But his character regularly provides a soppy, overly reflective voiceover, which gives his journey to redemption an incongruous student gap year vibe. Hunnam is decent as Lin (if you can get past his dodgy accent, which is more Peaky Blinders than Crocodile Dundee - the actor is from Newcastle). The show, filmed in India until rising Covid numbers forced the shoot to Thailand, is visually stunning and its portrait of a heady, busy Bombay is the jewel in Shantaram’s crown. Despite running away from danger for a fresh start, Lin is immediately pulled into her orbit and can’t help falling in love. Among them is Karla (Antonia Desplat, The French Dispatch), a self-assured and smart businesswoman who happens to be caught up in Bombay’s shady criminal underworld.

He hangs out at a bar, where he meets a group of expats. Once off his bus, his new life is immediately populated by a selection of rich characters, such as Prabhu (Shubham Saraf), a cheeky con-artist who offers a tour of the city - for a price. Now on the run, he secures a fake passport and heads to a place he can hide in a crowd: Mumbai (though since Shantaram is set in the 80s, the city is still called Bombay). Eventually he does, in broad daylight, a part of the story that remarkably makes up the autobiographical side of Roberts’ novel. We first meet him in a dingy, stifling Australian prison, where he’s plotting to escape. Was it worth the wait? Not really.Ĭharlie Hunnam ( Sons of Anarchy) plays main character Dale, though for most of the series we’ll know him as Lindsey “Lin” Ford, a new identity to evade questioning authorities. But never mind that, all that matters is that it is finally here. The answer is quite boring, with reasons ranging from a failed film adaptation to Mumbai’s monsoon season putting off filming to the inevitable Covid-19 filming restrictions. Why, then, has it taken so long for it to arrive on our screens? Gregory David Roberts’ quasi-autobiographical novel about a fugitive who travels to India to pursue a new life, published in 2003, is a certified global hit, and according to many, a literary masterpiece. It’s almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t recognise its distinctive rust-coloured front cover. Every airport bookshop in the world has a copy of Shantaram.

Shantaram novel review