Cast: Félix Moati (Antoine Habert). Mélanie Thierry (Anna Habert). Souheila Yacoub (Sarya Dogan). James Krishna Floyd (Nasser Yassin). Jaouhar Ben Ayed (Iyad Bel Tagi). Dean Ridge (Paul Wilkins). James Purefoy (Stanley). Roda Canioglu (Commandant Adar). Julia Faure (Lorraine).
Plot: While visiting the hospital with his wife Lorraine, architect Antoine watches a news clip about Kurdish women fighters, fighting ISIS and is sure that he has seen his supposedly dead sister Melanie, when the video clip ends with an explosion. Antoine goes on a trip to Istanbul to visit Luke, an injured American in the video clip, which further takes him to the Syrian border and finally into Syrian heartland, in the middle of the Syrian Civil War. About to be ‘sold’ to ISIS soldiers, he is inadvertently rescued by the Kurdish female soldiers of the YPG who think he is also part of ISIS. Meanwhile three friends from Britain, Nasser, Iyad and Paul, join ISIS, due to a perceived ‘Islamophobia’ and “injustices’ in Britain. There is only one problem – Nasser has already been recruited by an intelligence officer known as Stanley who keeps popping up at regular intervals. Meanwhile Antoine meets Sarya, a Kurdish fighter; she is sure that Melanie is dead and asks him to return back to France which he refuses and goes with them on missions, determined to find out the truth about Melanie…
Its also clear from Nasser’s behavior that there is something very “off” about him as he is always watchful and cautious unlike his two friends who exult in the mayhem. I have already given a mild spoiler in that in Episode 3. Nasser, ex British Army and supposedly a British ISIS recruit, is already a spy for a man named Stanley whom he meets somewhere in no-man’s land and shares information about ISIS. (Don’t ask me how Nasser and Stanley escaped the regular ISIS patrols). There are some “are you kidding me” moments like these. Beyond that , its an absorbing thriller with some disturbing scenes in the ISIS segments.
The beauty of the series lies in the fact that like every good or great story, this is a quest. It’s about Antoine’s quest for the truth behind Melanie’s death. She was an archaeologist who had an Iranian boyfriend activist who was deported back to Iran and executed. She was supposedly blown up in a car bomb in Cairo due to her anti Iran activism. Antoine refuses to let go of this and keep digging more and more, while watching the brave Kurdish women fight off the ISIS who think they won’t attain paradise if they are killed by a woman! The women have much more to lose than anyone and so fight fiercely. The switches between Antoine’s quest, Nasser’s actions, the ISIS depredations (very disturbing), and the parallel stories that they generate are very interesting as we want to know what happened to Melanie and what is happening to the Kurdish women who have sworn to fight to death.
Spoilers: This series is NOT an easy watch as Episodes 3 and 4 deal with the ISIS depredations. Be warned, that though there is nothing graphic the sound effects, the actions and the dialogues make it clear what’s happening onscreen. All the more reason that the YPG women fight to the death. However, from Episodes 5 onwards, it more or less becomes a pure spy series as we learn about Melanie, Stanley, Nasser and how their fates are intertwined with each other. Iyad has become kill-happy while Paul is sure that there is something wrong with Nasser, as he has seen a change in his behavior.
Both Season 1 and Season 2 are available on Lionsgate Play (through Amazon Prime) and just for this series, I have subscribed to it. The night scenes are at times too dark and they give the required effect of dread.
If you want to watch a well-made series embedded in the brutality of the Syrian Civil War, the ISIS brutalities and all that centers around it, then this makes an equally disturbing and thrilling watch, due to the accurate historical backgrounds.
https://rammesh.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-pixel.png00Rammeshhttps://rammesh.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-pixel.pngRammesh2026-08-30 11:09:472026-08-30 11:09:52No Man’s Land – Season 1(2020) – Thrilling and Disturbing
Plot: In 1999, the forward posts of the Indian Army near the Line of Control (LoC) which are vacated during the harsh winter, are occupied by the Pakistani Army. The order to evict them results in the first ‘televised war’, with journalists from news channels vying for attention while reporting on the heroism of the Army soldiers. Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force is grappling with problems for its own counter strike preparations , codenamed Operation Safed Sagar,. They have lost two pilots, one of whom is returned safely while the other is tortured and executed. Demands from the Army for air support results in some innovative solutions to bomb the Pakistani occupied Indian posts resulting in the status quo.
