Review of Black Warrant: Strictly Targeted Series Warrants Bingeing On

Review of Black Warrant: An engrossing account of a fire baptism and a perceptive look into a period of a country's history

Vikramaditya Motwane and Satyanshu Singh created the seven-episode Netflix series Black Warrant, which is produced by Applause Entertainment and features jailers, prisoners, and undertrials. With sporadic deviations from its prison backdrop, the show is steadfastly focused on a good, modest jailer negotiating a dishonest, callous system.

It offers a comprehensive look into Delhi's overcrowded and understaffed Tihar Jail in the 1980s from the viewpoint of a real jail superintendent. The series stands out from other stories about police officers and criminals, crime and punishment because of the insider's perspective.

There is no yarn in Black Warrant. It depicts the fierce battles of a hero who is anything but a stereotypical man of action and is based in fact. He isn't a brazen, overly masculine, strapping thugs who wants to crush everything that stands in his way.

In a lawless hellhole where laws are more easily broken than upheld, the modestly built protagonist is first a total misfit. Here, ruthless criminal gangs are allowed to operate freely, and corrupt business practices are commonplace while the jail staff ignores the decay.

The focus of the series is on a man's silently courageous struggle against a system of which he is a member, using the instincts—and limitations—of his gentle, soft-spoken nature.

Zahan Kapoor, who was last seen in Hansal Mehta's drama about terror attacks, Faraaz, plays the youthful jailer. Black Warrant benefits from the choice of a somewhat inexperienced actor to play the rookie jailer. It gives the portrayal more realism.

The extent of the character's career-defining encounters is allowed to shape Zahan Kapoor's performance, which blends confusion, frustration, remorse, and doughty resolve.

Rahul Bhat, Paramvir Cheema, and Anurag Thakur, who all play jailers working with Kapoor and spend a lot of screen time with him, are excellent at portraying incisive, clear counterpoints.

The core of the series is represented by the quartet as a whole. Each one differs from the other three in terms of body language, diction, behavioral preferences, and unique approaches to the work. The inmates and the correctional staff exchange profanity frequently, but Sunil Gupta finds it difficult to stop being polite.

The main focus of Black Warrant is Sunil's efforts to avoid the suspicion he encounters on a daily basis. One of his coworkers, Vipin Dahiya (Anurag Thakur), a mercurial Haryanvi, and his employer, deputy superintendent of prison Rajesh Tomar (Rahul Bhat), are always telling him to get in shape or ship out.

Black Warrant examines the fracture lines of a country going through the crucial third and fourth decades of its independence while making references to urban crimes and political events that made headlines in newspapers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Based on the book Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer, authored by Sunil Gupta and writer Sunetra Choudhury, the play is restrained yet continually captivating, spanning from 1981 to 1986 with occasional flashbacks to a few events of the previous decade.

Black Warrant only covers the first five years or so of the protagonist's sentence, whereas Sunil Gupta served in Tihar for 35 years. The writing staff avoids overt, unnecessary sensationalism and stays true to the material. However, it takes care to preserve the material's inherent dramatic potential.

Sidhant Gupta's character Charles Sobhraj, who plays "Bikini Killer" with a shady, self-conscious accent, gets a lot of screen time. However, Maqbool Bhat (Mir Sarwar), the head of the Kashmiri separatist movement, is merely a footnote. He plays badminton with Sunil Gupta in a brief sequence.


Subversively and pointedly, the anti-Sikh riots, Indira Gandhi's murder, and Punjab militancy infiltrate the plot and lead to a pivotal dramatic moment that revolves around the politics of demonizing and othering communities.

A long, stressful execution sequence and a black-and-white flashback are triggered by Billa and Ranga's presence, leading to one of the show's greatest crescendos. ASP Sunil Gupta is left in a state of astonishment.

Screenwriters Motwane, Satyanshu Singh, and Arkesh Ajay (who share directing duties with Rohin Raveendran Nair and Ambiecka Pandit) use the poignant and enlightening story of a young officer's jailhouse jousts to represent a dysfunctional system that requires just as much reform as the inmates who are housed in its filthy cells.
Sunil Gupta saw multiple executions during Black Warrant's early years in Tihar. It demonstrates how prison improvements over the following few decades were prompted by death warrants, their execution, the politics surrounding hangings, and a number of unpleasant elements of the criminal justice system—all of which greatly irritate the morally upright "outsider."

The story's several strands cover a variety of topics, including people, families, a system corrupted by corruption and heartless cynicism, and a country trying to find a means to deal with grave dangers to peace and harmony.


Black Warrant examines how poverty, class differences, and social and political links affect the determination of guilt and the duration of jail sentences, even as it maintains the focus on the men in uniform tasked with maintaining strict control over the inmates.

Public opinion still mattered even though media trials were not yet a trend. In a strong cameo, Rajshri Deshpande plays a tough journalist who defends two death row inmates whose time is running out.

The women are supporting characters in the male-dominated environment of the drama. Sunil's mother makes an effort to talk him out of staying in Tihar. Additionally, he starts dating a girl who comes from a legal household. Dahiya has more than he can handle, and Tomar has an estranged wife.
In a separate subplot, the consequences of an extramarital affair—of which Tota Roy Choudhury, the four jailers' immediate supervisor, is a major player—stretch beyond the boundaries of the family and affect the troubled workplace.

Most significantly, Black Warrant presents us with a male lead who challenges the aggressive stereotypes that are promoted by mainstream movies. It disproves the frequently employed cliché that is based on violent heroes who promise to serve their country, society, or community without expecting anything in return.


A law graduate named Sunil Gupta enters Tihar (via the employment exchange) out of necessity rather than because he wants to work as a jailer. One interviewer wants to know his reason, and he finds it difficult to hide it.

Sunil bravely endures the contemptuous inquiries that put doubt on his qualification for the position. Despite lacking the physical and temperamental qualities required for the job, he manages to get the job with some assistance from unexpected sources.

It is significantly more difficult to survive in a world where laws are frequently mocked and the distinction between lawmen and lawbreakers is frequently crossed in the daily struggle to keep danger at bay.

Black Warrant maintains its unity even as its canvas shifts between the diffused and the precise. In a technological sense, the show is flawless. Saumyananda Sahi, the cinematographer, consistently adds visual depth and tactile texture to the series.

Black Warrant is worth binge-watching because it offers a sharp view of Tihar, an engrossing account of a baptism by fire, and an informative look at a period in the history of a country.

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