IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack Review | A Taut Exploration of Complex Diplomatic Negotiations

The hijack of IC 814 is one event that is considered a security agency failure in the history of Independent India, as we had to release terrorists to save our citizens who were trapped inside that plane. However, the new  Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is not trying to be a political criticism, and the emphasis is more on showing the difficulties faced by the authorities in making decisions and the emotional trauma through which the passengers and the crew went through during the whole process. With the staging of all the negotiations feeling pretty authentic and the plot covering almost all aspects of the event from a backend POV, IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack is a gripping retelling of a real event.

So on 1999 Dec 24, IC 814 took off from Kathmandu, and it got hijacked by a group of terrorists. With the aircraft lacking fuel, it was forced to land at Amritsar, and the authorities planned to take things under control while it was on Indian soil. But the hijackers forced the captain to take off, and things got out of hand for the Indian authorities. The moves and demands of the terrorists, the planning and involvement of people behind the hijack, and the convolutions and disagreements among the people in security agencies that happened during those six days are what we see in IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack.

If you look at the past few years, Hindi films were predominantly filled with biopics. And if you examine the format of those movies, they all had that filmy glorifying template. What I liked about this IC 814 story is the fact that it isn’t trying to mount itself as the story of courage or resilience. Yes, those layers are definitely there when you look at characters. But once you finish the series and look back at the whole thing, it is about the tricky space in which people from RAW, IB, MEA, etc., find themselves and how sometimes, despite their best of efforts, they will have a bad image in history.

To understand why certain diplomatic relationships were strained and why some agencies had animosity towards India, a little bit of exposition was required, and Anubhav Sinha opted for a documentary-style voiceover in the middle of the series. One of the things that enhanced the authenticity of the series was the way the series mixed real footage with what they shot. That constant doubt one has while watching “based on a true story” content is reduced in the case of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack because of these real visuals. The cinematography is mostly using really tight shots, as the tension needs to be maintained till the end. The sharpness of the colors is kind of unsettling, but I guess that was a creative choice made to give a distinctive feel to each track happening in the screenplay.

As I finished watching the series, I could see a lot of debate happening around the content, as some people consider certain omissions in the tale very problematic. The thing is, Anubhav Sinha has opted to focus on two sets of characters in the series. One set is inside the plane hoping to be saved, and another set is the one who needs to handle the negotiations in the nation’s best interest. The focus of the series itself is on these tracks, and if you look at it, just like how Sinha and his writers Adrian Levy and Trishant Srivastava have not given much space to the intervention of politicians in this matter, they have also given lesser prominence to the involvement of various agencies in the planning of this hijack.

Another criticism was about humanizing terrorists. Well, in my opinion, humanizing a negative character can actually give it some depth, and considering how one-dimensional terrorist characters are in mainstream Hindi cinema, the creative choice to give space for them to voice out their unreasonable reasons felt like a change. The only track that couldn’t get developed properly and got a very convenient and filmy conclusion was the inner tussle between two journalists. The problem was that the conflict felt less gray compared to other conflicts in the story.

Anubhav Sinha has managed to rope in some of the best names in the country for the roles. Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapoor have relatively less screen time, but both of them managed to present the larger responsibility of their respective characters convincingly. Vijay Varma, as the captain, is one of the characters who goes through a series of emotions during the whole proceedings. There is a moment of vulnerability for this character just before leaving that plane, and one would surely buy that Vijay Varma’s Captain Sharan Dev would actually sob like that. Patralekha Paul and Aditi Gupta Chopra play the part of the air hostesses with great conviction.

The most impressive performances are actually from the team that goes to Kandahar for negotiations. Manoj Pahwa plays the adamant IB officer without really making the character a funny piece. Kumud Mishra, on the other hand, is the calmer and more composed one, and one can sense that composure in the actor’s body language. I loved the way Arvind Swamy pulled off the MEA Secretary’s role. Sinha utilizes his eloquence and charm to a great deal to make DRS a solid character. Diljohn as Burger was the most impressive one among the actors who played the parts of the terrorists.

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack gives you an intensely packed presentation of what all were happening in the backend of things during the negotiations. In many ways, the series is about a collection of moments where a few people had to make a decision without the luxury of time. From politicians, bureaucrats, and pilots to even the terrorists, we can see this recurring theme of having to decide something without really having enough time.