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Emraam Hashmi's Taskaree: The Smuggler's Web Is Fun Till It Is Not

Taskaree begins as a smart, textured look at the hidden machinery of smuggling, but its compulsion to outwit the viewer ultimately turns ingenuity into excess.

Ishita+Sengupta
Jan 16, 2026

Promo poster for Taskaree.

NEERAJ PANDEY'S latest Netflix series, Taskaree: The Smuggler's Web, rests on ingenuity. It foregrounds a world that is mostly wrapped in intrigue and focuses on a group of people who aren’t necessarily under the spotlight. In a streaming landscape crowded with an assembly line of thrillers, even an inventive premise counts a great deal, and Pandey offers it in plenty. His latest show is concerned with the machinery of customs and widespread smuggling syndicates that continue to bypass them — a swing that pays off till it does not.Taskaree has a lot going for it. The newness of the worldbuilding (efficient and flashy – a Pandey trademark), the series’ resistance to design itself on the sole heroism of one character, the hint of humour scattered across the narrative, competent actors and a mindful research that rewards investment.

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For the large part of the seven episodes, these work in favour of the series. Taskaree takes place largely in the Mumbai airport (the fact that several scenes are shot in a crowded set-up adds to the texture). A rap from the Finance Minister brings substantial changes in the customs department in the city. An honest officer, Prakash Kumar (Anurag Sinha), is brought in. He, in turn, brings him a cohort of honest officers: Arjun Meena (Emraan Hashmi), Ravinder Gujjar (Nandish Sandhu) and Mitali Kamath (Amruta Khanvilkar). They face Bada Choudhary (Sharad Kelkar), a billionaire running a syndicate outside India. The officers’ effort to upend the network forms the crux.

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Although the show does flaunt groundwork a bit, I quite liked the use of a voiceover guiding the narrative. Hashmi, as Meena, does the heavy lifting, and it is mostly fun and informative without being pedantic. The irreverence of it also makes way for the pulpy aesthetic of Taskaree that plays with colour gradation like a child in a candy store. Each place in the series – Milan, Al-Dirah, Mumbai – is splashed with a distinct tone that takes time to get used to.Exactly what the series does with the actors. A major merit of Taskaree lies in having an actor like Hashmi as a customs officer and yet making him one among the crowd. He is inherently portrayed as a man doing his job. His heroism is muted and often shared. There is a scene in which he sits back as his colleague, Mitali, beats a goon to a pulp. Hashmi’s signature composure works well, and so does his straight face. In comparison, it is someone like Prakash who is elevated as the hero. He comes and cleans the system. He stands up against the authority and goads the few good people to do the job. Emraan Hashmi on playing a smuggler in Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai to catching one in Taskaree: 'Difficulty is in keeping it fresh when there are so many stories'
In doing so, Taskaree also doubles down on the inherent corruption of bureaucracy and how honesty in government jobs often renders one a minority. Therefore, just as impossible it is for a single person to shine, it is equally imperative that someone shows the way.The problem lies in how poorly Taskaree concludes. The dry tone segues to a high-strung revenge drama as the show reveals all its points of ingenuity to be pockets of deceit. Maybe it is a Netflix problem or a Pandey habit, but the series comes undone with its nagging desire to outsmart the audience. Characters keep switching sides with a breakneck speed that would put even Abbas-Mustan, the filmmaker duo known for mind-numbing thrillers, to shame. In the midst, the outing reverse engineers itself only to startle.
By the time the mayhem subsides, Taskaree culminates as a formulaic series, bearing little to no difference from the many others in the streaming-verse. Granted, it offers a glimpse into a new vista, mapping out the many creative ways smuggling is carried out – (gold stuck taped on body, gold on the wheels of travel bags dyed in black paint, etc) and the lengths the rich go to bypass. But they should have added up to a funnier series than what Taskaree settles for. Taskaree: The Smuggler's Web is currently streaming on Netflix.
Watch these Emraan Hashmi films here

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