Special Ops, a web series available on Disney+ Hotstar since 17 March 2020, with 8 episodes of an average length of 44 to 55 minutes the story is about the suspense-thriller-detective-cohered operation-drama.
The story revolves around the four lead characters, first Himmat Singh played by KK Menon is a RAW officer facing inquiry cum audit for the financial discrepancy in his various operations with big budgets, also caring and suspicious father. Second is Farooq Ali/Amjad Shaikh/Rashid Malik (Karan Tacker) former software professional RAW agent stationed in Dubai, recruited by Himmat Singh. And third Hafiz Ali (Sajjad Delafrooz) Terrorist group Jamat’s commander and businessman in Dubai who arranges money for Jamat, mastermind of various terror attacks in India. The fourth one is Ikhlaq, a suspense character.
Other supporting lead characters are Abbas Sheikh (Vinay Pathak) Delhi police inspector, Himmat Singh, and Minister Thapar’s trusted man. Bala (Vipul Gupta), Avinash (Muzamil Ibrahim), Juhi Kashyap (Saiyami Kher), Ruhani Sayed (Meher Vij) are the RAW agents recruited by Himmat stationed in the Gulf countries for a special operation. Ismail Hassan (Rajat Kaul) caretaker of Hafiz’s financial activities and his close aid, Farooq uses him to trap Hafiz. Sonya (Sana Khan) Ismail’s assistant and having an affair with Farooq. Hamid (Mir Sarwar) Ismail’s bodyguard cum assistant who knows Farooq’s secret of his links in Ismail’s brother’s killing. Noor Baksh (S. M. Zaheer) Jamaat’s top leader in Pakistan, plans violence in Kashmir and wants to destroy Indo-Pak relations.
Wasim Karachiwala (K. C. Shankar), Jamaat’s second commander after Hafiz. Naresh Chadda (Parmeet Sethi) Officer in the inquiry team and closely linked to Minister Thapar, to whom Himmat uses for arranging money after his fund stopped. Rohit Tannan as Moderator for Indo-Pak Meet. Mr. D.K. Bannerjee (Kali Prasad Mukherjee) second officer in the inquiry team and short-tempered by nature. Sadia Qureshi (Divya Dutta) Hafiz’s wife and a suicide bomber for the Indo-Pak discussion venue, marries Hafiz in Pakistan after a Muzaffarnagar riot. Farah Qureshi (Pakkhi Gupta) Sadia’s sister and a suicide bomber for Indo-Pak discussion venue, people raped her during a riot. Surya Kumar (Sharad Kelkar) IB officer in charge of Pak Defense minister’s security in India and coordinate the same with Himmat. Chintan (Pawan Chopra) Himmat’s current boss. G.P. Mathur (Bikramjeet Kanwarpal) Himmat’s boss at the time of the 2001 Parliament and Mumbai 26/11 attack. llliyaas Hassan (Rajendra Chawla) cab driver who gives information about Wasim to Farooq. Aditi Rao (Tanaya Sachdeva), daughter of Indian ambassador in Turkey and Bala’s GF. Sujata Thapar (Sohaila Kapur) Indian Minister, plans to kill Himmat because he knows her secrets of illegal trading by her son. Pappu Haramzada (Alok Pandey) arranges a safe house for Himmat’s attacker from Pak. Habib Naik (Bijendra Gupta) Human trafficker who buys girls and marries them in the Gulf, finds Sadia to marry Hafiz. Zaheer Raza (Rahul Vora) Pak defense minister visiting India for peace talks. Mansoor (Abhiroy Singh), Pak officer and Pak Defence minister’s security in charge, helps Saadia. Chaudhary (Anuj Sharma) Abbas’s assistant police officer. Bakhtiar Khan (Arvind Wahi) Ex Dubai police officer, helps Hafiz illegally and kills people on contract. ISI chief (Ajit Shidahe) Supports Jamat. Saroj Singh (Gautami Kapoor), Himmat’s wife, asks Abbas for help after an attack on Himmat. Pari Singh (Revathi Pillai) Himmat’s daughter.
The story moves parallelly in the present and past. Himmat reveals about the past terror attacks and investigation during the inquiry.
