Bhaukaal – Hindi web series review (English)

Bhaukal, A Hindi web series streaming on MX player since March 2020, the story is based on true events and of the Police-Thriller-Crime drama genre with 10 episodes of average length 27-43 minutes.

Lead character Navneet Sikera (Mohit Rana). Newly promoted honest SSP, who takes charge with the wish to make Muzaffarnagar, the crime capital of the country crime-free and a safe place for the common people and get back the people’s trust in the police and system. A son who left IIT education and IAS for IPS, to make the positive changes in the police system, after witnessing the trouble given to his father by the police, for his own land.

Second lead character but in a negative role Shaukeen (Abhimanyu Singh), a Widowed and single father whose son studying in Nepal. Cruel, violent, and fearless goon, who doesn’t fear even to kill policemen, so no matter to talk about common people. Nobody can enter Hussainpur without his permission. Kidnapping, extortion, killings is his main business.

Other main supporting characters are Chintu and Pintu Dedha (Siddhanth Kapoor and Pradeep Nagar) leader of Dedha gang, a rival of Shaukeen gang and responsible for illegal and criminal activities of half Muzaffarnagar. Nazneen (Bidita Bag) girlfriend and accountant of Shaukeen, who manages the business in his absence. Farukh Qureshi (Sunny Hinduja) right hand and personally very close aid of Shaukeen, whose brother is murdered by Dedha brothers for revenge. Puja Sikera (Rashmi Rajput) Naveen’s wife. Neha (Gulki Joshi) Muzaffarnagar crime journalist, becomes a friend of Naveen and try to help him. Balram Yadav (Firoz Khursheed Khan) Assistant to SSP and part of his special team in the city. Iftekar / Salim (Ravi Pandey) SSP’s trusted man from the police force who joins Shaukeen gang as undercover by changing get up and identity. Vinod Sharma (Amit k Singh) Electronics expert inspector and SSP’s trusted man in the police force who works on-call recording and tracking. Karim (Sanyam Srivastav) Shaukeen’s goon. Rajesh Yadav (Upen Chauhan) SSP’s trusted driver, personally close to SSP’s family and planning to marry soon. Moora Kumar (Abhishek Singh Er). Dayanand Sikera (Shahab Khan) Naveen’s father and his adviser. Few important supporting characters like Bhati, MP, and others are also there.

The story starts with Farukh’s brother, drunken Abbas kills Dedha brother’s close man and runs away. Two old men witnessed it and discussing future actions. Shaukeen visits the murder site with Farukh and other peoples.

In another city, Naveen Sikera with his efforts and presence of mind, disperse the mob who is destroying the local police station and saves the policeman. After his heroics, he gets promotion as SSP of Muzaffarnagar.  

Muzaffarnagar illegally ruled by Dedha and Shaukeen gangs and the city is completely under threat by their terror and violence. Shaukeen self-proclaimed king of Muslim community area Hussainpur and is blessed by the local MP.

To know the secrets about the underworld of the city, Sikera travels to Muzaffarnagar two days before his posting, and specifically at night. Before taking charge also, Sikera gets news of mass murder by Dedha brothers in a nearby village to kill Abbas.

He takes charge of SSP and gets the first case of kidnapping by Shaukeen gang. For inquiry, Sikera visits Hussainpur and Shaukeen gets angry on this, as no policeman ever visited Hussainpur or did not dare. To send a warning message and threat to Sikera, Shaukeen kills a kidnapped man and sends his head to Sikera.

Then starts a direct fight between Sikera and Shaukeen. While reducing Shaukeen’s strength and fear, Sikera keeps reducing the same of Dedha brothers also, by killing their close aides and lieutenants. Sikera loses the opportunity to arrest Pintu due to some internal information leaks, after that Sikera starts doing things carefully.

The story is based on true events and majorly revolves around the fight between Sikera and Shaukeen. Dedha brothers have side roles only. Using technology brilliantly, Sikera and his special team of trusted policemen encounter many guys, including some close ones of Shaukeen and Dedha brothers.  While fighting with these two gangs, Sikera also loses some of his trusted and close colleagues.

Sikera and his special team arrest Farukh. Farukh got killed when  Shaukeen plans to kill policemen and tries to flew and free Farukh. After Farukh’s death, Shaukeen gets very angry and vows to kill Sikera. Then the story becomes very exciting, thrilling, and interesting. What happens next is better to watch in the positively ended web series.

The story is like an old product in new packaging, so don’t expect anything new or twist or suspense. But the overall series is interesting, thrilling, and exciting. Violent series with dialogues full of BC, MC. Shaukeen did fantastic work in acting and Sikera also did well. But in the final episode, Sikera completely overshadowed Shaukeen. Other guys also did good except Dedha brothers, they looked funny more than goons.

As always masala is added in true events and picturization and dialogue delivery don’t look natural in some scenes. But for the final episode’s excitement and thrill, for Shaukeen-Sikera’s acting juggling, and for the small twist at the end, you can watch the entire series with expecting the next season or can skip without losing much.