Special Ops, an espionage thriller TV Series (comprising 8 episodes) follows a relentless R&AW analyst Himmat Singh (played by Kay Kay Menon) in his mission to end the 19 year long manhunt of the terrorist mastermind, who he believes, is the 6th man behind the 2001 Parliament attack, 26/11 Mumbai attacks and another impending high-profile attack.
The unique narrative structure revolves around an internal audit enquiry in which Himmat Singh (Menon) is asked to explain how and why Rs.28 crores were spent as 'Miscellaneous' expenses by his Middle East desk in the last 11 years. The questions by the audit committee are answered through flashbacks, narrating the back-stories of his five agents deployed in five different middle east countries and all of them with one common mission: to find and kill the 6th invisible terrorist.
The show's central idea and the protagonist's (Menon's) motivations are heavily inspired from the acclaimed American spy thriller TV show: Tom Clancy's JACK RYAN (Season 1), where the titular CIA analyst finds his mission to stop an alleged terror attack on the U.S. soil by an unidentified terrorist mastermind called Suleiman. Besides, the work-life-balance aspect of the protagonist draws its roots from another superior Indian spy thriller THE FAMILY MAN (starring Manoj Bajpai).
Therefore, comparing Special Ops with both these shows is obligatory to review. And here I felt that the show's filmmaking aspects especially the (erratic) pacing, (hit-and-miss) writing, (bland) cinematography, (lackluster) editing and (the consequently compromised) entertainment quotient of Special Ops were relatively subpar. A notable exception was Kay Kay Menon's performance, which was almost at par with Manoj Bajpai's Srikanth Bajpai in 'The Family Man'' and certainly a few notches better than John Krasinski's Jack Ryan.
I also felt that the backstories of the five agents, except probably Farooq Ali's character (sincerely played by Karan Tacker), could have been more engaging. Despite getting enough screen time, their characters seemed half-baked, which adversely affected their performances. The hand-combat action scenes involving these agents, particularly an agent's wedding fight scene with the terrorist, were poorly choreographed and even inferior to Neeraj Pandey's own spy film BABY. Co-directed by Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday, Special 26, Baby) and Shivam Nair (Baby's Spinoff 'Naam Shabana'), Special Ops fares somewhere between the cinematic elegance of BABY and the insipid mediocrity of NAAM SHABANA.
Moreover, considering the terrorist mastermind's identity being the show's basic premise and its intrinsic purpose, however, the final mystery revelation was a somewhat underwhelming experience for this reviewer. 'Jack Ryan' had similar premise where the antagonist's identity was very smartly revealed in the Pilot episode itself. In 'The Family Man', similar suspense unfolds in the 6th episode and the unexpected shock flabbergasted me. Despite being premature, both these plot twists had more impact than the climactic revelation of Special Ops.
Notwithstanding all these shortcomings, there are bona fide reasons to watch this show. First and foremost, it's the impressive act of Kay Kay Menon which alone makes Special Ops a watchable enterprise. He excels in practically every scene. His nuanced dialogue delivery in the superbly directed interrogation scene with Ajmal Kasab became my eventual favorite and shows why Kay Kay Menon is truly one of the most gifted actors in India.
Besides Kay Kay Menon, there were some strong supporting performances given by Vinay Pathak (as a Delhi Police Constable), Divya Dutta (as a suicide bomber), Sharad Kelkar (as Kay Kay Menon's senior), Parmeet Sethi & KP Mukherji (as R&AW audit committee members). Some of the most amusing lines of the show are shared between Kay Kay Menon and the two audit committee members. For instance, when KP Mukherji tells Parmeet Sethi "Mujhe aisa kyun lag raha hai ki yeh aadmi hum logon ko bahut torture karne waala hai" made me chuckle.
I was particularly impressed by Gautami Kapoor's (as Kay Kay Menon's wife) and Kay Kay Menon's onscreen chemistry as a regular middle-aged couple and their day-to-day camaraderie. They get some of the most endearing scenes together especially in the last episode where Kay Kay Menon thanks her for being the only one to have persistently trusted his gut feeling for 19 years.
Furthermore, the elaborate retelling and recreation of the 2001 Parliament Attack segment was masterfully executed. I also think naming each episode after a Hindi classic movie was innovative as the movie name gave us a clue about the plot of that episode.
Being a fan of both Kay Kay Menon & Neeraj Pandey and the genre, I really enjoyed binge watching Special Ops. The show is a royal treat for Kay Kay Menon fans but can't be appraised as Neeraj Pandey's best work. Even so, it will conveniently manage to keep you entertained and engaged all through.
