CAST: Kay Kay Menon, Vinay Pathak, Aftab Shivdasani, Gautami Kapoor
DIRECTOR: Neeraj Pandey
Disney Plus Hotstar’s ‘Special Ops 1.5‘is the fablization of RAW Agent Himmat Singh from Neeraj Pandey’s extremely engrossing series ‘Special Ops ‘. The 4-episode mini-series narrates the origin story of its lead protagonist, RAW agent Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Menon).
Delhi police officer Abbas Sheikh (Vinay Pathak) is the narrator of the season and tells his personal story of how a rookie Himmat became the Himmat Singh that he respects so much and who inspires awe and bewilderment from so many others.
The series is produced by Friday Storytellers and Shital Bhatia, created and directed by Neeraj Pandey, co-directed by Shivam Nair, and written by Pandey and Deepak Kingrani.
THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES
Kay Kay Menon does not need to prove that he is one of the best in the world when he is on screen, but he effortlessly proves the point again.
He delivers a smooth, snazzy, and sassy performance, that only he is capable of. Though the story is thin on content, the series is definitely watchable as the actors keep the story imaginative and engrossing by holding the quality of the show together by just their rendition of their characters so well.
Kay Kay Menon is electric on-screen.
Aftab Shivdasani stands his own in front of a powerhouse performer like KayKay Menon. Vinay Pathak is excellent as usual. He delivers some of the best lines of the show with his trademark banality. Aadil Khan as a primary adversary, Maninder Singh, has more style and less consummate evil as his backstory does not bite. Aishwarya Sushmita is the omnipresent honey-trap siren Karishma and is Shiv Jyoti as Anita just serves their parts well.
IN THE KNOW
There is no comparison between Season 1 and Special Ops 1.5. If you are a true thriller watcher with James Bond at your swipe and click; you will find nothing innovative, pioneering, or imaginative about Special Ops 1.5. It is understandable because it tells the story of a younger Himmat, of times when the quality of espionage might seem infantile.
In the hi-tech times of life, we are dealing with greater degrees of intrusion in our normal working days with sneaky colleagues, intrusive aunties on Facebook, and trolls on Twitter. The world of espionage has definitely changed. No country really needs to go to war anymore, you can just unleash a tech cell with fake news machinery to sabotage any AI algorithm instead.
It does seem the old school James Bond travel itinerary found its way into our writers’ imagination as Himmat travel schedule does follow a tumultuous trajectory – Dhaka, Colombo, Russia, London, Serbia, Thailand, Kiev, Dubai – New Delhi, and Srinagar.
Messrs Banerjee (K.P Mukherjee) and Chaddha (Parmeet Sethi), the story framers return with their investigative skills again.
The season does end on a Tacker– leaving us waiting for bated breath for the 2.0.
WHAT WE LOVED
Sudhir Palsane and Arvind Singh’s cinematography
Kay Kay Kay, can we have him on loop, please?
WHAT WE MISSED
Sloppy writing
All over the place storyline
Unremarkable plot
Non-evil antagonist
