Raakh

You feel the violence in Raakh before you see it. It is present right from the first few moments, in something as innocuous as two teenage siblings excitedly getting ready for a much-awaited evening out, the good-natured bickering between them and their lively banter with their mother. But you, as the viewer, find your nerves on edge, holding back a threatening lump in your throat. For you know that once they walk out of that door, the Arora siblings will never come back home again. The year is 1978. The series is Raakh, Prime Video’s eight-episode watch, streaming now, which is, without a doubt, inspired by the Sanjay and Geeta Chopra double murders. Taking place in the capital, the heinous crime shocked the country, elicited a nationwide manhunt and ultimately resulted in the death sentence for perpetrators Billa and Ranga. The case shaped India’s capital punishment jurisprudence, fundamentally altered children’s safety policies, and set landmark media rights precedents. Since then, it has been touched upon on screen, with varying degrees of fact and fiction, quite a few times, with the most recent example being the Netflix winner Black Warrant.