Netflix’s Inspector Zende, a satirical film about the pursuit of notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj, opened on the streaming service this week and has drawn mixed reviews for its attempt to blend broad comedy with grisly true-crime material.
In a Sept. 7 review for Decider, critic John Serba described the film’s tonal gambit as “predictably discordant,” saying the movie oscillates between slapstick and graphic violence and ultimately fails to make the two elements cohere. Serba recommended viewers skip the film, summing up the production as an effort that “isn’t funny enough.”
Inspector Zende centers on Madhukar Zende, a celebrated Mumbai police officer played by Manoj Bajpayee, and his pursuit of a character based on Sobhraj, who is referred to in the film by a different name. The film opens in Mumbai in 1986 and uses flashbacks to earlier episodes in Zende’s career, including a 1971 capture. Serba’s review notes recurring narration that frames the movie as “true but seems like a fantasy” and “inspired by true events but looks like a fairy tale,” lines the critic says signal the film’s intent to mix reality with over-the-top stylization.
Charles Sobhraj, sometimes called “The Serpent” and in press coverage the “Bikini Killer,” was linked to multiple murders across Asia in the 1970s and 1980s and became an Interpol most-wanted fugitive after several prison escapes. Serba’s review repeats details often reported about Sobhraj’s criminal history, noting five prison breaks in multiple countries and citing an often-reported but unconfirmed total of about 20 victims; the review also references a higher number attributed in some sources.
The film uses a comic-police-team framework to follow Zende’s efforts to track the fugitive through Mumbai and Goa. Serba points to a string of set pieces — montages, slo-mo strutting, near-misses at nightclubs and hippie gatherings — that play for humor even as the fugitive’s crimes are shown in stark terms. The review criticizes the juxtaposition, saying the movie’s depiction of killings is “strangely grim” while many investigative scenes lean heavily into elongated, low-energy gags.
Bajpayee, best known for more serious roles, is singled out as a highlight. Serba wrote that Bajpayee “cuts through the silliness with a razor glare,” bringing deadpan and gravitas to a film whose comedic timing the critic found uneven. Supporting performances and recurring family-oriented threads are described as adding a measure of earnestness amid the tonal dissonance.
Serba compared Inspector Zende’s comedic approach to the broad satire of films such as The Naked Gun, and noted that Netflix previously distributed The Serpent, a 2021 drama that took a markedly different, darker approach to Sobhraj’s crimes. He observed that Inspector Zende’s structure relies on repeated montages and running gags, resulting in a near two-hour runtime that the critic said drags.
The review called out specific narrative choices: the film alters names of central figures, devotes time to comic interrogations and budget-gone-wrong bribery gags, and stages a jurisdictional tussle between Goa and Mumbai police. Serba wrote that the one gag about corrupt officers and bribes comes closest to landing as a real laugh but that, overall, the comedic elements are near-misses.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the film’s reception. Inspector Zende joins a growing number of screen projects that have dramatized Sobhraj’s life and crimes, each taking different tonal and narrative approaches to material that remains controversial given its real-world victims.
Critics and viewers have split on how to handle true-crime stories in fiction and satire, and Serba’s review frames Inspector Zende as an example in which the balance did not succeed for him. He described the finished product as a “visually colorful yukfest” that may register differently with Indian audiences attuned to local cinematic conventions, but he concluded that the film’s blend of slayings and yuks produces “irreconcilable differences.”
The film is available now on Netflix. Serba’s full review was published on Decider on Sept. 7, 2025.