Web-series: Special Ops: Thrilling, Passionate & Engaging! ****

1835th BLOG POST -->>

Web-series are a new development which is imbibing well with our leisure lifestyle. Whenever we get long leave of 2-3 days, the first thing we do is find a good web-series and spend our time binge-watching it. The problem lies in web-series is that they enforce so extreme vulgar and violent scenes that watching it with family goes on a toss hence becomes difficult watching it comfortably on your big TV screen and you end up seeing it on your mobile. Finally, I am glad that the latest web-series named “Special Ops” which just released on Hotstar last week had no such scenes which made it possible for me to watch it with my family in this isolation period due to Coronavirus.

“Special Ops” is another Neeraj Pandey work and I must say he is able to keep you glued with all the 8 episodes of around 50 minutes each which keeps you thrilled as to what will happen next. It has almost the similar plot as Baby but with little more depth where again Indian special forces are behind a man who is believed to have gone unnamed after 2001 Indian Parliament attack but was the mastermind behind the attack and all the other attacks that kept happening in India. We are travelled through different countries as Himmat Singh (KayKay Menon) has his agents deployed in each of them respectively.

The series is all about how they want to track down this unnamed terrorist named Ishlaq Khan and finish him to avoid any other major attacks in India. The screenplay is simple and you shall not have to apply much brains in understanding the story- somewhat similar to Amazon Prime’s The Family Man. The cinematography is so beautiful that you shall feel at times that you are watching some Travel vlog and traveling these beautiful countries yourself.

Talking about the performances, Kay Kay Menon keeps you hooked with his straight yet expressive face. Karan Tacker as the main agent is a surprise package and impresses a lot with his persona, acting and action skills. Other boys- Muzammil Ibrahim and Vipul Gupta also looks dynamic on screen and every boy shall want to be as stylish and dapper as them whereas girls shall keep on infatuating over them. Other agents played by Meher Vij and Saiyami Kher are okay-ish. Rest all the supporting actors are nicely cast and you would enjoy watching their acting skills. Sharad Kelkar, yet again, in a small cameo makes his presence felt.

The dialogues are nice and makes you feel the empathy of the characters speaking them. The background score is powerful and keeps you glued to the screen. I loved the writing as writers didn’t try to prove their secularism and didn’t shy in showing Islamic terrorism on screen though they tried to nullify any objection by portraying their main Indian agent as a good Muslim.

Now talking about the drawbacks- Though the storyline is exciting and thrilling still the plot gets slow in many places which could have easily been edited out. Similarly, KayKay Menon’s conversation with interrogating officers are interesting initially but later starts sounding boring and annoying. There are many characters or plots not taken to their depth such as – Menon’s spying his daughter’s activity leads us nowhere but wastes a lot of screen time. Similarly, there’s a boy who is supposed to do some terrorist activity but ends up only taking selfies and brings out nothing. Likewise, the role on Saiyami is finished suddenly without any explanation. There are many such loopholes throughout in the series.

Overall, Special Ops is watch-able and gladly so, with family. Also, it has another Plus Point that is it doesn’t stretch over to Season 2. The story finishes all in these 8 episodes itself. Please do watch it. It’s better than many Bollywood movies releasing these days. I give this series 4 stars out of 5.

Thanks.

WRITING BUDDHA