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Genre – Drama (true story)

Time: 6 episodes x 45 minutes

Platform: Netflix

Language: Hindi

Director: Abhinav Sinha


On a Monday morning in 2003, one of my colleagues came back  after watching a movie and joyfully said “I saw a great movie.” Zameen”. I went goggle eyed and said “but that’s fiction and not what really happened”. He says “I don’t care. Those Pakistanis got their butts kicked”. I went more goggle eyed and said again, “it’s a movie and not the truth. Truth is, we spared those terrorists, and they came back in 2001”. “Is it ? Oh, I didn’t know that”.


I remembered this unbelievable conversation while I was watching the TV Serial IC814. It seems that fantasy is better than any real world view of our history, which has triggered many unnecessary controversies, with director Anubhav Sinha being called a “Pakistan lover”, being sympathetic to the terrorists and what not..  Starting with “this is not the reality” to “how dare the director give them Hindu names”, TV channels and other media went ballistic.Maybe the intention is to divert attention from the harsh reality of life, as one character states that “history will not be forgiving to us.


Any way one looks at it, the historical background is an example of total disconnect in bureaucracy with the left hand not talking to the right, which is hinted in one scene where a RAW “Joint Secretary” (Kumud Mishra) tells a visiting journalist “Raw and IB always work together” while history has proved otherwise with each intelligence agency being secretive about its sources and multiple agencies having the same intelligence targets.


The history is pretty much straightforward. IC814 was hijacked from Kathmandu and the hijackers flew it around before eventually landing at Kandahar, which was under Taliban control. Negotiations dragged and ended in the eventual release of the hostages , once the three main high-level terrorists were released by the Indian government in exchange. One hostage , newly wed Rupin Katyal, was killed. Those three terrorists went on to cause more outrages.


An onscreen presentation of this event is fraught with difficulties as any approach the scriptwriters and director will take, is subject to peril and harsh comments. And that is precisely what has happened. So let us check ….


What works:

  • The consistent behavior of the flight crew , especially the Captain Sharan (Vijay Varma) who is coolness personified.
  • The consistent behavior of the hijackers who are only concerned with their aim of freeing Maulana Masood Azhar.
  • The internal wrangling between the various agencies trying to arrive at a solution.
  • The missed opportunity at Amritsar to storm the aircraft (attributed to political wrangling).
  • The grouping of the ISI and Taliban as “ek hee thali ke chattey battey”which is absolutely true since the Taliban is supported totally by the ISI and the Pakistani government was the only one to recognize the Taliban government.
  • The killing of one hostage returning from his honeymoon .
  • The overall issues in the plane such as the toilet clogging, lack of food, etc.
  • Real life clips of the incidents edited in to the overall drama.
  • Excellent VFX recreation of the Indian Airlines A300 (long since discontinued in Indian service) and its “steam gauge” mechanical controls in the A300 cockpit and its three-man crew station (later models Airbus A310 and A320 had digital cockpit and a two-man crew)
  • The hijackers and the passengers played “antakshari” –  Testimony by survivor Pooja Kataria – unbelievable as it sounds
  • Recreation of Kandahar.  Jordan substitutes well for Kandahar, though the airport facilities look too modern to pass off for war ravaged Kandahar. (For that matter,  Jordan and the Jordanian Armed Force have substituted for “Iraq” and “Afghanistan” in many “Iraq-Afghan” post 9/11 American War movies).


What didn’t work:

  • Why did the serial conclude with a statement rejecting connection between the Taliban and the ISI? It is almost apologetic on this point and not the truth. Pakistan’s ISI is always proud of its creation as it gives them “strategic depth” against India. Taliban’s roots go back to the anti-Soviet war 1979-1989 where the CIA, ISI helped create the Mujahedeen who later became the Taliban.
  • The “newspaper woman angle” added nothing to the proceedings and was a clear distraction.
  • The crisis management team has the perfect responses. Its almost as if to whitewash all the inter departmental bickering.
  • The Kathmandu RAW operative engaged in secretive activities that supposedly saved RAW, despite having advance information that went unnoticed. The theory is debunked because no one knew the hijackers’ identities.
  • The IB official (Manoj Pahwa) being shown as reckless in negotiations.
  • Terrorist leader Doctor preaching the virtues of Islam and asking passengers to convert (also same testimony by survivor Pooja Kataria (see above link) 


The performances by everyone is excellent.


The TV Series is primarily based on the book Flight into Fear by the Captain of IC814. Anil Jaggia, the flight engineer , also wrote his experiences in IC 814 Hijacked. The Inside Story, in 2014. In sum , it can be said that this is a filmi dramatization of a painful event that tries to please everyone but ends up pleasing none.


eal History/ Historical Background – 3 out of 5

Script – 4 out of 5

Story – 4 out of 5

Direction – 4 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

Total – 3.8 out of 5


Postscript: Rupin Katyal’s wife Rachna was given a job by Indian Airlines. Rupin’s father married her off later and she is reported to be living a happily married life.


PPS : It only seems fair that I should end this post with yet another film that showed fantasy over reality – the hijackers being shot dead and all the passengers being brought back safely. Malayalam film Kandahar (2010) , like its 2003 Hindi cousin Zameen, also has a happy outcome with all the hijackers being killed and all passengers being saved.

Posted in: Based on true story, Drama