: Near the end of Anubhav Sinha's mini-series , after the hijack crisis is resolved, four main characters gaze at the hijacked plane. Manoj Pahwa's character comments, "At least we fought," to which Arvind Swami's character retorts, "Did we?" We have seen films and shows where a hero valiantly controls a flight hijack situation, fighting off the hijackers and saving the day. Even the real-life Kandahar crisis - the inspiration for - has inspired a few Hindi films like , and the recent .
However, in real-life airline hijack situations, there is no action hero to save the day, just more political and strategic complications and tragic repercussions. The hijacking of Indian Airlines flight 814 in December 1999—considered a dark chapter in both Indian aviation and political history—is a perfect example of this. .
You know the story by now. IC-814, a flight operating from Kathmandu to New Delhi, is hijacked by terrorists linked to the ISI, who force the pilot to divert the plane to Kabul, Afghanistan. Due to fuelling issues, the plane is first forced to land in Amritsar, then in Lahore, Pakistan, and at Dubai airport before being rerouted to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
: Anubhav Sinha's details the seven days of this hijack crisis - part fictional, part real-life dramatisation, with people's names changed. The show takes place in four major settings: the hijacked flight piloted by Captain Sharan Dev (Vijay Varma); the war room where Indian intelligence heads and Union Minister of External Affairs Vijaybhan Singh (Pankaj Kapur) are working together to handle the crisis; a newspaper organisation where the editor, Shalini Chandra (Dia Mirza), and her top journalist, Nandini (Amrita Puri), have an ideological clash on principles; and finally in Kathmandu, where RAW agent Ram Chandra (Squid Game's Anupam Tripathi) is determined to uncover the hijackers' endgame. First things first, feels like a director's dream, considering the number of amazing actors Sinha has managed to rope in for the show.
Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Arvind Swami, Kanwaljeet Singh, Manoj Pahwa, Vijay Varma, Dia Mirza, Kumud Mishra, Aditya Shrivastav, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Amrita Puri, Anupam Tripathi, Yashpal Sharma, Sushant Singh, Patralekhaa Paul - just the presence of these brilliant actors elevates the show. I was thrilled when Sinha put 70% of these actors in one room, allowing them to bounce their performances off each other. It's worth noting that there was a lot of masculine energy in these scenes, which may be why the show felt the need to add a separate track involving Dia Mirza and Amrita Puri dealing with the ethics of journalism in covering such a crisis.
Kudos to Sinha and his team of writers for keeping the show as engaging as possible, despite us knowing its foregone conclusion. Even if it feels like the bare minimum to be expected from a filmmaking standpoint, the fact that doesn’t engage in propaganda to make our side look forcibly perfect and composed is commendable. It has no qualms in showing the failures of the intelligence agencies in preventing the hijack and their helplessness in assessing the situation.
I admit I found awkward at times; not because it was awkwardly staged, but because I am so used to Indian shows and films where such hijack situations are easily managed. Watching the main characters fail tactically at nearly every step felt troubling. Is this what happens when you remove the propaganda from a national crisis? Just disappointment? .
Making a show like comes with the risk of telling a story that sticks to real-life accounts, which may not align with a populist narrative. Sinha takes a smarter approach here, inserting real-life footage to validate the events while also using it to educate the audience on the background and context. The dialogues are well-written, the editing is sharp, and combined with some incredible acting, the pacing never drops, even in the final episodes where the plane is no longer in the air.
Pahwa, Mishra, and Swamy are in top form in these segments. It's not that is devoid of heroics, just not the type you might expect. For example, Captain Sharan Dev tries to keep his cool in the tightest of situations.
The Lahore ordeal is the show's most thrilling segment, with some impressive VFX on display. The two air hostesses, played by Patralekhaa Paul and Additi Gupta Chopra, are equally heroic in their efforts to remain calm and composed between terrifying terrorists and panicked passengers. The show also attempts to humanise the terrorists (all fine actors), which may not be to everyone's liking, but I appreciated how it doesn’t treat the plane passengers as mere terrified spectators and instead tries to give some of them their own mini-arcs.
is a bold attempt to revisit one of the most harrowing chapters in Indian aviation history without succumbing to the usual trappings of sensationalism or patriotism. Anubhav Sinha's series challenges the audience to confront the uncomfortable reality that not all crises have a heroic resolution. With an astounding acting roster, sharp writing and editing, impressive technical values and smart direction, is immensely engaging even if it never aims to take a more populist approach.
The six episodes of are streaming on Netflix..
