When propaganda compromises art, the world is led to blindness. In the past few years, a bunch of sycophants have been resorting to such practices to woo those in power and in return of such cultural gratification, they gain the instant support base of the so called ‘armchair nationalists’ and enrich their pocket. Five minutes into ‘Special Ops’ and you start understanding that you are trapped by such venomous agenda. What shocks me is that it is created by Neeraj Pandey who once was a fine storyteller if not anything else.  

 When you have an enormous budget to make a web-series and you don’t have to spend much on the actors, as the Big Boys of India are not yet ready to act on the web platforms and you don’t have a concrete story to tell, you have no other way but to spend the budget on glossy sets, exotic locations and childish graphics. This sickening series has wonderful potentials to become a comedy show with the passage of time because of its wafer thin plot, mindless action sequences or sheer mockery or disrespect of the intelligence system of a nation like India. Those not yet familiar with the advanced techniques shown are advised to watch movies like ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, ‘Eye in the Sky’, ‘Sicario’ and so on. These have been used at least a million times earlier.

I do not wish to spend much of the web space writing on the acting of the stars as there was hardly anything called acting. Kay Kay Menon looks jaded and in not a single frame he looks like a RAW mastermind. You cannot blame him though. He has been instructed strictly by the director to imitate Manoj Bajpayee’s mannerisms in ‘The Family Man’. The overenthusiasm in copying led the actor to even copy the styles of uttering ‘gaalis’ like Manoj. Only if he had the desire to act like Manoj Bajpayee! The least said about the other actors, the better it is for your mental health. Those hunks or bombshells are best fit for the corny 8 PM soaps with zero cerebral dose, but expecting something classy from them is like expecting Arnab Goswami to understand the importance of Vietnam War on global cultural metamorphosis. Absurd! Only Vinay Pathak has done justice to his role. The action sequences may remind you of our childhood favorite ‘Baby’s Day Out’.  I mean when is Bollywood going to stand on its own feet when it comes to action? The jokers in the action scenes were asked to stand in queues and show their face one at a time to justify their payment. The enquiry commission, the ex-ministers, and the drone scenes everything looks so plastic and ludicrous.

After being tortured for more than 8 hours for this worthless thing called a thriller, the only consolation I have is that I am going to make some money by writing its review. If you by no way have any chance to get something like such material reward, please do not waste your time for such rubbish. Time is money.

Rating- 3.5 out of 10

Available on Disney Hotstar