''Betaal'', Betāl or Betāla () is an Indian

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

horror television series based in a remote village that serves as the battleground between East India Company Army officer Lt. Col John Lynedoch, his battalion of zombie redcoats from the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

, and the fictional CIPD force. The series is written and directed by Patrick Graham and co-directed by National Award winner, Nikhil Mahajan. Produced by

Blumhouse Productions Blumhouse Productions, LLC, doing business as Blumhouse (; also known as BH Productions or simply BH), is an American independent film and television production company founded in 2000 by Jason Blum and Amy Israel. Blumhouse is known mainly fo ...

and

Red Chillies Entertainment Red Chillies Entertainments Private Limited, doing business as Red Chillies Entertainment; abbreviated as RCE is an Indian entertainment company established by actor Shah Rukh Khan and his wife Gauri Khan in 2002. It was transformed from the d ...

, the series stars

Vineet Kumar Singh Vineet Kumar Singh (born 28 August 1978) is an Indian actor and writer known for his strong portrayal of an aspiring boxer Shravan Kumar Singh in Mukkabaaz (2018). An M.D. in Ayurveda from Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagpur, Vin ...

and

Aahana Kumra Aahana S Kumra is an Indian actress. She is known for her television debut in Sony Entertainment Television's '' Yudh'' with Amitabh Bachchan and also for her lead role in the TV series '' Agent Raghav - Crime Branch'' with Sharad Kelkar, follo ...

in significant roles. The series received generally negative reviews, with praise for its performances and the use of

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

and

, but criticism for its lack of thrill and editing.

Synopsis

Commandant Vikram Sirohi leads the Baaz Squad, an elite unit tasked with clearing land for development projects in remote Indian regions. Complicit with corrupt tycoon Ajay Mudhalvan, Vikram follows orders to forcibly relocate villagers, unaware of the dark secrets lurking beneath the surface. When a tunnel clearing operation unleashes an undead army led by a British colonel bent on domination, Vikram and survivors must confront their past sins and battle for survival against the supernatural onslaught. As chaos ensues, Vikram and his team uncover the sinister origins of the undead horde and the colonel's quest for power. Trapped in a remote barracks, they face internal strife as Tyagi falls under the colonel's control and Mudhalvan betrays them for his own survival. Vikram, haunted by past atrocities, finds redemption in protecting Saanvi, Mudhalvan's daughter, who holds a crucial key to stopping the colonel's rampage. Amidst the onslaught, sacrifices are made, and Vikram's ultimate act of selflessness triggers a cataclysmic showdown, leading to the destruction of the colonel's shrine and the release of Saanvi.

Cast

as Vikram Sirohi *

as DC 'Ahlu' Ahluwalia *

Suchitra Pillai Suchitra Pillai (born 27 August 1970) is an Indian actress, model, anchor and VJ. A graduate in electronic engineering from the Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering, Bandra (West), Mumbai, she chose a career in arts over engineering ...

as Commandant Tyagi * Jatin Goswami as Assad Akbar *

Jitendra Joshi Jitendra Joshi is an Indian actor and reality show host who predominantly works in Marathi cinema. He is well known for his lead role as Sant Tukaram Maharaj in the 2012 marathi movie ''Tukaram (film), Tukaram''. He starred as constable Katekar ...

as Ajay Mudhalvan * Siddharth Menon as Nadir Haq * Manjiri Pupala as Puniya * Swapnil Kotriwar as Kanji * Meenal Kapoor as Shakuntala Mudhalvan * Yashwant Wasnik as Sarpanch * Savita Bajaj as Mausi *

Ankur Vikal Ankur Vikal is an Indian theatre and film actor. Career He graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 2000, after studying Architecture at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He has acted with the Motley Theatre Grou ...

as Bhunnu * Pankaj Upadhyay as Inspector Khurrana * Richard Dillane as Colonel Lynedoch * Krishna Singh Bisht as Kaushal *

Pawan Singh Pawan Singh (popularly known as Powerstar) (born 5 January 1986) is an Indian politician, playback singer, actor, music composer, stage performer. He is known for his works in Bhojpuri Film Industry. He began his musical career by working be ...

as Yadav * Akhilesh Unnithan as Chandran * Ratan Nag as Tripathi * Shrishti Fadtare as Leila * Tanmay Khemani as Drummer Boy * Syna Anand as Saanvi Mudhalvan * Harshvardhan Singh as pretas

Episodes

Production

On 15 June 2019, it was announced that

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

had given the production a series order. The series is written and directed by Patrick Graham, co-written by Suhani Kanwar and co-directed by Nikhil Mahajan and Casting by Paragg Mehta. The show was produced by

. The shooting was wrapped up in August 2019. It was released on

, making it the second collaboration between the production house and Netflix.

Promotion and release

The trailer was released by

India on 8 May 2020. The series started streaming on Netflix from 24 May 2020.

Critical reception

Rahul Desai from ''Film Companion'' said that, "''Betaal'', for much of its four episodes, is a brilliant homegrown spoof on the zombie-folk horror genre. The zombies are utterly useless, spending their time knocking on closed doors and being butter-fingered flesh eaters." Poulomi Das on ''Silver Screen India'' provide another scathingly negative review for the show's opening season saying, "...the zombie thriller – another Netflix misfire in a series of misfires – somehow manages to be too long, repetitive and needlessly convoluted, stretching its one-line plot, glaringly under-written, way too thin." In contrast to these negative reviews, postcolonial scholar Johan Höglund's academic study of the series notes its political content and argues that the "zombie pandemic that erupts in Betaal is an attempt to render the apocalyptic violence and death that unregulated capitalism performs on ecology and precarious communities"

References

External links

* {{Netflix original current series 2020 Indian television series debuts Indian television series distributed by Netflix Indian horror fiction television series Red Chillies Entertainment Works about the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Zombies in television British India in fiction Indian action television series Television shows about ghosts Vampires in television