Overview

• Released September 5 on Netflix, Inspector Zende stars Manoj Bajpayee as the famed Mumbai officer with Jim Sarbh portraying Carl Bhojraj, a stand‑in for Charles Sobhraj.
• Reviews cite Bajpayee’s performance as the film’s anchor, with assessments ranging from roughly 2 to 3.5 stars and recurring critiques of pacing and tonal balance.
• Writers and reviewers note the film’s choice to rename Sobhraj and lean into humor, mixing period detail with a cat‑and‑mouse narrative rather than a solemn procedural.
• Contemporary coverage revisits Zende’s real arrests: the 1971 Taj Hotel capture in Mumbai and the 1986 recapture in Goa after the Tihar escape, including vivid first‑hand anecdotes.
• Background pieces highlight Zende’s decades in the Mumbai Police and national honors, underscoring why his memoir and interviews informed the film’s semi‑fictionalized screenplay.