IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack

IC 814: Absolutely Disappointing Documenting history in a film always needs more responsible approach than history itself. The saga of Kandahar Hijack was one of the most challenging issues from the security, diplomatic and strategic point of view for India in a world emerging afresh. This was the phase when India gripped with political uncertainty because of coalition compulsions of successive governments. The Kandahar episode took place amidst all these and this would not be wrong to say that India faced that challenge in the best possible way the country had at that time. This is true that during that time India had neither logistics nor trained manpower to deal with such situations. So also, unlike today the then India was a bit isolated from the mainstream global affairs for various reasons. However, this is also true that India hardly got the support of international community in a matter related to humanitarian crisis.

The new Web Series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack should be seen as an effort to make today's generation heed about one of most challenging diplomatic and strategic issues that India faced just on the eve of the new millennium. This is true that a film cannot strictly follow the entire account of history. The process of recreating history and presenting it in a film needs to include some imaginary incidents and characters. However, this does not ratify in any way that anybody can be allowed to alter the basic aspects. The new Web Series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack has just the same mistake. Hence, there are some factual errors in the context of narrating the story. What are those errors?

1. The way the Web Series IC 814 has narrated the character of the pilot from the perspective of Indian people and Indian media is utterly wrong.

2. The Web Series show country and Media did not appreciate the courage of the captain during the crisis. He smartly landed the craft at Amritsar airport. He tactically delayed the process of refueling so that Indian arm force got time to restrict the craft entering into a foreign airspace. Similarly, it was the captain who readily sent the message to Indian authority informing them about the hijack.

3. There was no public opinion against the role played by the captain during the crisis. Similarly, the Indian media never tried to project the courageous pilot as a villain.

4. Rather, criticism and anguish of the family members and Indian media continued through the entire period regarding security lapse and intelligence failures. . Apart from these factors which virtually defame the role played by the pilot during the crisis, sequences of some incidents have been altered.

1. The Hijackers dropped the demand of money and the dead body of Sajjad Afghani as the dialogue began. India did not persuade Taliban to do these. Taliban considered these as anti-Islam and compelled hijackers dropping these two demands.

2. The Web Series has trivialized India's strategy to conduct military action to rescue the passengers. From day one since Indian negotiators had reached Kandahar, India's stand point had been to find out ways to escalate to rescue the force. But Indian negotiators did this tactically and there is virtually no report of Taliban displaying aggression or compelling Indian negotiators to admit their view point on the gunpoint.

3. The role of Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan has not been properly depicted in this Web Series. The fact is: as Afghanistan was cut off from the rest of the world, it was ISI that kept on informing the hijackers what was happening in India.

The National Security Adviser NSA Chief Ajit Doval has shared his experience in the media describing everything. He gave detailed reply to the queries related to Kandahar Hijack. But the Web Series have completely ignored these.

Another weak part of the Web Series is its poor characterization. Except the pilot nobody seemed impressive.

Those who played the role of Indian negotiators proved that they are wrong choices for such characters.

The Web Series fails to prove what role Naseeruddin Shah actually played. Naseeruddin is no doubt a great actor. But in this role he never looked impressive.

On the whole, the Web Series is Absolutely Disappointing. I must not recommend to waste time watching this.

What could have been!! A great chance to make a high quality movie based on facts - A tragedy that shook the nation, instead it has so many loopholes, stoked acting and weak dialogues, despite having some top notch actors.

Most of the time you feel the characters have just memorised their lines. The worst are the hijackers!!

However, what it does show (maybe inadvertently) is the total lack of a proper crisis management policy, which I'm hoping is not the case any more.

It was nice to see Dia, Nasseruddin, Pankaj, and a few others but sadly their roles were not not well etched. Vikram was acceptable.

It was funny to see passengers faces during the hijack, to be seen simply sitting expressionless as if watching a movie of their TV screens.

A quickly forgotten mess.

Have been waiting for this for sometime. I binged it tonight.

I'm an ex flight attendant and started in 2000 and did it for 20 years. So it grabbed my interest as what I may have done in that situation.

I got lost in the political drama going on but enjoyed the cabin scenes.

The 6 episodes I watched in under 5 hours. It should of been a two and 1/2 hours.

I did enjoy it however you can get lost in the ground drama.

My rating acting 7/10 Story. 6/10 Running time 4/10 Not bad if you love aircraft movies. Overall 6/10. But I think binge it and you'll enjoy it more.

(The two men talking about tea and coffee in the office could have be deleted.)

This was one of the few bizarre statements made by director Anubhav Sinha. A sub-par plot which veered away from its original content based on the book "Flight into Fear". Weak plot especially the character played by famous PETA activist Dia Mirza, the info of how the incidents took place were not shown.

The Indian government had to release terrorists including Masood Azhar & 2 others to secure the release of the 185 hijacked crew & passengers. Regarding this national tragedy Anubhav Sinha made a statement that "people were exchanging numbers with the hijackers and playing 'Antakshari'......"

For once, a Hindi series is highlighting the correct facts and telling a real story without glorifying it with fabricated details. This show presents how the incompetence of political governments can cause significant damage and how decisions are often driven by political motives rather than the public's best interests.

The series is well-made, with strong visual effects and a solid script. The negative ratings and reviews likely stem from a new mindset that anything not in favor of India cannot be considered true. However, facts and truth remain unchangeable.

The series will keep you engaged until the final episode. It isn't unnecessarily prolonged, avoids irrelevant content, and stays on point from beginning to end.

Do watch it, it's worth your time.