Border (1997) and Border 2 (2026) are the benchmarks for a “successful war movie”, as they are filled with hyper action , multiple explosions and screaming dialogues against Pakistan. From that point alone Operation Safed Sagar (hereafter OSS) compares like a slow-moving art film, thanks to the meticulous attention to detail and minutiae of the overall war from the Air Force’s view. Being an Air Force story, the full cooperation of the Indian Air Force was given including access to air force bases, coaches and consultants for the actors to emulate the air force way of life. The Air Force is thanked at the beginning of each episode
Thanks to the overall restrained writing, there is no need for any screaming matches, nor do the pilots indulge in taunts with the enemy as shown in Border 2. And why should they? They would be too busy doing their multiple tasks while flying at near supersonic speeds. So those who are expecting screaming and shouting a la Border, forget it. This is not for you.
Those who want a well-researched, true to history drama, with the obligatory emotional moments and even somewhat predictable sequences, this is for you! Well worth your 6 hours.
For those unfamiliar with what happened, here’s a quick history lesson(those who know this part, can skip to the next para). Indian Prime Minister A.B.Vajpayee took a historical bus ride to Lahore to be met by his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Unknown to the Pakistani PM, his Army Chief General Parvez Musharraf was planning an operation to occupy the Indian posts vacated during winter, presenting India and the world with a fait accompli. India hopefully won’t do anything to counter this embarrassment and soon Kashmir will be under Pakistani control, as these Indian posts overlook the critical Srinagar-Leh highway. Contrary to this convoluted Pakistani logic, India responded with full military force. After (nearly) 3 months of bloody fighting where Indian officers led from the front, resulting in a high officer casualty rate, the “intruders”, who were actually regular Pakistani Army personnel but were projected as “mujahedeen”, were evicted from the posts. The LoC was restored to the same status. The Indian Air Force played a huge part in demolishing these posts, after lots of trials and tribulations, and in a truly innovative spirit of ‘jugaad’, using the machines beyond their designed limits. Two Indian Migs (1 x Mig 21, 1 x Mig 27) were shot down with the pilot of the Mig 21, Ajay Ahuja, being tortured and killed. The Mig 27 pilot was returned unharmed. About 550 Indian Army soldiers lost their lives with twice that number injured. Pakistan was not condemned for any of this and on the contrary, Musharraf seized power in a military coup three months later. Pakistan did not acknowledge they were Pakistan Army regulars until much later, when the highest military medal Nishan e Haidar, were given to Captain Karnal Sher Khan and Havildar Lalak Jan, both from 12th Northern Light Infantry. Karnal Sher Khan’s award was based on a letter kept in the dead Captain’s pocket by Indian Brigadier M. P. S. Bajwa, praising Khan’s valor and leadership.
So, how is the overall story arc of the series? Very good, though the switch to the Pakistani side showing Sharif being hounded by Musharraf, takes away from the focus on the Indian Air Force officers trying to find a solution to the problems. At times, the real clips of the events are shown to highlight all the diplomatic, civil and military happenings. The (onscreen) Air Force officers speak of the problems encountered in high altitude warfare – different performance of weapons in the high altitude due to lesser air density, since most weapons are “geared” for low to medium altitudes. The persistent efforts to do “jugaad” are also explained for the audience as conversations between Air Force officers.
Top Gun and other Western air combat films have made the standard air warfare film templates, that are adhered to in OSS but in a milder way. A gung-ho pilot (Dhali). A pilot with repeated personal problems (Baldy). The restrained C.O (Tony). The innovative out of box solutions brought by the new officer (Ahuja). The overall C.O who has to manage his Air Warriors chafing for action (Patney). The standard “woman supporting at home” template that is normal in most Indian war films. Baldy is worried about his girlfriend Pooja who has run away from home and lands up at his airbase. The “problems” are fairly cliched and stereotyped and can be overlooked , as many Indian war films show similar cliches but they do take the attention away from the warriors. All the performances are remarkably restrained but a special mention about Vinay Pathak as the somewhat clueless Nawaz Sharif , consistently outsmarted by his Army Chief Musharraf played remarkably creepy by Manu Rishi Chaddha. Also equally creepy is veteran S.M.Zahir (people may remember him from Hum Log) as Nawaz Sharif’s father, Abbaji. Jimmy Shergill is always good as the restrained C.O. of the Golden Arrows, managing his team of fresh and experienced pilots. At the end of episode 6, all the real pilots and their future lives are briefly shown, with ‘Tony’ Dhanoa becoming the Air Force Chief.
Visual Fx: The real world aircraft such as Mig 21, Mig 27, Canberra, used in OSS, have been retired from service while the Mirage 2000 (shown briefly) and Jaguars (not shown in the series), still soldier on. So its a given that VFX has to be the main resource for the flying sequences. For the Mig 21s, it’s a mix of real-world action and VFX. Check out the below pics.
