When I saw the trailer of this series, I hypothized that it would be a typical one about a villain, who’ll put forth conditions on an honest cop, who’ll run around the whole city to save it. But when I saw the first episode, it boggled my mind. As soon as I saw the episode I was like,”Damn this is one of a kind” This series might change the course of Indian shows. It can prove as a game changer and set the bar of Indian series high by introducing a new genre of the term ‘Drama’ and ‘Suspense’. The storyline is so enmeshing that you might go and rewatch things again. There are so many things happening in a single episode, the suspense, the thrill, It is raw and realistic. The cast is splendid. Let’s have a look at some key elements of the series.
Direction
The director duo, Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap’s direction is very unique and outré. The depiction of relation between the subject and the object is robust. One of the example of a great direction can be taken of that scene, where Ganesh(Nawazuddin Siddiqui) begins to narrate his childhood story and the camera moves on his face as he rests his head on the headrest of the sofa and then it stays, focusing on his face and suddenly it cuts to the eyes of his childhood himself. This depicts the thought process of Ganesh, the memories that flashes in front of his eyes and how minutely he remembers his past. There are countless examples of such relations. 
Screenplay
The series is adapted by the novel of the same name, written by Vikram Chandra. But Smita Singh, Vasant Nath & Varun Grover took the challenging task of writing the screenplay and the whole story that will be portrayed onscreen. The story is a puzzle, just like the characters in Ganesh’s life. It all comes together piece by piece, episodes by episodes. The story unfolds with lots of drama and suspense, introducing new characters and new concepts. And that too not in an absurd or in an abrupt way, rather in a sleek way. Ritual and spiritual touch to the film is captivating and the link to the mythology of our Indian culture paved countless interpretation to the story. It opened the story to new theories and more ambiguity. Still, one thing that bugged me in the script was the unnecessary abuse in some scenes. I don’t have any problem with abuses, but it should be in a flow with the dialogues. Many were in the flow, but some curses weren’t in the flow or didn’t had any motivation behind it, thus making it unnecessary.
Protagonist
This could be the comeback of Saif Ali Khan. Though I’m not a big fan of Saif, but the brawn and grit that he expressed in his portrayal of Sartaj Singh is really subtle. What I admire about this character is that it isn’t stereotypical. It isn’t the typical sardaar, with a punjabi accent or that he’s short tempered and all. Character is rather intelligent and courageous. Many a times we imagine an honest and strong police officer as a person with abs, biceps or that he can beat off 10 people with his bare hands. No, this character is way above it. It resembles that strength is dedication, it means morals, codes, principles, passion. If you look at it he wasn’t even that intelligent, yet his code of honesty stood him out and made him a strong and an intelligent character. Another fact that amazes me is how he isn’t a white or black character, he is grey. He has his problems, frustration and indiscretion over things. Actually, every character in this series is grey and that points to the realism of all the characters.
Antagonist
”Bhagwaan ko maante ho, bhagwaan ko l*** farak nahin padta. Kabhi kabhi lagta hai apun hi bhagwaan” This opening sentence plays in loop in my head whenever I watch the show. I don’t know why, but this sentence says so much about Gaitonde’s character. It says why he calls himself Ashwathama, or the almighty god himself. The sentence serves as a base, as a foundation to Gaitonde’s actions. Ashwathama saw his every close ones die in Mahabharata, yet he survived. He survived, just like Ganesh did. Nobody could kill Ashwathama, exactly like Ganesh. The most shady character of the series was Ganesh. He did so many wrong doings, so many unpredictable things in the further episodes that you might get surprised to watch. If I say Nawazuddin did a sterling job, then even that would be a minute thing for what a tremendous job he had done. Ganesh Gaitonde is the soul of Sacred Games. 
Supporting Cast
Every supporting cast did a laudable job. From Parulkar to the gang members of Ganesh, everyone was fascinating. Radhika Apte looked powerful as a RAW agent, Anjali Mathur. Neeraj Kabi played a cunning police officer, Parulkar with utter brilliance. Jatin Sarna as Bunty, the short heighted but big mouthed guy is promising as well. He too had his own moments and spiced up the show. There’s another character that I’d like to share the light on and that is ‘Cuckoo’ She’s introduced in the successive episodes. She too left her mark on the viewers and the relation that she shared with Gaitonde was aberrant. Though, the one character that really stood out because of his character development was Katekar. His character’s graph moved in a very smooth and in an upward direction the whole time. According, to me the most evolved supporting character of this series is Katekar. 
Music
Not every series’ background score stands out, but this particular one is unorthodox. Its music was really strong depicting the situations and emotions of the scenes. And the turn from one score to another is very polished, it doesn’t disturbs the viewers. Like in the very first scene where a guy rushes in with an SMG and demolishes everything, at that point the music indicated drama, pain and further, as Gaitonde called Bunty, the music changed, depicting suspense and that too in a very subtle and smooth way, not intervening the scene a bit. And the kaam 25 song is the icing on the top.
Overall this series is gonna change your view on how shows work in India and yes, the most important part, it’ll make you think. It’ll make you confused, at times you won’t understand a shedload of dialogues and scenes. And it’s okay, this is the whole point. The point to make you think, to go into the depth of the characters, dialogues or the scenes and explore it. So that you can understand and judge the things even more effectively. This trait will make you adore this series even more. The trait of mysteriousness will compel you to binge watch it.