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Special Ops 1.5 review: Origin story is not as spectacular as the legend

Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story is not as interesting as its lead character Himmat Singh

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Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story

Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story

Creator: Neeraj Pandey

Directors: Neeraj Pandey, Shivam Nair

Writers: Neeraj Pandey, Deepak Kingrani, Benazir Ali Fida

Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Vinay Pathak, Aftab Shivdasani, Aadil Khan

Streaming on: Disney+ Hotstar

Neeraj Pandey’s Special Ops which released during the covid pandemic in 2020 was a spectacular espionage thriller. The series got off-track once in a while but was otherwise engaging. The filmmaking tropes used in most of Neeraj Pandey’s thrillers – camera tracking the character from behind, background score raising tension, and abrupt cuts in the editing which tells you that you should anticipate something dangerous. In Special Ops 1.5 these tropes seem overdone because frankly there’s not enough material in the plot to play with.

The season 1.5 begins with Abbas Sheikh (Vinay Pathak) telling the two confused investigating officers (Parmeet Sethi and Kali Prasad Mukherjee) how Himmat Singh became the Himmat Singh we know. Himmat Singh is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever seen. And Kay Kay Menon’s performance was a delight to watch in the first season. This season is his origin story but it’s not as spectacular as the legend.

Also read: Call My Agent: Bollywood review: Obnoxious!

How Himmat became The Himmat needed a menacing antagonist. In Special Ops 1.5, Himmat is fighting a fellow R&AW agent Maninder Singh (Aadil Khan) gone rogue. The reason why he went rogue is shown to us in a montage done in a haphazard manner. Maninder is trapping top officers of Indian armed forces and gaining access to sensitive information about his own nation’s safety. Honey Trap is used to trap these highly ranked officers. Most of them are killed or they take their own lives. Himmat Singh along with Vijay Kumar (Aftab Shivdasani) tries to get hold of Maninder.

The first season had a gripping screenplay and quirky dialogue. This season suffers from inconsistent writing. There’s a plethora of thrillers on the OTT space and it’s time filmmakers invent new ways of showing the thrills. If a wife says that she’s pregnant and her spy husband is happy, you know that one of them is going to be killed. If a target takes long enough to take a phone call and the bomb’s tick-tick score increases in the background, you know that there’s gonna be a blast. Neeraj Pandey’s Baby (2015) still gives me the chills while watching it again, in spite of knowing what’s gonna happen. The writing, cinematography, editing and score in Special Ops 1.5 lacks that sharpness.

Watch the Special Ops 1.5 trailer:

I agree that this season is more about relationships and family of the spies but writers don’t delve into that for long either. The 4-episode series with each episode ranging from half an hour to one hour runtime is shot across Dhaka, Colombo, Delhi, Kiev, Moscow, and London but the cities are not incorporated enough into the narrative. Can understand that the series was shot during the pandemic. But the makers choose to spoon feed everything to the viewers. Most of it comes from dialogue as Abbas Sheikh connects all the dots for the two confused investigating officers and in turn the audiences. The series, however, ends on a thrilling note when we see Farooq Ali (Karan Tacker) from season one on a call with Himmat. Third season must be on its way. Would be great to see the sparkle and thrill taken a few notches higher.

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