Despite an unclear narrative, Sankalp remains watchable for its strong performances, especially Nana Patekar’s Chanakya-like mentor navigating power, ambition and long-term political strategy

Reshu Nath, creator-writer of the series Sankalp

Since he made his name in Pataliputra, Chanakya was, technically/geographically, a Bihari. 

So is his Patna-based, present-day acolyte, Ma’at Sahib (Nana Patekar), in Prakash Jha’s series, Sankalp (Amazon MX Player); a political drama of sorts. 

You can obviously notice the large portrait of Chanakya at Ma’at Saab’s study. Ma’at Saab, as the name suggests, is a teacher — as in short/corruption for Master Sahib. 

He runs a major school for penniless child prodigies in Patna; and an IAS coaching institute in New Delhi. While it’s apparent that Ma’at Saab considers parenting as separate from love/care; simply a pursuit of professional advancement for a child — it’s clear that his own goals from the said altruism are something else.

At some point, the series flashes back to Delhi’s campus politics of the 1970s. Which is when Ma’at Saab used to be a student-leader named Kanhaiya! 

In fact, he looks a lot like Nana Patekar from, say, Ankush (1986) or Pratighaat (1987). These aren’t de-aged, VFX/AI generated images. It’s altogether another guy.

Since the voice dubbed on the boy is Nana’s — and it’s such a unique........

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