Poster of the film Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas

Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas

Thriller Hindi


A seemingly simple case of a missing girl, Poonam, puts Inspector Vishwas Bhagwat on a chase to find the culprit behind a sinister trail of disappearing girls. What happens next?

Cast:Arshad Warsi, Jitendra Kumar, Ayesha Kaduskar, Tara Alisha Berry,
Director:Akshay Shere
Editor:Hemal Kothari
Camera:Amogh Deshpande
FCG Score for the film Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas

Guild Reviews

Image of scene from the film Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas

Arshad Warsi Anchors An Overfamiliar but Potent Crime Thriller

FCG Member Reviewer Rahul Desai
Rahul Desai | The Hollywood Reporter India
Sat, October 18 2025

Akshay Shere’s police procedural stays busy and sociopolitically alive to the India we live in today.

Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas starts like any Indian crime drama that wants the best of both worlds. The story is “inspired by true events,” but just about fictional and legally coy enough to stage itself as a franchise about a police officer who solves one case per film/season. It’s the Delhi Crime template. The ‘Chapter One’ in the title is a clue. As is the self-reverential opening slate: “To keep the truth alive, you must tell its story”. And a corny closing slate about courage that ends with an exclamation mark (!). In between these two quotes, however, Bhagwat defies its familiar status to stay humble, metrical and consistently watchable. Akshay Shere’s two-hour film has more in common with another well-crafted Hindi series. It shares its real-world source material with Dahaad (2023), the 8-episode thriller about a cop who gets drawn into a case of multiple missing girls and a potential serial killer. Like the show, the film does well to excavate the social fabric of a place that often serves as a portal between predator and prey.

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Image of scene from the film Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas

Crime film needs more craft and spark

FCG Member Reviewer Uday Bhatia
Uday Bhatia | Mint Lounge
Sat, October 18 2025

Arshad Warsi and Jitendra Kumar star in this thriller that doesn't do anything new or interesting with a story we've already seen

OTT lighting. Killer of scenes. Destroyer of aesthetic. The flat, boring, unengaged style that says, we know this looks terrible but no one expects better anymore.

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Image of scene from the film Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas

Everything works, and then doesn’t

FCG Member Reviewer Nonika Singh
Nonika Singh | The Tribune, Hollywood Reporter India
Sat, October 18 2025

This tale of a serial killer is not exactly riding on the thrills or tropes of whodunit

Two excellent actors, thriller genre, a real story and an authentic setting… ‘Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas’ seems to possess very many ingredients that make for a gripping fare. Indeed, the film starts off well: a girl has gone missing. Arshad Warsi, as Inspector Vishwas Bhagwat, has serious anger management issues and gets a punishment posting in the same town. He has a backstory, which is just hinted at to begin with, but explains both his anger and passion to go after criminals like a man possessed. His investigation into this particular case not only leads him to many more missing girls, but also dead end after dead end, until a breakthrough presents itself.

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Image of scene from the film Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas

Arshad Warsi, Jitendra Kumar break free from their image, but the film flatlines

FCG Member Reviewer Shubhra Gupta
Shubhra Gupta | The Indian Express
Sat, October 18 2025

Almost all the moments from Vijay Varma's Dahaad show up in Arshad Warsi and Jitendra Kumar's film, making you wonder if it's a straight-up rip-off, or someone genuinely had no idea of the plot points of the show.

Exactly twenty years back, Arshad Warsi had played an upright cop in one of his finest films, ‘Sehar’. We had seen him in mostly comic roles up until then, and this ramrod straight policeman was a welcome departure, posting notice that he could do serious as well as jokey, turning him one of those performers whose presence invariably betters the movies they are in.

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Image of scene from the film Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas

दहाड़ नहीं पाता यह ‘भागवत’

FCG Member Reviewer Deepak Dua
Deepak Dua | Independent Film Journalist & Critic
Fri, October 17 2025

उत्तर प्रदेश के गुस्सैल ए.सी.पी. विश्वास भागवत को क्राइम ब्रांच से हटा कर रॉबर्ट्सगंज भेजा गया है। शहर में एक लड़की के गायब होने से बवाल मचा हुआ है। भागवत का वादा है कि वह 15 दिन में उसे तलाश लेगा। अपनी तफ्तीश में उसे पता चलता है कि सिर्फ वह लड़की ही नहीं बल्कि कुल 19 लड़कियां लापता हैं। पुलिस शक में एक युवक को उठाती है लेकिन उसके खिलाफ कोई पुख्ता सबूत नहीं है। भागवत को यकीन है कि यही राक्षस है लेकिन वह शातिर कुछ और ही पैंतरे आजमा रहा है। अचानक कुछ ऐसा होता है कि…! ज़ी-5 पर आई इस फिल्म ‘भागवत चैप्टर 1-राक्षस’ की कहानी में दम है। कहानी के आवरण को भी दिलचस्प ढंग से तैयार किया गया है जिससे उत्सुकता बनी रहती है। एक लड़की के लापता होने के बाद लगातार नए-नए नामों का जुड़ते चले जाना रहस्य को बढ़ाता है। उधर इस कथा के समानांतर एक युवक-युवती की परवान चढ़ती प्रेम-कहानी इस रहस्य में नया एंगल जोड़ती चलती है। लेकिन यह कहानी उतनी दिलचस्प, कसी हुई और पैनी बन नहीं पाई है जितनी होनी चाहिए थी या हो सकती थी।

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