IC 814: Le Détournement de Kandahar

IC 814: Absolutely Disappointing Documenting history in a film always needs more responsible approach than history itself. The saga of Kandahar Hijack was one of the most challenging issues from the security, diplomatic and strategic point of view for India in a world emerging afresh. This was the phase when India gripped with political uncertainty because of coalition compulsions of successive governments. The Kandahar episode took place amidst all these and this would not be wrong to say that India faced that challenge in the best possible way the country had at that time. This is true that during that time India had neither logistics nor trained manpower to deal with such situations. So also, unlike today the then India was a bit isolated from the mainstream global affairs for various reasons. However, this is also true that India hardly got the support of international community in a matter related to humanitarian crisis.

The new Web Series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack should be seen as an effort to make today's generation heed about one of most challenging diplomatic and strategic issues that India faced just on the eve of the new millennium. This is true that a film cannot strictly follow the entire account of history. The process of recreating history and presenting it in a film needs to include some imaginary incidents and characters. However, this does not ratify in any way that anybody can be allowed to alter the basic aspects. The new Web Series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack has just the same mistake. Hence, there are some factual errors in the context of narrating the story. What are those errors?

1. The way the Web Series IC 814 has narrated the character of the pilot from the perspective of Indian people and Indian media is utterly wrong.

2. The Web Series show country and Media did not appreciate the courage of the captain during the crisis. He smartly landed the craft at Amritsar airport. He tactically delayed the process of refueling so that Indian arm force got time to restrict the craft entering into a foreign airspace. Similarly, it was the captain who readily sent the message to Indian authority informing them about the hijack.

3. There was no public opinion against the role played by the captain during the crisis. Similarly, the Indian media never tried to project the courageous pilot as a villain.

4. Rather, criticism and anguish of the family members and Indian media continued through the entire period regarding security lapse and intelligence failures. . Apart from these factors which virtually defame the role played by the pilot during the crisis, sequences of some incidents have been altered.

1. The Hijackers dropped the demand of money and the dead body of Sajjad Afghani as the dialogue began. India did not persuade Taliban to do these. Taliban considered these as anti-Islam and compelled hijackers dropping these two demands.

2. The Web Series has trivialized India's strategy to conduct military action to rescue the passengers. From day one since Indian negotiators had reached Kandahar, India's stand point had been to find out ways to escalate to rescue the force. But Indian negotiators did this tactically and there is virtually no report of Taliban displaying aggression or compelling Indian negotiators to admit their view point on the gunpoint.

3. The role of Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan has not been properly depicted in this Web Series. The fact is: as Afghanistan was cut off from the rest of the world, it was ISI that kept on informing the hijackers what was happening in India.

The National Security Adviser NSA Chief Ajit Doval has shared his experience in the media describing everything. He gave detailed reply to the queries related to Kandahar Hijack. But the Web Series have completely ignored these.

Another weak part of the Web Series is its poor characterization. Except the pilot nobody seemed impressive.

Those who played the role of Indian negotiators proved that they are wrong choices for such characters.

The Web Series fails to prove what role Naseeruddin Shah actually played. Naseeruddin is no doubt a great actor. But in this role he never looked impressive.

On the whole, the Web Series is Absolutely Disappointing. I must not recommend to waste time watching this.

For once, a Hindi series is highlighting the correct facts and telling a real story without glorifying it with fabricated details. This show presents how the incompetence of political governments can cause significant damage and how decisions are often driven by political motives rather than the public's best interests.

The series is well-made, with strong visual effects and a solid script. The negative ratings and reviews likely stem from a new mindset that anything not in favor of India cannot be considered true. However, facts and truth remain unchangeable.

The series will keep you engaged until the final episode. It isn't unnecessarily prolonged, avoids irrelevant content, and stays on point from beginning to end.

Do watch it, it's worth your time.

It's a good try but could have been better. It felt like too much was moving too fast. Too many good actors but weak plot. They have tried to keep the story as real as possible with news clipping from the year 1999 and the lapse and unseriousness of the situation. No proper leadership and political mess that caused the hijack to happen. However it could have been better if it slowed the information and shown it properly. Patralekha acting is bad. Her expressions when a passenger is killed is blank. Whereas supporting crew acting and Vijay Varma acting has saved it. However overall it's average.

What could have been!! A great chance to make a high quality movie based on facts - A tragedy that shook the nation, instead it has so many loopholes, stoked acting and weak dialogues, despite having some top notch actors.

Most of the time you feel the characters have just memorised their lines. The worst are the hijackers!!

However, what it does show (maybe inadvertently) is the total lack of a proper crisis management policy, which I'm hoping is not the case any more.

It was nice to see Dia, Nasseruddin, Pankaj, and a few others but sadly their roles were not not well etched. Vikram was acceptable.

It was funny to see passengers faces during the hijack, to be seen simply sitting expressionless as if watching a movie of their TV screens.

A quickly forgotten mess.

Plethora of facts and information are available 25 years after this horrific incident. The series, even with 6 episodes of decent duration, misses many of them. Many events portrayed in the series fail to connect with the main story line making viewers feel if they were even needed in the first place. Stellar cast, but wasted potential either due to lack of screen time or forced presence in the story. Flight crew acting is terrible! Actors & script do not seem to convey the seriousness of the situation at all. Youtube documentaries about this hijack will probably have better information in a shorter duration.