The ground shots of the Mig 21s take off
and landing , as above, are real . Shot probably at Nal Air Force base, Gujarat (judging by the background terrain). Nal, Chandigarh , Gwalior are credited in the beginning of each episode.
while the air to air of the MIg 21
and the air to ground attack shots of the Mig 21 and Mig 27s are VFX
The VFX varies from excellent (especially the Mig 27) to the meh level, latter in the mass formation shots, with combat planes flipping in somewhat impossible flights.
.
There are some minor goofs such as Stinger missiles being mentioned and the Anza, shown on the missile launcher (Anza being a Pakistani copy/ clone of the Russian SA7 Grail) and the Mig 21s moving as if they have modern thrust vectoring. It was an Anza that actually brought down Ahuja’s Mig 21 and not a Stinger.
The ground level action is also fairly okay as the emphasis is not on the Army but on the Air Force. As for the obligatory Pakistan bashing, it is not even required as Pakistan’s actions during the war, such as not acknowledging their own troops, to the extent of denying a funeral for its martyred regular soldiers, shows their mentality and fanaticism.
I would like to say more about the serial but then it would spoil your viewing pleasure. This is a restrained yet truthful TV series, with the obligatory dose of drama and masala which can be ignored if you focus on the overall story arc, which is faithful to the overall historical happenings. 6 hours well spent and a wonderful tribute to the Indian Air Force and its Operation Safed Sagar
Agree whole heartedly with you Mr Rammesh.. a very well made series and I would actually gloss over the vfx part since we are still concentrating on paying actors more than spending money on the film’s screenplays. As you said, the historical facts of the movie are really good and creative liberty has to be taken to fill in the gaps.. minute to minute history can’t be replicated. getting a 4/5 from you speaks volumes of the series. A must see for those who haven’t yet.
Thank you for your kind words. Its one of the few , the VERY few, Indian series or films with an Armed Forces background, that shows professionals at work and not “dialogue baazi”.
Now. If only we could do something similar for the Navy ;)
I am always prejudiced against the quality of any films and shows coming out of India. But thanks to you, KV, I am happy to know that there are occassional glimmers of hope. Thanks for your detailed review. I look forward to watching this.
Thanks . It is one TV series I was looking forward to and praying that it wouldn’t be ruined by foaming at the mouth dialogues and screaming and shouting. Glad to see that it was not. As for the planes and details, thats just the military nerd talking :) – you can safely ignore that and focus on the overall story.
A simply superb write-up; I will starting watching the series this evening.
A side adjacent comment on Indian VFX/CGI studios. Jaw-dropping, exhilarating and beyond state-of-the-art work products! I watch all films till the very last frame, for one main reason – enjoy reading the almost-endless list of Indian names.
Sometimes, such as in the 2025 ‘How To Train Your Dragon’, Indian names dominate the end-credit rolls.
More detail, in case of interest:
(AI-generated)
“India is a global powerhouse for visual effects (VFX) and animation, hosting major international studios and massive domestic operations. Top studios include Prime Focus (known for Avatar), DNEG India (Oscar-winning work on Dune and Tenet), Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies VFX (Ra.One, Brahmastra), MPC India (The Lion King), and PhantomFX (Pushpa).
Major Global and Domestic Players
• DNEG: Operates massive hubs in Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Pune, contributing heavily to top-tier Hollywood feature films and streaming projects.
• Prime Focus: A pioneering global giant headquartered in Mumbai offering end-to-end creative services, stereo 3D conversion, and visual effects.
• Red Chillies VFX: The premier Bollywood-centric studio delivering high-end CGI and visual wizardry for major Indian cinematic blockbusters.
• MPC & Technicolor India: Bengaluru and Mumbai locations support hyper-realistic creature design and environment rendering for major international studio tentpoles.
• Phantom Digital Effects (PhantomFX): Based in Chennai with global reach, renowned for seamless compositing and effects work on major regional and international action titles.
Liked your review – but do not agree to your remark ‘ women supporting at home’. The series showed the cantonment life very well. The houses were spot on, the way junior officers will land up at your house unannounced late in the night for drinks and dinner – and the lady of the house no matter the time – hustle up something. The dresses of the women was spot on – from sarees to salwar kameez to jeans.
One more aspect about the conversations being more English and less of Hindi,
Agree to all your explanations but a small explanation from my side .
Based on my years of watching Indian war movies , they mostly show women only at “the home front” and hence my term ‘supporting at home’. Fighter and Operation Valentine showed women in combat roles but the less said about Fighter, the better:) .
