...As I started recording this review, I realized that it's not really the best time or day for me to review something because my throat's gone and I've hardly slept the night before. So yeah, it's not a great time, but I'm still going to try and do this...
Transcript
As I started recording this review, I realized that it's not really the best time or day for me to review something because my throat's gone and I've hardly slept the night before. So yeah, it's not a great time, but I'm still going to try and do this. I'm talking about *IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack* on Netflix. This is something I binge-watched after ages. Yes, it was the luxury of a weekend, so that was a plus. But it was so bingeable that I just kept going on and on, and it flowed so well that you didn’t realize how much of it you had watched. That's the best kind of show you can watch.
It's not something that I can box into one genre, but if I had to, I'd say it's a combination of a drama, a thriller, and a docu-series. It's a great combination to have, and Anubhav Sinha as the director and writer of this series is one of the best people to helm a show like this. He's done Mulk, followed by Article 15, followed by Thappad. That's his filmography. Yes, the one after that didn’t land, Anek featuring Ayushmann Khurrana. Some of the people from those films are part of this ensemble cast. And first of all—yeah, before I say anything else—I have to say this, I don’t think, looking at the cast that's available at hand... I mean, just Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapur in a scene together, in a few scenes together. I cannot really express how I felt looking at that because it's just such a dream to watch these guys together. It’s been a while. Their body language, how they approach a role—it’s like they don the costume of the character, literally the skin of the character, and you start believing that’s the person this man is, and he’s always been this person. The Naseeruddin Shah in IC 814 can never be confused with the painter in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Pankaj Kapur’s character in IC 814 can never be confused with the lovable coach from Jersey. Yes, those roles aren’t really something that will cause a problem for someone like Naseeruddin Shah or Pankaj Kapur. But that said, they were part of this cast, and that is a big plus for TV series in general in India.
As for the rest of the cast, you've got Kumud Mishra and Manoj Pahwa. These are the two guys that you get at the next level. And Manoj Pahwa—oh my god! Oh my god! Because Manoj Pahwa with the combination of Anubhav Sinha is just something else. Anubhav Sinha refuses to believe that Manoj Pahwa is a comedian and continues to give him roles that are way beyond what somebody would imagine, and Manoj Pahwa goes ahead and delivers the hell out of them. Whether it was Mulk, whether it was Anek, where he was fantastic, or Article 15, Manoj Pahwa was sublime. And once again, Manoj Pahwa is mind-blowing. Anubhav loves him for a reason, and it’s very, very obvious why. If you do not watch IC 814 for anything else, just watch it for Manoj Pahwa negotiating with the terrorists—that itself is worth watching.
I almost forgot to talk about Kumud Mishra’s transitions and his smiles. That man transitions from one mood to another while staying in the same character so effortlessly, so beautifully. It is great to watch. He has some eight different smiles, I think. He moves from a look of seriousness into a sly smile, back to seriousness, into a genuine smile, and then a look of concern—all of this happening in the span of 15–20 seconds of a phone call conversation. Kumud Mishra in that scene... it’s such a small scene, but it is beautiful to watch him in that kind of form.
Once you get beyond these two, and the two I mentioned before, you get a host of other actors. Vijay Varma being at the very top of that list because he has the next largest share of screen time, and he does not disappoint. In the past, Vijay Varma has had the luxury of roles that have some flamboyance in them, and there is this room for the character to blossom, slightly larger than life. It’s easier to grab screen presence. But in this case, he is largely arrested to one cockpit and one chair. Even then, he delivers a fabulous performance.
There is some drama for sure, with politics embedded in it, because you can't really take that away. Anubhav goes deep into how the decision-making was done and spoke to each of the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process, which is something I saw in an interview. He’s then constructed all of this together. Overall, the writing holds true for most of the part. The pacing is slightly patchy—the only drawback that I felt in IC 814. There is tight drama, for sure, and there are some thrilling edge-of-the-seat moments, because there are lives at stake, literally. This is somewhat of a chapter in Indian democracy. The show and the writing present these facts from as neutral a viewpoint as possible. After that, it's left for the viewer to understand and take sides on what went right and what went wrong. So I think that’s really one of the strengths of this show: it is not diplomatic. It is presenting facts as they happened, and that’s why I said it’s part docu-series.
There was one other thing I didn’t enjoy: the characters of Dia Mirza and Amruta Puri, who play media people—two reporters or one reporter and one editor. Their relationship felt slightly random. It wasn’t established. You don’t get a background to those people, where they are coming from, or their point of view on the power of media in general. Those are some of the questions raised through this series. Hence, their reactions felt slightly abrupt and random.
Overall, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is very bingeable. You’ll be able to breeze through it very easily. It's not the most enjoyable watch in the sense that dark things are happening in the show, and it’s a dark chapter in Indian democracy, like I said. But from a creative standpoint, it is a reasonably good show. Not as mind-blowing as the cast that's on display, but still, it’s a respectable and good watch. It will go down as one of the good series that we have. I would recommend that you watch it just for the ensemble cast on display. That’s my take on *IC 814: The Kandahar Project*. If you’ve watched it, let me know what you thought! Any nuances that I missed? Would love to discuss and chat.