Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: ***
Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Menon) is a senior Research and Analysis Wing agent officer who after 19 years is still in search of the 6th and main terrorist behind the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament Ikhlaq, who got away from his hands but his colleagues and senior officials think that Ikhlaq only exists in Himmat's imagination.
How Himmat tackles many hurdles including his seniors and guides a team of young and skilled agents which includes Farooz (Karan Tacker), Ruhani (Meher Vij), Avinash (Muzammil Ibrahim), Ruhi (Saiyami Kher and Bal Krishna (Vipul Gupta) to accomplish their mission of capturing Ikhlaq forms the crux of Hotstar's Special Ops.
Penned by Neeraj Pandey Deepak Kingrani and Benazir Ali Fida, Special Ops is an eight-part action-thriller web series that is told through the lens of HImmat with its screenplay moving back and forth thought its runtime. Special Obs is a well-crafted and refreshing experience that has its good and bad moments.
The screenplay has a lot of thrilling moments to offer and it reminds you of Pandey's earlier projects 'Baby' and 'Naam Shabana' which were based in sort of a similar scenario. There is no comedy or romance here but only thrill and action which is basically simple but looks real and is impressive. Pandey and Nair have successfully presented a nail-biting adventure of a team going through governmental obstacles making up for a much-more refined cinematic experience for an Indian web-series.
The 2001 attack and the early 2000s have been perfectly recreated by the director keeping the time and scenario of the era in mind and the story mostly keeps its focus on HImmat and his team's mission to nab Ikhlaq keeping the viewer hooked almost all the time. The dialogues though, are not that impressive and could have been much better.
On the acting front, Kay Kay Menon as the determined and focused Himmat Singh delivers another stellar performance. Karan Tacker as 'Farooq' shines in his character, it was good to see Meher Vij in a character like 'Ruhani' and Sayami Kher & Vipul Gupta as 'Juhi' & 'Bal Krishna' also look good in their respective parts too but sadly, none of them matches the presence and persona of Menon in terms of acting who overshadows everyone here.
The rest of the supporting cast including Sharad Kelkar, Sana Khan, Parmeet Sethi, Sajjad Delafrooz, Gautami Kapoor, K.P. Mukherjee and Divya Dutta provides good support to the series in their parts.
Overall, Hotstar's Special Ops is not 'A Family Man' but still, it has a lot to offer if you like action-thriller dramas. It is marked with some good performances, great action and a chase full of suspense with a praiseworthy climax. A good one time watch!
