‘Special Ops’: A Must Watch For Espionage-Thriller Enthusiasts

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.

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.

What is it about?

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.

What is the plot?

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.

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The movie’s plot explores a complex backstory

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.

What to look forward to

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

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Prity Poddar

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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