Black Warrant Series Review: Grey Tihar Tales in Color
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Do you know that the judge breaks the nib of their pen after signing a black warrant?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The second episode of the Netflix series Black Warrant opens with this intriguing question, posed to the protagonist during his interview for the position of jailer at Tihar. However, viewers don’t hear his answer until the climactic episode, by which point, they may have forgotten the interaction entirely. Yet, when it resurfaces, it brings the story full circle, smoothing out some of the creases in the show’s storytelling.
Created by Satyanshu Singh and Vikramaditya Motwane, Black Warrant spans seven episodes and is based on the non-fiction book Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer by Sunil Gupta, a jailer for 35 years, and journalist Sunetra Choudhury. The series, of course, adds its own fictional tweaks for the screen and stars Zahan Kapoor as the primary protagonist, Sunil Gupta. He begins his career as a jailer as a short, timid, clueless, and easily intimidated officer, alongside his new colleagues – Vipin Dahiya (Anurag Thakur), a short-tempered Haryanvi, and Shivraj Singh Mangat (Paramvir Cheema), a friendlier Punjabi. They are all mentored by the corrupt DSP Rajesh Tomar (Rahul Bhat), whose first words of wisdom to the newcomers are simple: trust nobody at Tihar. The series essentially tracks Gupta’s growth from a lamb heading to the slaughterhouse to becoming the guard of the slaughterhouse.
Gang wars, prison breaks, botched hangings, riots – each episode of Black Warrant explores the various challenges faced by Tihar jailers, with overcrowding and pathetic prison conditions being the least of their worries. Sunil Gupta emerges as the only jailer genuinely compassionate about the well-being of the undertrials, most of whom are poor scapegoats trapped in prison due to a lack of access to proper legal recourse.
A major sub-plot of Black Warrant delves into the kind of influence and free-run the notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj (Sidhant Gupta) had in Tihar jail. However, Sidhant Gupta’s portrayal of the murderer famed for being charmingly deceptive, is glaringly devoid of any enigma. Charles’ scenes as a Tihar baddie are awkward, and feel unnecessary, despite him being a crucial aspect of the story.
What’s most interesting about Black Warrant is how the jail conditions makes you lose the sense of time. The prisoners could be in the 70s, or even 2000s, it doesn’t matter – jails are still as overcrowded and deplorable. However, the pace of the series wavers from being gritty to slow in the second half. A thin sub-plot about Sunil Gupta’s potential romance does little to add any excitement to his grim life as a jailer. A job that’s seen as unpleasant by his own family.
Zahan Kapoor’s performance is the protagonist is engaging, although his transformation from a meek outsider to an insider with his own ‘sources’ isn’t as powerful as one would hope. It’s the kind of role one could easily imagine several other Bollywood actors pulling off, like Vikrant Massey or Rajkummar Rao. But with Zahan Kapoor, there’s an element of ‘surprise’ for viewers, since he hasn’t done much work in the industry yet.
Overall, Black Warrant is an interesting drama, which feels scattered in parts, but delivers interesting glimpses into the closed world of Tihar jail.
Rating: 3.5 on 5 stars. Watch it on Netflix.
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