‘Matka King’: Nagraj Manjule’s series falls into familiar traps

The series rests on a bravura performance by Vijay Varma, but the rest makes for a less-than-satisfactory streaming debut for Manjule.

If you’re invested in the business of storytelling and the individuals doing it, let me describe a disappointing sight: a filmmaker with a distinct voice, making something that has echoes of things seen many, many times before. The Scarface-arc has been adapted in Hindi cinema over the years in films like Agneepath (1990), Vaastav (1999), Raees (2016) – apart from dozens of other knockoffs before and after.