Review of Matka King Web Series: Vijay Varma’s Captivating Performance Lifts Nagraj Manjule’s Series

On: April 19, 2026 3:33 PM

Nagraj Popatlal Manjule doesn’t like to paint his figures with a large brush. When it comes to money, you should never trust anyone. No matter who wins, Matka will always be KING, not Shah Rukh Khan or Vijay Varma.

Vijay Varma, Sai Tamhankar, Kritika Kamra, Gulshan Grover, and Siddharth Jadhav are in the movie.

Nagraj Popatlal Manjule is the director

Vijay Varma plays the role of Matka King in the web series Matka King by Nagraj Popatlal Manjule. It’s not as violent and scary as the director’s important film Sairat, which came out ten years ago, but it’s still very popular and mainstream. Many times, the spice doesn’t feel too much in your face. The “poor person who becomes rich” theme has been used a lot since the 1970s.

That’s exactly when the show starts.

A figure who is badly hurt and almost unconscious is being taken to the hospital. Two police officers bet on whether he would live or die. It’s a nice touch to show us this man’s world as his story slowly unfolds. Some parts of the first show drag on, but the last scene, which is called a “cliffhanger,” is a good way to end things.

The lovely Vijay Varma plays this man. Before his younger brother makes a mistake, we don’t learn much about him. He wants to be the king of cards, but his boss, the always-angry Gulshan Grover, is getting in the way. There are hints of Jannat and Raees in Matka King. It may not have the intense energy of Manjule’s previous Marathi hit, but it keeps you interested and makes you want to learn more about the main character’s life.

And Varma plays the King without going too far with the parts he’s been given. He has a wonderful partner in Siddharth Jadhav, who balances that out. In this case, he’s not almost too silly for art. Their relationship and even the story move forward because of his limp.

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Retro style, as we saw in Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai

It takes place in 1964. Retro style isn’t as flashy as what we saw in Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai. This is the story of a man who wanted to live on the streets all his life. He would rather be poor than rich, which is shown in a scene where he has to sneak out of a fancy party because he feels weird there.

And, as usual, his work zeal makes him forget about his family. This should be more of a fact than a repeat by now. What has become a cliché is how the evil Grover breaks the tie between Brij and his loyal brother.

Thankfully, though, we don’t have to hear about the Bachchans and the Khans over and over again. It’s nice to hear names like Pataudi and Sharmila. Even though the show tries hard, it talks too much instead of letting the cards do the talking. And then there are those tried and true formulas.

A reporter named Girish Kulkarni wants to write about the Mahalaxmi Race Course’s dark web and the lies that people tell when they gamble. The next person he has to kill is our hero. People will be amazed and look down on him as he rises to the top. Along the lines of Scam 1992, this show is built around the main character being vague. But Brij Bhatti is much more religious than Harshad Mehta.

He’s just as smart, though. When his phone doesn’t work, he uses newspapers to do his tricky work. In one scene, his wife Sai Tamhankar says the best thing about him: “Tum theek se bure bhi to nahin ho.”

And while the show does a lot of things that have been done before, it also creates tropes that only reflect the truth of a country that is always on the edge. Even though that writer is very moral, he is not allowed to write anything bad about the government. People would have loved to see his X account and tweets if he had been alive in 2026. Matka King shows us the glittering and scary world of gaming.

The director doesn’t paint his personality in one big line, which is a good thing. When it comes to money, you should never trust anyone. No matter who comes first, Matka or Shah Rukh Khan, Matka will always be KING!