The series starts with Himmat Singh’s inquiry for huge expenses, which don’t have any explanation on various operations and agents. In inquiry, an officer asks Himmat Singh, about his theory about the 2001 parliament attack. Himmat is sure about the presence of the 6th person in the parliament attack, he planned it and that man was there during this attack and he is the mastermind behind other similar attacks.
In inquiry, Himmat tells about links between the Parliament attack, 26/11 Mumbai attack, and other similar attacks and claims only one man is behind it. After the parliament attack, Ikhlaq closely escapes and Himmat finds his burned passport while investigating and searching. Nobody believes Himmat and stops search operations. When all agencies and officers denied the presence of the 6th person in the parliament attack, he formed a team of 5 agents to find the 6th person. He stations them in 5 different gulf countries and invests a huge amount in them in more than 18 years, to find something about Ikhlaq.
After the 2008 Mumbai attack, from arrested terrorist, Himmat gets the name of Wasim Karachiwala and a masked commander who trained these attackers. Farooq informs Himmat that Wasim is visiting Dubai every month on the same date. Farooq knows about Illiyas, Wasim’s driver, he interrogates him and gets information about Wasim. Farooq and Juhi kidnaps Wasim to interrogate, but he gets killed during this. He confirms the presence of the 6th person during the parliament attack and the mastermind of behind many attacks. Farooq finds that in Dubai Wasim was meeting Ismail on every trip. Farooq builds relations with Ismail with a fake identity, and waits for the chance to get close to Hafiz and to get the whereabouts of Ikhlaq. Hafiz kills Ismail’s brother for dishonesty and stealing money. Hamid comes to know about Farooq’s role in this money stealing. He tries to blackmail Farooq but before any more damage, Farooq kills him. After demonetization in India, Hafiz needs 1Cr cash in the new currency for Jamaat in J&K, Ismail take this opportunity to introduce Farooq to Hafiz and Farooq arranges money for him also. Hafiz denies meeting with Farooq
Himmat manages to freeze Jammat’s accounts through bombing in Pakistan when Jamaat’s oil company was planning to sign the deal with the Russian oil company. This time again Ismail puts Farooq’s name forward for a deal. Hafiz calls him for a meeting and asks him to accompany him to Baku for the deal, where Ikhlaq is also coming for a deal signing. Himmat plans to kill Ikhlaq in Baku at the meeting point, but the team misses the chance. Then they plan to kidnap Hafiz from the hotel, but there Hafiz kills Bala. After this attack, Hafiz knows about a spy in his team, so he asks Ismail to find him. Somehow Farooq knows this and he plans to trap Ismail. He kills Sonya to make it concrete. Ismail reveals many secrets about Hafiz while running away with Farooq and also tells about Ikhalaq. Russian confirms Hafiz that Ismail is a spy. Then Hafiz asks Farooq to accompany him, to Islamabad for meeting Ikhlaq.
During the inquiry, Himmat doesn’t reveal much about his agents, mission, and expenses. Minister Thapar asks Abbas to follow Himmat and update her. She arranges an attacker from Pakistan and tries to kill Himmat. After failed effort, she calls Chadda and tells him to ignore her name whenever it will appear during the inquiry.
In Delhi Abbas arrests Habib while trafficking 3 girls. He hands over him to Himmat. Habib tells Himmat about Sadia, her marriage in Pakistan, her husband, and her sister. He also reveals a major secret about Ikhlaq. Himmat immediately calls Farooq to update him with new information.
Farooq knows an important secret about Ikhlaq. He receives calls from Himmat and both reveal the same secret to each other. Himmat plans to kill Hafiz when he will travel to the airport with Farooq. In a car, Hafiz receives a call from Bakhtiar and he tells Farooq is an Indian agent.
What happens next? How Ikhlaq escapes after the parliament attack? Why nobody trusts Himmat? What is the secret of Ikhlaq? Where he hides? How Hafiz saves him? Why minister Thapar wants to kill Himmat? How Suryakumar and Himmat save Pak defense ministers? How Bakhtiar knows about Farooq? What happens with Ismail? What is the story of Sadia and why she wants to kill the Pak defense minister? and many more questions are answered in the series and it is great to watch it in the series.
It is not to miss web series, with a good story and equally good acting by KK, Vinay, Sajjad, and Karan includes acceptable additional masala and overacting by supporting actors in some scenes. The series is a must-watch and is a complete package of thrill, suspense, and entertainment. 9/10*
Chetan Nikam 