Special Ops - Season 2 - Kay Kay is our Kohinoor

Special Ops  - Season 2

Hindi - Spy / Thriller

8 Episodes ~ 45 mins
JioHotstar

Kay Kay Menon is back as the iconic Himmat Singh, the unflappable leader of the Special Ops team in RAW. The success of the first season, combined with the strong cast and crew and surely the success of The Family Man, seems to allowed the studios a larger budget. The result? A very James Bond-esque world domination plot, with matching scale, exotic locations, slick tech, all of makes for a largely engaging season 2.

An Indian AI scientist (a hammy Arif Zakaria) is kidnapped by mercenaries working for an unnamed (thankfully not the usual) enemy. This sets off a chain of events that forces Himmat to rely on his A-team—Farooq (Karan Tacker), Avinash (Muzammil), and Juhi (Saiyami Kher)—as they globe-trot across Eastern European cities, Dominica, racing against time to pull off a seemingly impossible mission. Back in Delhi, Himmat’s loyal, chai-sipping cop Abbas (Vinay Pathak) investigates a murder that eventually ties into the main plot.

Parallel to all this, Himmat is also dealing with two personal threats—one closer home and another with his mentor turning rogue. How Himmat handles this triple threat, keeps his wits about, mobilizes his resources and gets the job done… well, that is what we are here fo, right up until 0:08 on the clock!

Kay Kay Menon is, expectedly excellent. It is the way he elevates even the most routine scenes, with just his voice, body language and screen presence, that truly cements Himmat Singh in our minds. There are so many wonderful scenes (his interrogators from Season 1 are back!) that i wish i could share, some of which will become meme material no doubt. It is just Kay Kay's delivery of the scene, which pushes the good to the great.

Tahir Raj Bhasin plays the antagonist with flair—suave, devilishly clever, much like a classic Bond villain: more brain than brawn.

The series moves at a brisk pace, with the story unfolding quickly. The subplot involving Himmat’s mentor (played by the great Prakash Raj) feels like a third leg—interesting but hurried, does not quite do justice to Prakash Raj’s potential.

It is refreshing to see the series shift from the overused “old enemy” trope to a more contemporary (and probably more realistic) threat. The execution is of genuinely international standard. The budget has been put to good use—stunning locations, tight editing, even the villain’s lair gives off strong 007 vibes! The VFX, where used, is decent. Even the foreign supporting cast perform well, they do not feel like tourists who signed up for a day’s work (which is often the case in most shows/movies even).

Neeraj Pandey and his team do very good job overall with the plot, screenwriting, staging and execution. All in all, this is a very impressive and convincing step up for the spy genre on Indian TV.

In about two weeks, when the film industry serves up another blockbuster with a wafer-thin plot, good-looking actors trotting in slow-mo, jumping planes, trains, and automobiles (and shoddy VFX), where do they use the budgets?), ah yes, the mandatory bikini shot—we will remember just how a convincing spy thriller can be made with far lesser budgets and better writing.