Nawazuddin Siddiqui
I understand it is embarrassing to be Russian these days. But, don’t ever be ashamed of who you are,” Boris Godman (David Dencik) tells his nephew Alex Godman (James Norton) in the first episode of McMafia—an eight-part BBC drama series.
Brought up in London by an exiled Russian family, Alex has tried hard to escape from his family’s dark, underworld past by starting his own business. But, he is not able to continue on the path of righteousness when his uncle is murdered in front of him, and discreetly gets sucked into the mafia world. Directed and co-created by James Watkins, the series is based on journalist-author Misha Glenny’s eponymous non-fiction book.
The show explores crimes committed globally as it moves from London to places like Tel Aviv, Cairo, Mumbai, Cayman Islands and Prague. It is fascinating how gangsters in each region deal with crime differently. Like, when Semiyon Kleiman (David Strathairn) is negotiating with Dilly Mahmood (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), in Mumbai, there is a lighter undertone when Kleiman remarks about the haggling skills of Indian dons. “It is the land of the no,” says Kleiman, something we can relate to.
The first four episodes that have been streamed on Amazon Video, cover a lot of interlinked crimes—human trafficking, money laundering, drug-dealing and plenty of blood and gore. It bears resemblance to recent series like British spy drama The Night Manager (2016) and American Crime Story (2016) on the real-life murder trial of O.J. Simpson.
For the Indian audience, Siddiqui, in his understated role as Dilly, is enthralling. Norton, as the lead character, plays a fairly restrained character with much flamboyance.
Review: McMafia
Rating: 4.5/5
