New Delhi, Sept. 6 -- Inspector Zende, written and directed by Chinmay Mandlekar, announces itself as "a story inspired by true events that looks like a fairy tale". It's meant as parody, not fact, but even judged on those terms, the film struggles.

International Indian-Vietnamese criminal Charles Sobhraj has previously been captured in filmed entertainment in Black Warrant, Main Aur Charles and The Serpent, while Madhukar Zende, who gained national fame after the famous arrest of Sobhraj in Goa, was also the subject of a 2023 documentary called Zende.

Mandlekar's Netflix film opens in Bombay, 1986, but the characters refer to the city as Mumbai, the first of many period inconsistencies since the city's name didn't officially change til...