Salakaar Series Review: There is little in Salakaar that makes sense. Set in two timelines, it tells the age-old story of India’s battle of wit with Pakistan from the eyes of two spies. One of them, Adheer Dayal (Naveen Kasturia) is obviously modeled on India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, whose stories of glory are quite popular on WhatsApp messages; stories that have a lot of flair but you can’t say much about their authenticity. That way, Salakaar does nothing different. It often feels like a cinematic adaptation of a series of such WhatsApp forwards.
Do you know when NSA chief Adheer Dayal single-handedly destroyed a nuclear plant in Pakistan? Here’s the story of an extraordinary spy who fooled Pakistan’s deadly Army General, Zia-Ul-Haq (played here by Mukesh Rishi with an unintentionally comical undertone). India’s dutiful spy Adheer, was sent on a secret mission to Pakistan to know more about the nuclear activity taking shape in the late 1970s. Once there, Adheer got into the good books of general Zia when he staged a terrorist attack at a school with the help of some Afghan militants (Yes, he spoke in Hindi with the Pashto speaking Afghans). Adheer heroically saved Zia’s grandson from the crossfire, taking a bullet in the process. An impressed Zia invited Adheer for dinner, in order to thank him. Slowly, Adheer gathered all the information about the nuclear plant and outsmarted the entire Pakistan army by sneaking into the plant and dismantling the chemical reactors. Zia was fuming with anger. Pakistan’s dream of becoming a nuclear threat was stopped.
Starring: Mouni Roy, Naveen Kasturia, and Asrar Khan, with Mukesh Rishi and Surya Sharma
Directed by: Faaruk Kabir
Streamer: JioHotstar
Director Faruk Kabir leaves no stone unturned to reduce Pakistanis to a bunch of violent buffoons. In a scene, Zia is shown to be torturing an Indian, who he thinks was involved in the terror attack at the school. After some gory beatings, Zia passes the baton to his grandkid who walks towards the man and starts beating him. Later, we see blood on the kid’s body as he gives a sinister look to Adheer. It is a juvenile, unnecessary scene crafted only to dehumanize a country.
The dialogues take it to the next level. At one point, Adheer’s son, named Bharat of course, asks him rather excitedly, “Kya papa, bete ka naam Bharat rakh ke Pakistan me kaun aata hai (Come on, Dad. who names their son Bharat and then comes to Pakistan?)”. Or later when he refers to his professor in school and says, “Bomb to fod nahi paaye, isiliye bacho ka sar phodte hai (Since he couldn’t drop bombs, they go around smashing children's heads instead)”. Not to mention the enormously awkward thing which Zia says to Adheer at dinner after shaking hands. “Vegetarian hone ke bawajood aapka haath kaafi majboot hai (Even though you are a vegetarian, your hand is quite strong)”.
By this point, I had given up hope and was just waiting for the show to turn absolutely into a spoof. Maybe someone will suddenly break character, look at the camera and let out a smirk? But no such luck. Instead, it goes further with the same man-child energy as we get to see Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, who feels to have come straight out of a sketch comedy act, advising Adheer on how to stop the chemical reaction. Not just that, he also has a comment to make about geo-politics. “Every India-Pakistan action has an equal and opposite Chinese reaction,” he says. No Newton was harmed in the process.
In a show like this, even the performances have no time to perform as the entire scheme is busy finding ways to ridicule Pakistan. So, an otherwise sincere Naveen doesn’t ignite any spark. Mouni Roy as the spy working in 2025 to stop the nuclear threat doesn’t really have anything to do as the plot mainly focuses on Adheer. As I said before it is difficult to confirm the authenticity of what these glorious texts proclaim. But that was never the point. Nationalism operates less on logic, more on sentiment. The idea is to make the heart beat without moving a single brain cell. Salakaar doesn’t know how to do that either. It presents moments of reveal with intensity when it doesn’t have what it takes. So, instead of goosebumps, the show leaves you making a series of confused expressions, each one worthy of becoming an emoji. Well, it’s not a lost cause completely as the same emojis can be used to react to such WhatsApp forwards in future. As for me, it is time to get a factory reset.