‘So, we won…’ says an Indian officer. Then one of his colleagues asks a question – ‘Really?’ Then another colleague of the team says, ‘But we fought.’ Again the same question comes – ‘Really?’ And the four Indian officials who had come to negotiate with the terrorists, standing on the roof of Kandahar airport, are watching an Indian plane take off.
This plane has passengers and flight crew who were in the custody of terrorists along with Indian Airlines flight number IC 814 till a short while ago. The four officials are watching the plane slowly disappearing in the sky as if it is history and they are worried about how this history will judge them? Anubhav Sinha’s Netflix series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ leaves you with this dilemma.
The show presents all aspects without commentary
Anubhav has also given a strong social commentary through the characters on the topics he chose in his previous projects ‘Mulk’, ‘Article 15’, ‘Anek’ and ‘Bheed’. But this time he has given up the temptation of making any closing commentary on his topic. Whereas it is slowly becoming ingrained in the public memory that whatever Indian diplomacy did after the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu to Delhi in 1999 was a political failure.
Anubhav has based his show on the book ‘Flight Into Fear’ by Captain Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chaudhary of IC 814. For facts, he has also given reference to Sanjay Sharma’s book ‘IA’s Terror Trail’. And he gives the impression to the audience that he has created an atmosphere in his show to present this big incident in a completely authentic manner. How authentic it is and how much not, only experts can tell. But as a show, it definitely feels that the events are being shown in a neutral and authentic manner.
Anubhav’s show completely conveys the tension and gravity of the situation when Indian diplomacy had a moral responsibility to save the lives of 180 citizens on one hand. And on the other hand, the fear of creating a potential risk to the country’s security by releasing the terrorists who were caught by the country’s soldiers risking their lives. ‘IC 814’ shows this scale swinging from one side to the other and finally tilting towards saving the citizens.
The atmosphere was created with strong actors
In ‘IC 814’, Anubhav has got the support of a dream cast. Actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Aditya Srivastava, Arvind Swami and Dibyendu Bhattacharya who are considered to be the masters of acting along with Vijay Verma and Patralekha. This is a cast which is the dream of any Bollywood director. And all of them play their characters in such a way that the story written by Trishant Srivastava and Adrian Levy gains a lot of weight.
Vijay Verma plays the pilot of IC 814 in the story, who decides as soon as the plane is hijacked that the lives of the passengers are most important to him. One of the 5 terrorists who hijacked the plane is constantly keeping a gun pointed at his neck and in such a situation you will constantly see his fear on his face and eyes. The story of the show is based on a real incident, that is, the character is not an ultra-filmy hero who fights with terrorists. But in this limited real life incident, he is such a hero whose wisdom, his staying calm and not trying any ‘filmy’ stunts, is the guarantee of the safety of the lives of the passengers.
Patralekha and Aditi Gupta are the air hostesses of this plane, who have been made responsible for every action of the passengers by the terrorists. Both of them are like monitors of the class. A class in which everyone is afraid for their own life or the life of their children or their partner. Apart from fear, there is also a lack of basic necessities like food, water and toilet. There is also an ailing elderly person in this who had brought limited medicines because the flight was to take only one hour. There is also a child in this flight who is differently abled. These two air hostesses are also a face of fear and tension that lasted for 8 days.
There is more struggle on the ground than in the sky
One part of the show is in the sky with the flights and the other part is on the ground with the Crisis Management Group. Pankaj Kapoor is the Foreign Minister, Naseeruddin Shah is the National Security Advisor. Arvind Swami and Dibyendu Bhattacharya are the officers of the Foreign Ministry. Aditya Shrivastava and Kumud Mishra are the officers of RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), while Kanwaljit Singh and Manoj Pahwa are from the IB (Intelligence Bureau). Along with them is Sushant Singh who is an officer of the NSG Commando Force.
The story that is woven between these 9 characters is excellent. All these characters represent every party that was responsible for taking decisions during this real crisis in 1999. And when this crisis management begins, every party seems to be trying to hide its mistakes and shirk responsibility. One agency is trying to blame the other.
The commandos are ready for the operation, but they need the permission of the Punjab Chief Minister and the Chief Minister himself needs the permission of the Foreign Minister. Frustrated with this game of permissions, Manoj Pahwa is also seen taking a dig at ‘too much democracy’ in one scene. There comes a phase when the pilot himself is made a scapegoat.
On one hand, there is a media game going on in which there are two players. In the same media house, Diya Mirza is a TV channel journalist and Amrita Puri is a print media journalist. One is more interested in breaking news than in complete details, while the other is hungry to include every detail in the news. There is a constant struggle going on between both of them to tell and hide the truth.
Every party sitting to decide about those 180 lives hanging in the air at gunpoint, is stuck in choosing its side, because it is a matter of responsibility. And on the other hand, the plane is wandering to Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai instead of Delhi. The final showdown of the show begins when this plane reaches Taliban-occupied Kandahar.
And the question that remains unanswered till today
By then, the passengers and crew are also on the verge of losing their patience and courage. Diplomacy is on the verge of losing its credibility and the terrorists who hijackered the plane are also getting agitated. And the matter reaches its peak when the terrorists’ demands include the names of three people who were in Indian jails then – Maulana Masood Azhar, Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. These three, who were released in exchange for the lives of the passengers, are still alive today and are among the most important names at the root of terrorism spread in India. In ‘IC 814’, you are faced with the important question that how necessary was it to trap those people trapped in the plane by choosing the threat to the future security of the country? You have to decide this yourself by watching the show. Watch the trailer of the Netflix show ‘IC 814’ here:
The entire writing team of the show and Anubhav Sinha should get full credit for delivering an engaging show. However, the speed of the screenplay has slowed down in some places. The attempt to include the struggles of the personal lives of the passengers seems half-baked. However, this is a filmy temptation which is difficult for directors to avoid.
Except for the terrorist chief Rajiv Thakur, all the other actors are in top form. Especially the reactions of the actors of the Crisis Group, their conversations with each other and the ‘boys gang’ vibe maintain the atmosphere. Manoj Pahwa’s natural comedy makes the serious situations very interesting and his character stands out.
Some scenes are a bit overstretched. Like the sequence of the plane’s clogged toilet. At some places, the temptation of the web-series format to stretch the scenes too long seems to dominate. But overall, the strength of the show outweighs its shortcomings.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)