I completed viewing ‘Operation Safed Sagar’ and also read the two Kargil chapters from Arjun Subramaniam’s ‘Full Spectrum: India’s Wars, 1972-2020’, to get at least a high-level understanding of the conflict.
Summary – a well-made show, probably the only one to be dedicated to the heroes of the Kargil air-war. A solid, sincere attempt to narrate the general history, with credible actors, deep research, and outstanding Visual FX.
Some off-hand – and probably debatable comments:
1
Overall, a fairly faithful adherence of the script to the actual events, in the larger sense.
2
Some scenes maybe overdramatized and ‘inspired’ from the two ‘Top Gun’ films –
1. Pilot shown losing his cool one times too many because his friend was brutally KIA.
2. The bombing range practice runs.
3. (And these compromised by GPS jamming from high-altitude American spy satellites? Really!)
4. At the risk of losing a segment of the audience, maybe too much screen-time for the ladies, kids, etc.
5. Instead maybe, and even if not directly tied to OSS, some screen time could have been devoted to “Flight Lieutenant Gunjan Saxena, the pioneering Indian Air Force pilot who made history as the first woman to fly in a combat zone during the 1999 Kargil War. Operating a Cheetah helicopter under enemy fire, she evacuated over 900 injured soldiers and earned the moniker “The Kargil Girl””. (Currently viewing her biopic, acted by Janhvi Kapoor)
3
Though we will never know the actual facts, I thought the Musharraf/Sharif/Daddy Sharif scenes were near-comedic –
With that fox-that-swallowed-the-chicken tight smirk, Mush dismisses Nawaz-miyan with simply one-or-two sentence nehle-pe-delha style lines.
And if Nawaz is still unsure, Abba Sharif closes the deal with just a severe stare and/or a one-sentence warning to his son.
Musharraf good at delivering a proverb to a two-man Chinese delegation in Beijing, and taking it on the chin when they strike back with a one-liner on a frog in a well. Ha ha ha !
(and somehow, Nawaz-miyan does not raise this treachery till weeks later? One would think President Zemin would have been on the phone with him the same day)
4
What could have been highlighted instead, as a post-script at the end:
“.. in his book ‘In The Line of Fire’, Musharraf all but disowned the operation despite being its principal orchestrator. His reluctance to write about the major battles in the Kargil conflict and highlight conspicuous acts of individual gallantry reveals a clear unwillingness to claim ownership of the conflict as the leader who put his men in the line of fire.”
What a wretched, lying, traitorous coward!
5
Most importantly, I am surprised (or maybe missed it entirely), this was not included in the series, even if it was not directly related to OSS. Quoting from the book:
“As the war progressed, there was a greater need for the IAF to support operations in the Batalik Sector. To do this, it committed significant reconnaissance efforts to identify the major logistics hub for sustaining Pakistani posts in the area. One such hub was the Munthadalo logistics camp, which had grown from eight to ten fabricated tents to about fifty to sixty igloo tents by mid-June. Following a dummy run in a trainer with Litening pods to exactly locate the camp the previous day, on June 17 (1999) six Mirages of 7 Squadron dropped thrity-six-250 kg bombs on this camp – one of the most impactful air attacks of the campaign. The sprawling hub was razed to the ground. This effectively choked Pakistani supplies to the Batalik and Kaksar sectors, thereby sealing the fate of all their posts there.
This strike was followed closely by the MIG-27 strikes at Kukarthang, which turned out to be a fuel-supply dump that was seen smoking for days.
General Malik (Army Chief) acknowledges the impact of air power in the Batalik sector and reckons that IAF pilots would not have been able to carry out their attacks *without crossing the LoC*. A senior Mirage-2000 pilot admits that it did happen several times, particularly during air defense escort missions’.
(Glad to know that such self-imposed shackles were cast off during ‘Operation Sindoor.’ An LoC or International Border (IB) is inviolate only as long as the line is not crossed. Once it is, it is an act of war and needs an equal-or-greater response. If anything, Kargil proved for the first (?) time that two nuclear nations could engage in limited, conventional warfare,
6
Lastly, perhaps less time could have been spent showing the fainting, morose pilot, and maybe a couple of frames on Operation Talwar – the Indian Navy’s aggressive deployment in the northern Arabian sea to – if ordered so – impose a blockade of Karachi, and with it, the logistical supply chain going to the mountains.
7
As a post-script, Pervez Musharraf had the last laugh – ousted Nawaz Sharif precisely over the public clamor of their Kargil ‘misadventure’, and in a few short years, had another American President eating out of his hands – virtually unlimited arms and treasure to Pakistan, to ‘fight the Taliban’, post 9/11. That ruse worked at least for a few years.
