''Dharavi Bank'' is an Indian

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...

series by director Samit Kakkad and actors Suniel Shetty,

Vivek Oberoi Vivek Anand Oberoi (born 3 September 1976) is an Indian actor who mainly works in Hindi cinema, in addition to working in few Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil films. Early life Vivek Oberoi was born in Hyderabad, Telangana, to a Pu ...

Sonali Kulkarni Sonali Kulkarni (born 3 November 1974) is an Indian actress, producer, and writer who primarily appears in Marathi and Hindi films. She has also appeared in Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati and English films. She has worked in over 70 films, both ...

and Samikssha Batnagar. The series is Suniel Shetty's OTT debut.

Cast

Cast list credited from original show * Suniel Shetty as Thalaivan *

as Jayant Gavaskar *

Samiksha Bhatnagar Samikssha Batnagar is an Indian actress who was seen in various Hindi serials on Star Plus and Zee TV until 2014 in both supporting as well as lead roles. She did a cameo in Madhur Bhandarkar's ''Calendar Girls'', released in the year 2015, ma ...

as Irawati “Ira” Gavaskar, Jayant's wife * Shruti Shrivastav as Sakeena * Santosh juvekar as Santosh Mhatre * Anngad Raaj as Vinayak "Veenu" Gavaskar, JCP Jayant Gavaskar and Irawati's son *

as Janvi Surve * Siddharth Menon as Veerbhadra *

Vamsi Krishna Vamsi Krishna is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Telugu and Tamil films. He made his debut in '' Gharshana'' (2004) and went on to play the antagonist in films including ''Thadaiyara Thaakka'' (2012) and ''Ivan Veramathiri'' (2013). ...

as Shiva *

Shantipriya Shanthipriya is an Indian actress who has worked predominantly in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films. She is credited as Nishanthi in Tamil films and Shanthipriya in Telugu and Hindi films. She is the younger sister of actress Bhanupriya. Career Sh ...

as Bonamma *

Freddy Daruwala Freddy Daruwala (born 1983/1984) is an Indian model and actor based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, predominantly known for his roles as the Sleeper Cell's Head opposite Akshay Kumar in the Bollywood film ''Holiday''. He has starred in over 12 films a ...

as Mahesh *

Luke Kenny Luke Kenny is an Indian actor, film director, producer, music director, composer, and former VJ. He began his career as a DJ, followed by a successful stint as the first male VJ on Channel V. He gained widespread recognition for his role in th ...

as Michael *

Bhavana Rao Bhavana Rao (born 6 June 1989) an Indian actress who has predominantly appeared in Kannada language films. She made her debut in the Kannada multistarrer '' Gaalipata'' (2008) winning critical acclaim for her performance, before playing leadin ...

as Deepa,Thalaivan's daughter *

Nagesh Bhosle Nagesh Bhosale is an Indian film, television and theatre actor. He has worked on the 2018 Hollywood film '' Hotel Mumbai'', alongside Jason Isaacs, Armie Hammer and Dev Patel. Nagesh has acted in more than a hundred Indian films and thousand ...

as Ghanshyam Mhatre * Hitesh Bhojraj as undercover police sharpshooter * Rohit Pathak as Rajan, Thalaivan's son-in-law * Jaywant Wadkar as Franchis *

Chinmay Mandlekar Chinmay Mandlekar (born 2 February 1979) is an Indian actor, writer and stage director, mostly active in the Marathi entertainment industry. He is known for his work in Zenda, Morya, '' Farzand'' (2018), '' Fatteshikast'' (2019), ''The Kashm ...

as Daji Malusare * Krishnakant Singh Bundela as Muslim Vodoo Man

Plot

The series narrates the rise of Thalaivan (Sunil Shetty) as the most influential person of Dharavi as well as the Godman of many politicians. For political benefit the Chief Minister Janvi Surve (Sonali Kulkarni) calls JCP Jayant Gavaskar (Vivek Oberoi) and orders to kill Thalaivan. Gavaskar takes the order both personal (as Thalaivan killed his child) vengeance and professional assignment. The conflict between Gavaskar's Mumbai police and Thalaivan's gang starts, but some political turns save Thalaivan.

Filming

The series has been shot in the constricted lanes of

Dharavi Dharavi is a locality in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, considered to be one of the world's largest slums. Dharavi has an area of just over and a population of about 1,000,000. With a population density of over , Dharavi is one of the most dens ...

, India’s largest slum.

Release

''Dharavi Bank Session 1'' streaming started on MX Player from November 19, 2022.

Episodes

Reception

It received mixed reviews.

Saibal Chatterjee Saibal Chatterjee is an Indian film critic, an author of a book on Gulzar, co-editor of a book on films; and a documentary scriptwriter. He was a columnist at BBC News, Business Standard, Hindustan Times and Financial Express. And a staff writer of ...

for ''

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

'' gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Dharavi Bank sorely lacks the sort of narrative reserves that can fuel a compelling thriller." Abhimanyu Mathur for ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

'' wrote "Dharavi Bank will appeal to some, the ones who like the old-fashioned gangster dramas with over-the-top action. But the show is too old-fashioned and not in a classic way." Archika Khurana for ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' gave 3/5 rating and wrote "Suniel Shetty outshines everyone in his OTT debut as the brutal and vivacious gang lord of Dharavi. Right from his serious gaze to the protectiveness of his family and his wearing of the crisp white Mundu, Anna proves to be a perfect fit for the role of Thalavian." Manik Sharma for ''

Firstpost ''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18. The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Ragh ...

'' wrote "The plotline, as a whole, moves with the steady but ultimately predictable pace of a Gangster v Police war where betrayals, rats and spies abound." Shipra Darmwal of LeisureByte concurred, stating that the "twists are predictable" and furthermore the series "does not offer anything new".

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 23333666 Indian drama web series 2022 web series debuts Hindi-language web series MX Player original programming