In the first episode of the Netflix adaptation of Vikram Chandra's best-selling novel, Sacred Games, the criminal kingpin Ganesh Gaitonde makes a phone call to a detective, Sartaj Singh. "I want to tell you a story," Gaitonde says. And off we go, launched into an intoxicating tale of gangster drama, loaded with sex and politics and religion and history, punctuated with Bollywood songs and the tantalizing mélange of half a dozen languages. Gaitonde's story drives the plot, but a welter of other narratives intersect and circle around each other, clash and complement. For those familiar with Chandra's work, the upfront declaration--I want to tell you a story--is a multimedia calling card.