(now waiting to get schooled by you on all logical/historical assertions above) 😊
1. On point n0.5 – Gunjan Saxena . She was SAR – Search and Rescue , in itself a form of combat operations but it is not part of the overall effort to bomb the hell out of the Pakistani posts. So it was unnecessary . Good luck with your viewing of Kargil Girl; my comments in my book were very moderate. Today I would be more pithy, after seeing Jahnvi’s mono expressions in movies where she was the lead actress.
2. The Musharraf/ Abbaji/ Sharif scenes were surely written with an idea to show how perfidious the whole bunch was and so I will leave it at that.
3. Again on Operation Talwar. No screen time possible as it was all about the Air Force efforts which had a direct impact on the overall Army ops.
4. I want to quote a friend (with whom I have since fallen out) about Pakistan’s fleet footed behaviour towards the US “The Americans are so far up the Pakistani ass that any shit the Pakistanis give them is taken as the whole truth only because it serves the American purpose of treating India with its usual historical disdain, as India never bowed to it and was peripherally in the Soviet orbit”, the latter said with his disgust about the Soviet Union. I think that was probably the best ever comment on the US-India-Pakistan relationship tangle. These days, finally. the US has managed to treat India with disdain (but thats a whole different discussion and lets leave it at that).
Finished watching OSS last night. Was restricted to watching only 1 episode per night because of wife’s duty hours. While I’m no expert on military hardware or VFX, their explanation on various jugaad like dropping bombs from 30K feet to be out of Stinger range, or placing laser guided old bombs on Mirages we were able to understand.
The story was told well, with all the right emotions and pacing. And as you’ve rightly said, it didn’t have the Bollywoodian hyperbole.
Didn’t read your review until now. Was afraid there could be spoilers. And there was. It was only after Ahuja is killed that we remembered it was in the news in 1999, while you mention it here. No sweat.
All in all, an enjoyable show.
Ahuja being killed was national news at that time and the whole nation was in an uproar because he had been tortured and killed. SO too all the Army personnel who were killed in the initial days, especially Lt. Saurav Kalia whose father is still fighting for justice to treat Pakistan as a war criminal. Sadly , nothing on that till date . I will leave it at that and not go into an anti-Pakistan diatribe ; as one commentator said , Pakistan exists only because India exists – an external enemy to blame for all its internal failings. Somewhat like “foreign hands” being blamed in India for all our domestic failings; the foreign hand goes back to Congress days :)
Cast: Simon Pegg (Danny Patrick). Sian Brooke (Barbara Napier). German Segal (Vadim Trusov). Danny Sapani (Charles Francis). Cloe Pirrie (Lt.Col. Roz Cavendish). Jason Tobin (Nicky Chan). Hannah Khalique-Brown (Saara Parvin). Ed Stoppard (Foreign Secretary Richard Marston).
Plot: Danny is now on an almost non-stop treadmill of preventing Russian cyber-attacks against the UK civil and military infrastructure. His wife Barbara, ex MI6, is also in GCHQ in the East Asian (read Chinese) linguistics department. Multiple leaks of data point to an obvious mole at GCHQ. Meanwhile Vadim who had vanished, gets in touch with Saara and states that he is in China, along with fellow Russian hackers, planning an even bigger attack against UK, the seeds of which are already there as some innocent garbage in the earlier codes. Given that Danny is advocating caution, Foreign Secretary Marston sends an Army cyber warfare team headed by Lt. Col. Cavendish to oversee an aggressive response …
WARNING : MILD SPOILERS (shouldn’t still prevent you from watching the series😊)
Season 1 ended on a note where it was clear that Vadim is out there and Saara desperately wants to contact him (check out my take on Season 1 here ) Season 2 makes it clear why – Vadim gets in touch with Saara through a commercial videogame chat box and announces his presence in China along with fellow Russian hackers. That in itself is a giveaway that “more the merrier” seems to be the approach of the writers. You already have Russia as a suspect. So why not add China too? Thankfully the Chinese puppet North Korea didn’t make an appearance 😊.
There is a somewhat masala feeling about the series in that various strands are added one after the other. In episode 1, Barbara’s relationship with the Chinese ‘dissident’ Nicky Chan is revealed and anyone who follows any kind of spy serial will surely guess that this is NOT going to be what it seems and that is exactly what happens. By episode 2, it is clear that Barbara has been truly and well trapped by Chan who is an MSS operative, who had played the long game – pretending to be a Chinese dissident in the democracy movement in Hong Kong while secretly sharing all the information with his MSS masters. This is an excellent view of how the Chinese play ‘the long game’ in real life; one hears of Russian spies being caught regularly while there is hardly any information on Chinese spies being caught.
