Betaal (Netflix Series)

Cor blimey, mate, it's the undead British Empire coming back to haunt us, so it is!

This excellent Indian series (four episodes, so an evening's watch if you get hooked) is a bit like a hybrid of Aliens and The Fog. With zombies. It is essentially, as I think the trailer makes clear, one of those concepts that is fairly simple but offers endless permutations. The result here is a blast, and I mean a blast of musket balls.

The time is the present, more or less. A crack squad of elite Indian commandos is sent to a remote hill region where terrorists (the Maoist Naxals) are supposedly hampering construction of a new road. When they arrive the Baaz Squad discover what appear to be ordinary villagers in the grip of an absurd superstition. The locals believe that if an old British tunnel abandoned during the Mutiny of 1857 is reopened large-scale awfulness will ensue. The authorities don't care about this nonsense of course, and proceed to evict the locals and reopen the tunnel. Extreme wackiness ensues, with a bucket of blood and a lot of screaming.



The storyline is just complex enough to keep you guessing, just straightforward enough so you you can follow the main thrust of the narrative and linger over some wonderful imagery. Because the menace that lurks inside the mountain is a crack regiment of British troops, the notorious Taunton(!) Volunteers. Colonel Lyneoch, the regiment's commander, apparently found something ancient and very powerful in the mountain and decided to exploit it to his own evil ends. Once his army of zombie redcoats are freed the colonel can carry out the final part of his interrupted plan to wreak havoc on India.

You don't need be very au fait with current political trends in the UK to read a lot into this. The show has a British writer, after all. There are a few gags of the 'coming over here' variety and a very pointed reference to a hard Brexit. At the same time the violence and deep corruption of modern India is foregrounded, often to a shocking degree. And all the while it looks gorgeous, the acting is excellent, the score is powerful, and the action scenes work well. There's even a twist ending that works in a rather Buffyeseque fashion, as the sensible young girl finds something in the Ancient Book of Wisdom that the grownups really should have noticed before.

So, if you have Netflix, give it a go. Let me also tip my hat to Helen Grant. She's actually been to India and is a Bollywood addict, and her strong recommendation prompted me to watch Betaal.

Dire warnings from the wise woman! Falling on deaf ears, as per usual