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Due to the lockdown, we now seem to have the time to invest in watching movies that offer us the escpasim of action and thrill.
The Hotstar Specials Web Series, Special Ops was released on 17th March 2020. It is an espionage thriller in Hindi with around 1 season consisting of 8 episodes spanning between 44-55 minutes. It was wrtitten by Neeraj Pandey, Deepak Kingrani, Benazir Ali Fida and directed by Neeraj Pandey and Shivam Nair.
The cast is diverse and features Kay Kay Menon, Vinay Pathak, Parmeet Sethi, Kali Prasad Mukherjee, Karan Tacker, Meher Vij, Saiyami Kher, Vipul Gupta, Muzzamil Ibrahim, Sajjad Delafrooz, Sana Khan, Sharad Kelkar and Divya Dutta in its main as well as supporting roles.
Special Ops is an engaging espionage thriller as it constantly shuffles back in forth between the past and present. It shows the years- long tedious process involved in locating and nabbing a dangerous terrorist responsible for masterminding the Indian Parliament attack in 2001 as well as the 5 subsequent attacks all over India. There were 5 armed terrorists who were killed on the spot.
The web series also justifies the need to grant elaborate espionage budgets by demystifying the usage of the same.
The movie starts with Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Menon), a senior analyst at Research And Analysis Wing (R&AW) being questioned by Mr. Abbas (Parmeet Sethi) and D K Banerjee (Kali Prasad Mukherjee). There are two officers handling the inquiry commission established to probe the reasons behind 28 crores worth of expenses incurred by Himmat. This was established to run R&AW’s UAE desk since the terrorist attack on the Parliament of India in 2001.
During the inquiry, at first, Himmat flatly refuses to divulge the identities of his 5 hand picked agents and offer any explanation about the aforementioned expanses. He puts these under the category ‘miscellaneous’!
But when the inquiry officers delve deeper into the accounts and case at hand, they ask him about his theory behind the Parliament attack and his following discoveries and actions. Himmat then proceeds to re-live and speak about his life over the last 19 years.
During this time, he was the only official with the theory that the Parliament attack was carried out by not 5 but 6 people, the sixth one being Ikhlaq Khan. Khan was considered to be a progeny of Himmat’s imagination by most of the officials around him.
He had recruited 5 different agents, 2 ladies and 3 gents and placed them in different middle eastern countries with fool proof identities. These agents were Farooq Ali (Karan Tacker), Ruhani (Meher Vij), Juhi (Saiyami Kher), Bala (Vipul Gupta) and Avinash (Muzzamil Ibrahim) and they were placed as businessman, homemaker, traveller, chef and shooter respectively.
His quest covered the wide arena of the following locations for the last 19 years- India, Turkey, Jordan, Azerbaijan Dubai, Tehran, Tbilisi, Istanbul, Amman and Baku.
Even after meticulous planning and putting their respective lives on risk, his agent(s) missed Ikhlaq Khan by a hair’s breadth more than once!
Alongside, he was also living the simple life of a husband and father, constantly trying but unable to give sufficient time to his family. He was the proverbial ‘absent father’ to his daughter.
You need to see the series to see how Himmat and his team continue with their quest of catching Ikhlaq Khan and terminating his future terrorism plans. This is set amidst the ongoing inquiry and it’s final decision to stop releasing funds to Himmat and his team.
It’s a wonderfully made series with good script, casting, direction, acting and cinematography. Kay Kay Menon shines throughout the series with his brilliant acting, both as a committed and shrewd RA&W agent and as a worrisome and guilt struck family man. The rest of the cast has also performed well.
If you are an espionage thriller enthusiast, then do watch the series for it’s brilliant take on solving a mammoth puzzle with the minutest of clues and mildest of links available.
Image Source: YouTube
Prity Poddar is the leading vegetarian Food Blogger of Kolkata. She pens her food posts on her food blog and thirty plus local, national and international food groups and multi social media platforms, like – Facebook, read more...
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
In some cases, women do not feel the need to make any decisions. They are taught to obey the patriarchal system, which makes them believe that they are right. In my family, I was never taught to make decisions on my own. It was always my parents who bought dresses and all that I needed.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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