Back to the serial. There are some huge ‘are you kidding me’ moments and the biggest one is how Vadim escapes from the airtight security of the Chinese apartment because his Chinese handler is a secret pro-democracy dissident! Really? What follows however shows how the oppressive surveillance in China takes a toll on friends and family and how “maintaining good social credit” is a big thing in China – anything not sanctioned by the Government and your social credit comes down with one being unable to travel or sometimes even buy daily groceries. Check out this wiki link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_credit_system
That said, there is enough masala in the series to keep everyone engrossed . Mostly the “what will happen to Barbara” angle is the one that takes up more time as she literally is forced to do tasks ordered by Nicky Chan while Danny soon notices changes in her behavior. This part plays out extremely well as it’s a classic long term espionage trap practiced by any intelligence agency. This is the angle that keeps us interested through the series and we feel for both Danny and Barbara, each knowing that the other can’t take the deceptions.
There is also the subplot about the shitty Foreign Secretary who wants his own purely Army team inside GCHQ but that too soon takes an interesting turn as they start working along with GCHQ after the initial chill vibes. Saara Parvin is relegated to a minor character and this series is all about Danny and Barbara.
Like I said, there is enough masala to keep you interested and since its only 6 episodes, it moves at an even pace to its final conclusion. You can overlook the somewhat ‘are you kidding me’ moments to do with Vadim and focus on the rest of the story which is top notch.
https://rammesh.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-pixel.png00Rammeshhttps://rammesh.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-pixel.pngRammesh2026-08-09 10:10:102026-08-09 10:10:14The Undeclared war (2026) – Season 2 – More absorbing (than S1)
Cast: Gemma Arterton (Kate Henderson). Rafe Spall (Stuart Henderson). Alex Kingston (Rose Trewen). Galaxie Clear (Fiona Henderson). Avi Nash (Ravindra “Rav” Sangvhi). Mark Stanley (Ryan Walker, MP and Foreign Secretary). Alexander Terentyev (Sergei Malinski, SVR operative).
Plot: Kate Henderson is an SIS officer tasked with surveillance of a Russian Oligarch Mikhail Borodin who finances SVR operations. Kate persuades Lena, Borodin’s nanny to bug Borodin’s yatch in Malta, in exchange for political asylum for her and her brother. She and her colleague Avi hear Borodin and SVR officer Sergei. discuss the upcoming resignation of the Prime Minister due to health reasons. When the PM’s resignation resignation is announced, the duo are sure that there is a high level Mole in the Cabinet or somewhere in the higher offices of the Government…
Right from the word go, the series is superb and taut, with hardly any time wasted on establishing the characters. She is an MI6 officer and that means that half the time she cant talk about her job at home, except to her husband, who works with the Home Secretary and is aware what she is doing. The leak clearly points out that there is a high level mole and it is this high level mole hunt that takes up most of the time. The obvious candidate is the ambitious shit of a Foreign Secretary who is hardly modest and is clearly arrogant about his plan to move to No.10 Downing Street, health issues of the earlier PM be damned and uses every dirty trick in the book to foil the chances of the other incumbents for the PM’s post. So like anyone investigating the higher ups, Kate has to tread very carefully.
The mechanics of the investigation along with the “I don’t care a damn” behavior of the Foreign Secretary point him out as the obvious suspect. The inconclusive final shot shows he still may or may not be the SVR mole.
Unfortunately the Series has couple of cliched stereotypes and anyone who watches films or TV series with a female protagonist knows that the lead character will have “family problems” , usually meaning a rebellious teenaged daughter. I do not know why this stupid trope is being repeated in series after series so much that we can predict how the daughter will ‘go straight’ once she hears what her mother is doing for a living – in this case defending Queen and Country. Naturally the mother says “its not James Bond and I rarely carry a gun” and so on. Again, naturally, when we learn the identity of the Mole, we are really surprised how that turned out to be.
International locations add to the overall stylish look of the TV series . Hopefully Kate Henderson will return as she is based on a book trilogy written by writer Tom Bradby who has a cameo as a TV presenter , discussing the shenanigans of the Cabinet.
This is as taut as they come and even allowing for the cliched “family life’, couple of chases and one scene of gunplay, it is still a superb absorbing series and at 5 episodes , hardly takes up one’s time.
Cast: Michael Fassbender (Martian). Jeffrey Wright (Henry Ogletree). Katherine Waterston (Naomi). Harriet Sansom Harris (Dr. Blake). Saura Lightfoot-Leon (Daniela aka Danny). Jodie Turner-Smith (Samia Zahir). Richard Gere (Bosko, Head of London Station). India Fowler (Poppy).Hugh Bonneville (James Richardson).
