Raakh review: Ali Fazal thriller takes the horrific Billa-Ranga case, turns it into fiction

The 1978 crime was so heinous that for years to come parents and children in the Capital and surrounding areas lived under a miasma of fear, the Ridge area where the bodies were found was avoided like the plague. What was so scary was its seeming randomness: if the brother and sister hadn’t been at that spot when a car with two criminals came driving by, they wouldn’t have got in, and they would have found their way to All India Radio for a programme that Geeta was to participate in, and would have been alive.

For all the switching about, the actors playing the teenagers Suman (Divya Sharma) and Sahil (Vihaan Sharma) do a good job of being credible: of their devastated parents, Aamir Bashir comes off better than Sonali Bendre, who has to work on it. Bashir’s anguish stays with you. The show is carried by Ali Fazal, playing the investigating cop Jayprakash Jatav, whose first big case this is, and whose dedication is constantly being challenged by the social and bureaucratic system that he has to work in.

‘Raakh’ wants to be equal parts crime thriller-police procedural-social commentary, the only way an old case can be re-opened for our viewing pleasure. It works best as a disturbing anatomy of the two criminals, especially Babu (Akash Makhija) whose backstory is more detailed than Rajjo’s (Ramandeep Yadav). What’s nice is the way the writers show us that a child can be inherently depraved and violent, without handing him any excuses: Babu’s quest for affection and being denied it may be a factor, but it’s never a cause-and-effect.

The depiction of the twisted relationship between the two men is the strongest aspect of the series, with Rajjo’s reluctance to participate in the rapes and killings being steamrolled over by Babu’s pushing : the connection, almost bordering on the sexual without quite ever being that, is evident in their body language, and in the way their two halves make up a whole.

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I also really liked the character played by Rakesh Bedi as a retired low level officer, whose mutton curry becomes social currency: some of the show’s most moving parts are shared between Ali and Bedi, the former a young cop wanting to make his way up, the latter a man who could have done better if caste and class hadn’t come in the way. A dancer (Mukund Pal) doing both male and female roles in a tawdry drinking hole in Delhi is another striking note : if you were queer and poor, impersonation was one of the ways to survive.

The track of the investigative journalist Nisar (Anshul Chauhan, impressive), who happens to be good friends, and perhaps more, with Jayprakash, doesn’t really add much to the plot, which stretches to accommodate flashbacks with relentless gore and ugliness. And that’s truly what you are left with at the end of this show which uses an old real-life crime to create a fictionalised modern show which the makers hope will grip us: do you really need to lace it with so much invective and in-your-face gratuitous violence? Is it strictly necessary, or is it simply to provoke?

Raakh cast: Ali Fazal, Sonali Bendre, Aamir Bashir, Rakesh Bedi, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Akash Makhija, Ramandeep Yadav, Vivaan Sharma, Divya Sharma, Anshul Chauhan, Mukund Pal
Raakh director: Prosit Roy
Raakh rating: 2.5 stars