most feel forced. It’s a little unbelievable that so many problems are resolved almost overnight, and everything magically falls into place. In my opinion, this was the exact kind of conclusion that was dismissed in the opening episode, making you wonder how much of this ending was in the book (a non fiction read, by the way), and how much based on corporate and algorithmic requirements.

Black Warrant Season 2?

The ending clearly sets up a second season with Charles Sobhraj’s escape (the makers spend way too long establishing the sleeping prison before Sunil finds Sobhraj’s empty cell for this to not be a set up). I’ll admit that the story feels complete enough—something that most media franchises are failing to deliver in this post-MCU age of content. However, even Black Warrant isn’t too far away from inserting that tease for season 2. Depending on who the showrunners are, I may or may not watch it. In fact, given how this season ended, you can just stop watching before the credits roll and smile at the fact that we got a happy ending.

In Conclusion:

I haven’t read the book, so I can’t say which is better; it all comes down to preferences. For me, reading a non-fiction book would probably be a more interesting and compelling experience. Regardless, Black Warrant is a fantastic, if not a flawed, web series. A second-screen-friendly show, I’d say give this one a shot. Many of Motwane’s strengths are on display here, alas, with many of OTT’s flaws.

Also check out:

• Kinds of Kindness (2024) | Film Review
• Monster (2023) | Film Review

• Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One! by Ronit J
• Abandoned by the Gods by Ronit J

What other show/movie/book would you like me to review? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time.