Plot: Martian is under suspicion for multiple reasons – his continued interest in retrieving Samia Zahir from Sudan, his supposed liaison contacts with MI6 officer Richardson, his plans to turn a vicious mercenary using an untested back office analyst. All these and more come to Henry’s attention starting an internal mole hunt. Danny is getting closer to the higher echelons of power in Iran, in their nuclear program. Various strands are in the air…
As mentioned in season 1, The Agency is an American remake of the French 4 season TV Series The Bureau where the acting was so good that one had to remind oneself that these are NOT INTELLIGENCE AGENTS BUT PROFESSIONAL ACTORS . It’s a very tall act to follow and Season 1 of The Agency did it very well.
Season 2 is – ahem – a tough one and it is easy to see why. The over clever plotting is perhaps the main culprit as too many things are happening. The internal leaks, Martian’s suspicious behaviour, Henry’s suspicions – all these and more, take up more of the time and could have been easily reduced from 10 episodes to about 8 or so . Samia’s imprisonment stretches longer than the original one in Syria and so that too drags. It’s the Iranian scenes with Danny that come through very well – the abject terror that a NOC has to and MUST go through is shown well in the Iranian scenes. That Danny is addicted to danger is something that Martian identifies and keeps her in place , despite everyone telling him to pull her back for her own safety and so the consequences are but natural. There are couple of surprises that one doesnt see coming at all (at least I didnt) which is somewhat different from the original.
The middle of the season drags very much due to Henry’s molehunt and the resultant surprises are somewhat different than the French serial. The ISIS terrorist who is targeted by French intelligence is replaced by an American ex Marine working with a Russian mercenary group controlling diamond and other rare earth mines in Central African Republic but the end results are the same and these scenes work amazingly well . Thanks to the “Russians” and “Islamic Terrorists” there are many acts of (off screen) brutality which thankfully are in our imagination. The geopolitics is also spot on with all the major new players in the play – China, Russia, Iran and the British. As befitting any “American” TV series with more budget, the look is very stylish and high end compared with the somewhat sparse French looks.
In short the series starts well, lags in between but reaches a fitting and superb climax, with the end guaranteeing a Season 3 and 4. Despite that middle segment dragging, the series is STILL ONE OF THE BEST that shows intelligence work mainly being collating facts from various sources and analysis the final result – with the odd gunplay here and there :) .
Despite all these limitations, it is still an engrossing watch.
Plot: Surprised to discover that watch smuggling is a major activity due to the lack of any credible Indian brand of high quality, Xerxes Desai puts a proposal to manufacture high quality watches in India, to his mentor and friend J.R.D. Tata, the head of the Tata group, who is amused but doesn’t say anything. While on a visit abroad to explore the possibilities, JRD faces a personal insult by a Swiss precision watch manufacturer about India being unable to make any such high-quality precision watch. On his return, JRD gives the green signal to Xerxes. Desai gathers together a team that ultimately becomes the core group – Akash, Gaurav, Megha – that starts the process of setting up and manufacturing precision quartz watches with the Tata stamp of quality and dependability...
As a thumb rule, I avoid “sports movies”, “business success movies” as we know that the hero/ main protagonist will win in the end against all obstacles, hurdles, challenges, etc. He will be the one who will have multiple brainwaves while all the others around him / her stare at the sky and are motivated by the protagonist’s zeal and burning desire to bring forth the final result. He/ she will overcome all personal and professional challenges with or without the support of people in his life. He / she is usually a very scrupulous/ honest person who follows all the rules of business and life . The Founder was probably the only film to break the rule as it showed Ray Kroc as a complete shit who stole the McDonalds brand name from the McDonald brothers, so much that they had to close their original restaurant and were unable to use their own name. ( Check out my take on The Founder at this link ).
This TV Series also follows this “business success story” template except that the core team is also shown contributing to the overall success story of Titan watches. This is not Xerxes ‘Zee’ Desai’s lone battle but that of his core team too who are as fired up as ‘Zee’ to get the final product into the Indian market, while facing multiple challenges. So how much of this story is true? That will be the question on everyone’s lip, before starting the series. I like the series and since I have read the book, let me answer my own question in a fun way. Two of the five main characters in the TV series are “real” – Xerxes Desai and J.R.D. Tata. The rest are fully filmi composite characters (If you read the book, then you will know the real history).
Then why on earth was I smiling throughout the six episodes? Why on earth did I laugh out aloud at some of the silly, theatrical even ‘filmi’ devices in the story – like JRD himself refusing to wear a watch till the time Titan makes its first watch? And why on earth did I want to know what will happen next – so much that I almost binge watched the series?
