Bambai Meri Jaan Review: Controversial Series Enhancing Dawood’s Image: Stellar Acting by Avinash, Menon, and Nivedita

Apart from being a favorite subject of filmmakers, the underworld has also been a mine of stories. Mumbai’s underworld has been exploited time and again in films. From Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Ajay Devgan, and Hrithik Roshan to Manoj Bajpayee, John Abraham, Sanjay Dutt, and Vivek Oberoi have been seen in films made on Dons.

Most of these stories have been linked to notorious dons Haji Mastan, Varadarajan Mudaliar and Dawood Ibrahim. Sometimes the story was directly based on these real-life characters and sometimes it was inspired by the events related to them… and now the name of Amazon Prime Video’s web series Bombay Meri Jaan has also been added to this series.

This is the story of a gangster’s love for the city of Bombay. Bombay Meri Jaan is the story of how a boy coming from a lower middle-class family of Dongri becomes the uncrowned king of the underworld. This is the story of the making of D-Company in the underworld of Mumbai.

So many gangster films have been made in Hindi cinema that one feels as if one has seen many parts of Bombay Meri Jaan, but after the initial shock, the series picks up pace and starts captivating the audience.

Story of ‘Bombay Meri Jaan’

A lot happened in the Mumbai underworld from 1940 to 1980. This was the period when the mafia was expanding its presence in the financial capital of the country. At that time, smuggling by sea was the most heinous crime. The story of ‘Bombay Meri Jaan’ is of this period, where Haji and Pathan were the kings of the mafia. This series marks the entry of Dara Qadri into the world of mafia and his becoming the king. While Dara’s stature was continuously increasing in the world of crime, the troubles of his honest policeman father were also increasing. You will have to watch this series to know what happens to Dara, who is torn between his father’s legal inheritance and his desire to become the ‘Badshah of Bombay’.

‘Bombay Meri Jaan’ web series review

The story of this web series is based on post-independence India. Then Mumbai was known as Bombay and Bombay. The underworld was dominant. ‘Bombay Meri Jaan’ is an intense crime drama series that explores the history of the city. Taking inspiration from films like ‘Company’, ‘Satya’, ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai’ and even the recent documentary ‘Mumbai Mafia: Police vs. the Underworld’, the 10-episode series takes its fictional story forward. The story also focuses on the emotional turmoil between father and son.

Made under the direction of Rensil D’Silva and Shujaat Saudagar, this web series throws in-depth light on the criminal activities in Bombay. Part of the story also includes the birth of Dawood Ibrahim’s infamous crime syndicate ‘D Company’. The one thing that makes this series different is the research done on the struggle of the Qadri family. Ismail Qadri (KK Menon) is an honest policeman, who is working hard to make Mumbai crime-free. Even if he has to harm his family for this. But on the contrary, his son Dara Qadri (Avinash Tiwari) dreams of becoming the king of Bombay along with his siblings Sadiq (Jitin Gulati), Ajju (Lakshya Kochhar) and sister Habiba (Kritika Kamra).

In the story of the series, Mumbai is under the control of mafia leader Suleman Haji (Saurabh Sachdeva). He is an expatriate from Hyderabad. He is the king of black money. His partner Azim Pathan (Nawab Shah) is from Afghanistan. Both join hands with Anna (Dinesh Prabhakar) to expand their illegal empire. The entire Mumbai city descends into a deep mire of crime. To deal with this threat, Ismail Qadri and his fellow officers Younis (Rohit Kokate), and Ahmed (Tauqeer Alam) have formed a team, named ‘Pathan Squad’.

‘Bombay Meri Jaan’ not only succeeds in weaving the story as a crime thriller, but it also keeps you glued to your seat as a viewer. Instead of relying only on violence in the series, attention has also been paid to the emotional angle of the characters. Rensil and Shujaat succeed in balancing their series on the parameters of both cruelty and emotionality. The thrilling story of how Dara rises to the status of ‘Bombay’s new Godfather’ in the underworld, while his relationship with his father changes over time. The epic also features the tender love between Dara and the vivacious Parsi girl Pari, beautifully played by Amyra Dastur.

Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, known for their success on OTT with ‘Mirzapur’, have produced ‘Bombay Meri Jaan’. In the series S. Hussain Zaidi has an interesting and entertaining story, Abbas Dalal and Hussain Dalal have powerful dialogues, and John Schmidt has carefully set the duration of each episode. Arniban Sengupta’s music also sounds good. KK Menon has given his best in the role of an honest policeman and a desperate father. He has once again proved that he is an amazing artist. Avinash Tiwari has played the character of Dara with full passion. However, in some intense scenes, he loses to other actors who have played such characters. Kritika Kamra has given a stunning performance in the role of Habiba, a courageous and strong-willed girl.

The supporting actors include Shiv Pandit as a corrupt policeman, Vivaan Bhathena as Dara’s loyal associate, Lakshya Kochhar and Jitin Gulati as his brothers, and Nivedita Bhattacharya as mother Sakina have also done their job well. Saurabh Sachdeva, Nawab Shah, and Dinesh Prabhakar also excel in their roles.

The ‘Bombay Meri Jaan’ web series has 10 episodes and each one is about 1 hour in length. In such a situation, long episodes may test the patience of some viewers. Despite this, ‘Bombay Meri Jaan’ is a series which you would like to remember.