IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack Review: A Grounded Thriller!

IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack review!

The Vijay Varma-Naseeruddin Shah-Pankaj Kapur production stays grounded even while it’s in the air, and the stress is well distributed throughout.

The hijacking of Indian Airlines 814 in December 1999, the convoluted way the week-long hostage crisis unfolded in far-flung locations, and the follow-up events that continues to this day, became a case study in How Not To Handle A Hijack. Or, to put it another way, how to fumble your way through a crisis while hoping that someone else will do it for you.

Five masked men kept 180 people, including the crew and passengers, at gunpoint for seven horrific days, killing one and seriously injuring another. Based on the book ‘Flight Into Fear’ by Captain Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury and directed by Anubhav Sinha, ‘IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack’ recreates that tense week in which the plane passed through multiple airports (Kathmandu, Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai, and finally, Kandahar), with tempers rising among the hijackers and multiple Indian agencies scrambling to find a way out.

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IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack Trailer

Credit : YouTube/Netflix India

Twenty-five years later, the survivors’ scars still ache. The mark left on Captain Devi Sharan’s (Vijay Varma) neck from pressing a pistol for endless hours is still evident. In addition to individuals invisible to the human eye, the six-part series focuses on the souls of those who could clearly perceive the need to make difficult decisions but were unable to do so for reasons that the documentary attempts to explain.

One of the most effective elements of the series, which gets better as it goes along (a certain degree of slackness in the first four is made up for the last two, which are absolutely fantastic), is the restraint it manages to sustain: keeping high-pitched melodrama at bay, and even more importantly, keeping the background music muted, allowing us to focus on the action, which is split between the interiors of the airbus, and the high-powered rooms in New Delhi where multiple.

The other is how the politics of the time — Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, Jaswant Singh was the Foreign Minister, and India refused to acknowledge the Taliban regime in Afghanistan — are reflected in the crisis’s resolution.

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Some of the daring in highlighting what was viewed as a significant blow to India’s stern stance against terrorism stems from the fact that a number of the key individuals have either faded into obscurity or have fallen out of favor with the current ruling dispensation. The hijackers, who had assistance from Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, demanded the release of many of their compatriots, including Harkat-ul-Mujahideen leader Masoor Azhar and Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh, who were in Indian prisons. The mutterings of ‘we will not do this, whatever the cost’ were quieted, and the exchange — hostages for dreaded terrorists — went through.

The series also makes subtle comments on the gray regions of journalism. In order to reach to the heart of a story and reveal the complete truth to readers, journalists must distinguish between what is good and wrong, as well as decide what facts to keep or divulge. When national security is at stake, deciding when and how much of the truth to divulge becomes critical.

Overall, ‘IC 814’ will appeal to those who enjoy hostage drama and political stories. Also, if you have been yearning a well-made show, one you don’t want to binge during your lunch breaks but give a serious viewing, this one may just be what you are searching for.

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