The OTT series IC 814 – The Kandahar Hijack released on and made for Netflix on 29th August 2024 is concerning everything you wanted to know about the darkest chapter in aviation hijack history of India.
As the credits say the series is inspired by real events and includes an adaptation of a book titled ‘Flight Into Fear’ written by Devi Sharan (the original captain of IC 814) and Shrinjoy Chowdhury. It throws light on the events that led to and ahead of the subsequent release during the hijack of Indian flight IC 814.
As it is a true story which envisages the utter failure of the bureaucratic machinery and the series also depicts an equal apathy of the coalition government of the time. When the negotiations with hijackers or commando action could have been completed on Indian soil as the plane first landed in Amritsar, it was sent hopping first to Lahore, then Dubai and finally to its resting place in Afghanistan’s Kandahar.
The whole matter was botched up due to internal intel agency rivalry, hiding primary info from then Prime Minister and the Home Minister who in turn had to consult with the coalition partners for their approval of the hijackers demands of releasing their leaders.
IC 814 – The Kandahar Hijack series does vaguely points as to who the beneficiary of the hijack was but it is also left open ended for us to understand and appears to be some kind of conspiracy thus leaving this as the longest hijack in the Indian aviation history which began on Christmas eve of 1999 to the New Year of 2000 with the release of hostages. The world was then busy with the Y2K bug on their mind.
The series boasts of a stellar cast of good performing actors like Pankaj Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Kanwaljit Singh, Aravind Swami, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Aditya Shrivastav and of course the hero Vijay Verma as Sharan Dev the Captain of IC 804. Also seen are Dia Mirza, Amrita Puri and Patralekha amongst the known stars. The surprise of the series is comedian turned actor Rajiv Thakur who plays the hardnut negotiating hijacker. The 6 episode series each of around 50 odd minutes has been released with all episodes.
IC 814 – The Kandahar Hijack has been well directed and has coordination between the episodes, though the situation shown is tense the screenplay is easy on your eyes and relatable and the narrative is lucid and easy to understand as things slowly but surely move towards the conclusion with the release of hostages and handover of three terrorists. However in the first episode itself all the main cast have been introduced and it was difficult to subsequently remember which actor represented which department and position of Indian Intelligence and whose onus was it in the first place as this hijack was utterly avoidable. The names of the real life characters have been altered though when they show the actual TV footage of the time, you are able to identify some of them in the actors playing the role.
– Review by PAWAN GUPTA
No. of episodes 6
Platform of Release : Network Netflix
Cast of IC 814 – The Kandahar Hijack:
Naseeruddin Shah as Vinay Kaul
Pankaj Kapur as Vijaybhan Singh, Minister of External Affairs
Vijay Varma as Captain Sharan Dev, pilot of IC 814
Dia Mirza as Shalini Chandra, Editor of India Headlines
Arvind Swamy as DRS, Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs
Manoj Pahwa as Mukul Mohan, Additional Director of IB
Kumud Mishra as Ranjan Mishra, Joint Secretary of RAW
Aditya Srivastava as V K Agarwal, Head of RAW
Patralekha Paul as airhostess Indrani
Amrita Puri as Nandini Martin, Reporter of India Headlines newspaper
Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Abhijeet Kumar, a senior officer of the Ministry of External Affairs
Rajiv Thakur as Chief (hijacker)
Pooja Gor as Simar, Captain Sharan’s wife
Kanwaljit Singh as Director of IB
Anupam Tripathi as RAW agent Ram Chandra Yadav in Kathmandu
Credits of IC 814 – The Kandahar Hijack:
Based on ‘Flight Into Fear The Captain’s Story’ by Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury
Production companies – Matchbox Shots, Benaras Mediaworks
Producers – Sarita Patil, Sanjay Routray
Written by Adrian Levy, Trishant Srivastava
Directed by Anubhav Sinha
Cinematography – Ewan Mulligan, Ravi Kiran Ayyagari