Tense SUV rides through the subcontinent’s crowded old cities, photographs of dead men who stare back from cork boards in operation rooms, War Room briefings, the hunt for the mastermind... spy dramas are tumbling out of the web series shelf like never before.
The latest to release is Hotstar Special and Friday Storytellers’ Special Ops — the story of a 19-year hunt for the man behind the biggest terror attacks on India — co-directed by Neeraj Pandey and Shivam Nair. The eight-episode series spans 12 countries, six agents and the terrorist behind the 2001 attack on Parliament, the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and other blasts in Kashmir.
Pandey says for the first time in the history of Indian entertainment, the Parliament attack has been recreated on celluloid, a sequence with a relentless drumbeat of tension with which the web series opened on March 17.
The manhunt is mounted on a large scale and was shot across numerous countries such as Turkey, Azerbaijan, Jordan and India, and is showcased through an ensemble cast, including Kay Kay Menon, Divya Dutta, Vinay Pathak, Karan Tacker, Sajjad Delafrooz, Sana Khaan, Saiyami Kher, Meher Vij, Vipul Gupta and Muzammil Ibrahim.
But the weight of the mission to nail India’s Public Enemy No.1 falls on Himmat Singh, senior analyst and logistics head at the Research and Analysis Wing, portrayed by the lean and dapper Kay Kay Menon. The 53-year-old film, stage and television veteran known for his stellar roles in Sarkar, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Baby, Black Friday and Shaurya , shot close to two months for the web series.
In answer to how he prepared for a role that is lived out in the shadows of the modern world, Menon, in a telephone interview, says, “I invest a lot in the text and discussions with the writer and director as it is ultimately their vision. And then I work within the parameters instead of bringing in external research. What I deliver becomes an intensely distilled product. There are finite roles, but people are infinite. I play the person and not the role. I’m interested in Himmat Singh and not the RAW agent he is. Cinema is to do with people and their inter-relationships on screen.”
Written by Pandey, Deepak Kingrani and Benazir Ali Fida, the storyline is a result of years of research on the ways of Indian intelligence agencies. “As the demographic is different, I did not watch the glut of series on the CIA or KGB. I’m sceptical about meeting people whose work may have inspired the story. I rather have a third person’s point of view. Neeraj has met many of them. I prefer to go with his take, to avoid what I call, mannerism marketing which can be stifling. Unless, it’s a historical plot which calls for some research, I believe all cinema is necessarily fiction,” says Menon.
“Undercover agents are the unsung heroes of our time,” adds Menon. “They appear to lead normal lives but are constantly protecting the nation from threats. Special Ops tries to bring forth the lives of these agents.”
The web series, available in seven languages, follows the now-familiar style of contemporary action thrillers that tells you in which timeline and where in the world the story is unfolding. Menon’s character is situated in India but he deploys a team of remarkably skilled agents, men and women, across the globe. Himmat Singh has brains, brawn and, at most times, a Scout’s moral code but the action is left to the agents on the field.
“I love action because I’m a sportsperson, but my role is one of a serious man at the helm. It comes through my emotional valency. The actor in me had to look at that... although I would’ve loved to jump off a cliff,” says Menon. “I approached the role with positivity. It’s 60 days of my life that’ll never return, so it needs to be engaging. After it’s done, I’m dispassionate about it.”
On having traversed the theatre-television-film format before arriving at the web series door, Menon says, “I don’t act less because its television or more because its cinema. The web series genre lies comfortably in the middle; allows enough time to juice out the character. All tools are sacrosanct; it depends on who is using it. I blank myself as far as the media is concerned. The medium for me is the camera.”
Special Ops is currently streaming on Hotstar VIP
