Key Points

• Sankalp explores a 30-year revenge plot orchestrated by Kanhaiyalal (Nana Patekar), a morally ambiguous teacher.
• The series delves into socio-political content, featuring a protagonist who uses his influence over former students in high places.
• Neeraj Kabi plays Waqar, a devious political advisor and foil to Patekar's character, adding complexity to the plot.
• Sankalp's ending promises a second season, hinting at further Machiavellian schemes and character developments.

The political drama directed by Prakash Jha, takes the idea of revenge as a dish best served cold to the next level. In Sankalp, a man who wants to punish those who wronged him goes about it in a far-fetched and convoluted way, fanning his grudge over 30 years.

Jha has always been drawn to socio-political content, and like with his earlier series Aashram about a powerful godman, in this one too the protagonist is a morally ambiguous teacher.

What Sankalp is about?

Kanhaiyalal (Nana Patekar) runs a residential school for exceptionally bright kids in Patna, and then funds their coaching in Delhi for civil services jobs. When they leave Patna, he makes them go through an elaborate ritual and extracts a promise of complete loyalty to him.

Over time, he has an 'army' of people in high places, who then do his bidding. An interesting, if implausible idea. All his students cannot be devoted robots without minds of their own. What he asks of them often goes into a grey area, if not outright criminal.

When the 10-part series (on Amazon MX Player) opens, two covered bodies are brought to the mansion, when the residents are in the midst of a celebration. The story then goes into flashback.

The long-standing animosity between Kanhaiyalal, known to all as Ma'at Saab, and Prashant Singh (Sanjay Kapoor), the chief minister of Delhi, is established. Standing with the CM is his reptilian political advisor Waqar (Neeraj Kabi), who is far smarter and more devious than Prashant.

The latter is usually seen throwing a tantrum and yelling 'WTF'. The three men and a woman, Suhasini (Meghna Malik) were in college together, when the seeds of the enmity were first sown. Suhasini is now Kanhaiyal's deputy, along with the unquestioningly faithful Sankarshan (Bhagwan Tiwari). The fact that there is a vast age gap between Patekar and the others doesn't seem to have bothered the casting person.

A large chess board takes pride of place in Kanhaiyalal's huge river-facing parlour, and the plot -- created by Reshu Nath, with a screenplay by Prasad Kadam and dialogue by Chandan Kumar -- moves it many characters like a complicated chess game, or rather, a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces.

Ma'at Saab's method involved simply picking up intelligent kids and bringing them to the school, even if the parents protest. The child from a poor family, prefers to stay at the comfortable school, over the parents' hut. These strong arm tactics do not dim the halo around the teacher's head. He is portrayed as 'is yug ka Chanakya'.

Among Ma'at Saab's acolytes are Aditya (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), Parveen (Kubbra Sait) and Vasudev (Saurabh Goyal) -- all police officers. An incident makes Aditya persona non grata in Patna, and he gets transferred to Delhi, where he is recruited by Waqar as a buffer against Kanhaiyalal's machinations.

Nana Patekar, is dangerous and unpredictable

There is a fortune in stolen money, counterfeit notes floating around, and political skullduggery afoot, along with treachery, double dealing, kidnapping and all manner of wickedness packing the series so densely that the pace never flags and a profusion of twists keeps the story engaging even when it strains credibility.

Ma'at Saab sole suits Nana Patekar, who is described as 'dangerous and unpredictable' by Waqar, but the actor plays him with a kindly demeanour -- checking on a sick child, stirring a cooking pot or tending to the garden. Neeraj Kabi is a sharp foil for Kanhaiyalal, with his always ticking, wily mind.

Season 2 sounds promising

The show ends at a point when a second season is promised.

Will the Machiavellian maze of scheming be as complex? The next set of pieces on Ma'at Saab's chess board have already been lined up to take over from characters who have exited from this season's episodes.

Sankalp streams on Amazon MX Player.

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