Murshid: Kay Kay Menon saves the day in average show

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The nexus between gangsters, politicians and police has been explored endless times in the past on the big screen and in web series. There is perhaps nothing left or novel to add in this endless game of betrayals, loyalty and bloodshed, whether the series is fictional or based on real life. The Murshid saga is no different. Set in gang-war times in the 1990s and then brought into the present-day Mumbai, we see a man who has risen from the ranks to become the unofficial “king” of Mumbai and then retired from the criminal life when his elder son dies, thinking that was divine retribution for his sins.

Murshid (which literally translates as “spiritual guide”) Pathan then spends his life doing noble deeds, of which the principal one is raising the child of a police officer  he had unintentionally killed, as his own son. Though he is a Muslim, he brings up Kumar Pratap (Tanuj Virwani) as a Hindu, and makes him a cop. But the Muslims of his area worship him, and he has “helped” two generations of politicians in becoming chief ministers of Maharashtra, getting them alos his community votes.

Murshid’s younger son, Junaid (Ashish Sharma), works for Farid (Zakir Hussain), who, we are told, had inherited the illegal empire of Murshid. Murshid is unaware of this fact until Murshid frames Junaid and threatens him with death for stealing cash and a huge consignment of drugs.

And so Murshid has to return to the dark waters of crime to deal with Farid. Farid is also keeping both the reigning politicians and top cops in his grip and once Murshid, with his troop of loyalists and a little help from Kumar Pratap begins to have the upper hand on Farid, the battle-lines are drawn. Of course, there is a twist at the end, but thankfully, no cliffhanger. Of course, that does not per se rule out a sequel.

In the template-driven storyline and script, women have literally nothing to do, except for a few scenes of Kumar Pratap’s estranged wife (Vedika Bhandari). In a series dominated by Muslim criminals, we have the Hindu blackguard, Mahesh (an unknown but a very nice actor) who is Farid’s confidante as well. Tanuj Virwani as Kumar Pratap gets by, and I liked the ruthless savoir de faire of opposition leader Namdev (Karamveer Choudhary). Zakir Hussain as Farid is skilled, but does not rise to brilliant levels like in many of his past roles. The actors playing the corrupt cops, especially the commissioner and the debauched plain-clothes Amar, are very good.

But Murshid is a Kay Kay Menon show all the way. The Special Ops-Shekhar Home actor is superbly introverted and laidback as he executes his ruthless plans, hatches plots and also gets emotionally involved, as with his sons and even other loyalists. But I wish that he had chosen a vehicle of substance, like the series I mentioned.

A disturbing angle is how Murshid is able to dole out massive money to his poor loyalists and aides, when it is repeatedly mentioned that he has no money left now that he has donated all his ill-gotten gains to noble causes. There is also a bit of illogic in the way Farid wants Murshid killed before the elections, which can be counter-productive as it can swing the Muslim sympathy votes to the party he had recently joined.

Murshid thus comes across as a curate’s egg of an underworld saga. The cinematography (Parvez Pathan and Ranjit Sahu) is brilliant, the action is credible, and above all, except for the last “End Game” episode, each one is a concise minus-35 minutes story.

Shravan Tiwary needs to work on better material now, as he has shown himself to be an able director.

Rating: ***

ZEE5 presents Fathom Pictures’ & Pramukh Film Production House’s Murshid  Produced by: Sachin Bansal & Sandip Patel Directed and written by: Shravan Tiwary  Music: Kunal Karan  Starring: Kay Kay Menon, Tanuj Virwani, Zakir Hussain, Rajesh Shringarpure, Anang Desai, Junaid Sharma, Sandeep Chatterjee,   Vedika Bhandari, Karamveer Choudhary & others