Out of the smokeless fire, the Ghoul will come

I wanted to write a preview for Ghoul, Netflix’s newest Indian offering, however, other than the two-minute teaser provided by the streaming giant itself, I found almost nothing substantial about the series in the U.S. media. However, the lack of pre-premier press turned out to be a blessing, because I went into watching it “blind”, a rare occurrence nowadays, but that worked out nicely.

I was attracted to the show as a result of learning that Radhika Apte was playing one of the main characters. I really liked Apte in her role as spy Anjali Mathur in Sacred Games, (which, if you haven’t seen, you should… right now), and so figured how bad could Ghoul be if she is in it. My philosophy of choice was not wrong because Ghoul is Grade A – Awesome. Mind you, this is just based on a viewing of the first episode but, as the series is only three episodes long… the chances of it diving into pure Grade F “unwatchable-ness” remains remote.

But writing a review for this series is particularly difficult because giving away too much would render watching it worthless. So, there will be no spoilers in this review… which the first episode cleverly accomplishes.

The time period for this story is the near future in India, where sectarian violence, which I interpret as Hindu versus Muslim, has risen to unprecedented levels. As a result, the majority Hindu government implements a policy of proactively targeting Muslims and orders a clamp-down on Muslim activities. Apte plays Nida Rahim, a Muslim who has joined the Ministry of National Protection (NPS), India’s version of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She is desperate to be accepted and is willing to do anything for the cause, including turning in her own father, a somewhat radical Muslim professor who disobeys the new law limiting Muslim expression.

While turning in her father kills family dynamics, it proves advantageous to Rahim’s professional career. She is pulled out of training, and sent to interrogate captured Muslim resistance leader Ali Saeed (Mahesh Balraj). Indeed, based on her rank as the NPS Academy’s top interrogator, and the fact she not only is Muslim but also turned in her own father, the powers that be believe there is no other worthy candidate.

Naturally, for the seasoned interrogators and jailers that have been at the job for years, the arrival of Rahim to the super-secret interrogation center, Meghdoot 31, sets off a number of alarms, especially from the facilities Hindu nationalist second in command Laxmi (Ratnabali Bhattacharjee) To be sure, besides the officer in charge, and his assistant, there is little belief amongst the mainly Hindu detention center staff, that Rahim, as a Muslim, is not somehow involved in the violence against the nation. Indeed, the only person who seems to believe in her is Maghdoot 31’s commanding officer Christian Colonel Sunil Dacunha (Manav Kaul). Soon after Rahim get settled into the center, Saeed arrives.

And this is where things start to get absolutely weird. That is, after 30 minutes of being lead to believe this is an intriguing spy/crime saga a la Sacred Games, suddenly there is a strong element of something else; something a bit supernatural and horror-oriented. Indeed, from the moment when Saeed arrives at the detention center, the whole mood of the video changes… it get darker and decidedly creepier. To be sure, the vibe is totally different from what you (I) thought it was. As a word of warning… I would not recommend watching this show alone, late at night from this point on.

As a seasoned television show watcher, I (and, I believe, you) are rarely fooled by the games TV shows play. In fact, more often than not, the fun of television watching is to see how long a show can last before the game is revealed. However, while the end of the episode scene signifies there is something beyond what we are being led to believe, the possible story, namely demons, aliens, extraterrestrials, is not what is normally provided for in a spy/crime drama. Needless to say by the end of the first 40 minutes, if you are not hooked, you never will be. But I think most of you will be.

What do you think?