At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss Operation Safed Sagar as a ‘been-there-done-that’ war drama series. After all, how many more narratives do we need where India establishes its moral victory over its biggest enemy? What else could be told that gives us a new perspective on the age-old story, which has been told for decades now? Turns out, there are no easy, black-or-white answers to these questions, just like the battles that are fought by the two nations.

Created by Abhijeet Singh Parmar and Kushal Shrivastava,Operation Safed Sagar revolves around the Golden Arrows squadron of Indian Air Force pilots, led by Ajay Ahuja (Siddharth) and Tony (Jimmy Shergill), which comes in aid of the nation during the 1999 Kargil war, reclaiming strategic peaks and help the country secure victory against Pakistan.

Despite the overarching familiarity of the terrain, OSS hits a few right notes every once in a while that keeps it going. It also helps if you are not familiar with the precise chain of events the show captures. Under that pretext, OSS manages to retain some of its vigour as an engaging drama instead of being yet another paean to our forces and a showcase of our might over our age-old enemy. 

Cast: Siddharth, Jimmy Shergill, Abhay Verma, Mihir Ahuja, Dia Mirza, Amrita Bagchi, Manu Rishi Chadha, Vinay Pathak

Directed by: Oni Sen

Created by Abhijeet Singh Parmar and Kushal Shrivastava

Streaming on: Netflix

There is a very interesting line of dialogue early in the show, where Tony tells one of his subordinates ‘politics is not our concern’. And suitably so, the show refuses to make virtuous heroes of its protagonists and reserves a sense of humaneness for its antagonists. While being set against a war backdrop, the use of actual battle-ground as a centrestage is kept to a minimal — the real battles here are being fought over acerbic phone calls and secretive missions. In an impressively tense scene, Ajay interacts with a Pakistan general (Mohan Kapur), holding his ground despite being under pressure, and without resorting to jingoism.

Further, when it comes to the handful of aerial action set pieces, the makers  succeed in creating a thrilling impact despite the obvious small-screen limitations. There is also admirably little focus on patriotism, and greater emphasis on the war at hand.

What makes Operation Safed Sagar interesting is the makers’ insistence on reserving equal play for the tug of war between the two big power heads in Pakistan — Nawaz Sharif (Vinay Pathak) and Parveiz Musharraf (Manu Rishi Chadha). The inner battles of Pakistan is a tricky terrain to traverse, and the makers maintain a decent balance between caricature and humaneness. This is such a great role for Manu Rishi Chadha, who is usually pigeonholed in comic parts. Playing Musharraf, Manu commits to the simmering intensity of the character, of all the danger he is on the verge of inviting.  Meanwhile, as expected, Vinay Pathak plays Nawaz Sharif with great sensitivity, helping us empathise with the pawn-like prime minister who is also the creator of his own prison. 

There are other ways in which the show falters, though. While the intentions are admirable, OSS really struggles to integrate the female perspective into this story that’s overbearingly about men serving the nation. Amrita Bagchi is the heartfelt exception, lending a distinct dignity to her role of a wife who has quietly made peace with her destiny. And then there are the familiar tropes and character arcs that a show like this often feels the need to explore. A failed mission early on gets a callback at a crucial point when the guilt-laden character must redeem himself, and two rivals are paired together until they learn to collaborate.

In some of these segments, the familiarity borders on cloying, like the one where Ajay (Siddharth) teaches the boys the significance of a group formation exercise, even as the latter remain conflicted on a personal level — you can’t help but be reminded of a similar struggle essayed by Shah Rukh Khan in Chak De India! However, this is a very good role for Siddharth — After years of seeing him in intense avatars, capturing many shades of youth, it feels like a refreshing and gradual ascend of his journey as in the series. The actor finally becomes a ‘senior’ figure, a guiding light for his underlings. If the show remains steady and emotionally engaging for us, Siddharth’s self-assured performance has a lot to do with it. 

There is another interesting scene with Dhali (Abhay Verma) and his senior Tony (Jimmy Shergill). As Dhali, someone prone to hot temper and impulsiveness, confesses to Tony about his guilt, it’s a beautiful, humane moment between two men who acknowledge the personal toll that often gets ignored under the cloud of the bigger picture. This scene also effectively works in another way, considering the two actors in the frame — Jimmy Shergill, who struggled for years to get his due recognition in the industry, and Abhay Verma, who, with his chocolaty boy-next-door persona, reminds of a younger Jimmy. In a strange way, watching the two reconcile felt like a heartfelt passing-the-baton moment. Abhay is brilliant in a handful of these scenes — and for a show that’s all about the young and the old overcoming their personal demons and uniting for the bigger battles at hand, this moment worked as a beautiful reminder that the future is in safe hands.