Simple. Because ofthe emotional connect that the writing generates. Unlike all ‘foreign’ business success stories, this one has its heart in the right place, especially the constant references to an era when ‘smuggled watches’ were a sign of prestige and ‘local watches’ were generally ridiculed being a poor second cousin / okay quality. My personal experience will probably give a perspective, especially to those who were – er – not around in that era.
Sometime in my final year of college, 1980, I was presented anHMT Ajeeth watch with a green dial ( HMT is referred to as GMT in the TV series; click on the link to see how it looked). Now a watch itself was a prestige symbol, and a long-lasting watch, even more so (my father had the same mechanical watch for almost 40 years) and an HMT watch with its wide range was even a bigger prestige. On a visit to Singapore in 1982, I bought a Casio digital watch, which I used for a long time since the HMT had stopped working and couldn’t be repaired. Casio digital watch was the ‘hep thing’ in the early 1980s and Bombay’s DN Road had tons of smuggled watches being sold openly. Only sometime in the late 1990s did the famous Mozart Symphony No. 25 adorn my wrist by which time, I realised that not only did the Titan match in quality but also the price and feature range.
The TV series, somewhat follows this timeline and is on the dot when it comes to the Titan watches being widely available across India. Except that the story is full of dramatic incidents that we can only pass off as fully filmi. Eg – Xerxes and Aksah meet Haji Mastan? Who they discover is the king of the watch smuggling ring? Surely, they weren’t that naïve or that innocent. If as the book states, the core team had done its market research before entering the market, it surely wouldn’t have done something so foolish (and filmy). In the same way the “Titan Tune” – Mozart Symphony No.25 – wasn’t the result of JRD taking the entire team to a Western Classical Concert . Again this is a very filmi scene, but it still is nice to watch every character suddenly “connect” to THE tune that would make a lasting impression as The Titan Tune – especially after everyone is shown listening to multiple songs and tunes in various Indian languages with overall amusing results.
We can dismiss this and many other similar incidents as “creative liberty” that happily doesn’t detract from the story but instead adds to the overall story of showing the emotional drive of the main characters. And it is on this emotional drive that the series is on target. That quality called as jazbaat as the story telling that grabs you from the word go.
I have a problem with the overall underexposed even dull photography to depict those ‘gloomy’ times. All scenes inside the offices and anywhere else have a dank and gloomy look to it. The moment the two characters Megha and Gaurav were introduced, we immediately know that they will be ultimately married by the end of the TV series. The real characters on whom they were based were already married when they joined the company ( at least the man was).
Despite such cliches, the TV series is heart warming and nice to see a real Indian success story without any hanky panky, due to the straight arrow guidance of JRD himself , played magnificently by Naseeruddin Shah. We know that JRD didn’t have to throw his weight around and THAT is PROJECTED amazingly by Naseer. A magnificent performance even though he doesn’t have as much screen time as Jimmy Sarbh’s endearing performance as the cranky, endearing, egoistic and finally human ‘Zee’. One would expect that the Head of Marketing would be an outgoing confident ‘Type A’ personality and this is probably the only blemish in the series, as Megha Mhatre comes across as a softspoken, somewhat diffident person. The foreigners are stereotypes – who have nothing but disdain for India and Indians. I was actually surprised to learn from the series (and the book) that “Andre Leuba” (actually the world-famous Swiss watch brand Favre Leuba) was acquired by Titan watches in 2011, which the Series shows truthfully in a small coda. (Titan sold off this acquisition in 2023).
The overall atmosphere of the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s is superbly recreated and the production design team should be lauded for their painstaking attention to detail in many of the scenes, especially those set in the 1970s and 1980s. The book on which this TV series is based covers the rise of the brand and its misadventures in 4 out of its 10 chapters.
What would be the best way to summarize the story ? Simple. It is BASED ON A TRUE STORY (which means , less true story and more masala ; here the masala is in perfect proportion with the overall story. Not too much, not too little) Overall, this is an absolute FEEL-GOOD TV series that I absolutely endorse due to the overall superb performances and attention to detail and excellent production design, aided by appropriate songs from mostly 1950s, 1960s and 1970s film songs, which at times mirror the storyline.
https://rammesh.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-pixel.png00Rammeshhttps://rammesh.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-pixel.pngRammesh2026-06-28 10:46:332026-06-28 10:46:35Made in India_A Titan Story (2026) – “Sweet and Fully filmi Fun”
https://rammesh.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-pixel.png00Rammeshhttps://rammesh.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/1-pixel.pngRammesh2026-02-21 18:58:332026-02-22 13:11:30Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web (2026) – Stylish and fast paced
