Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story review – A perfect espionage show with a pinch of humour and emotion

4.5/5

Story:

Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story chronicles the past story of the most special and intelligent officer of R&AW. Kay Kay Menon plays the lead and is joined by Aftab Shivdasani, Vinay Pathak, Gautami Kapoor and Shivjyoti Rajput in supporting roles.


Review:

The audit inquiry by R&AW on Himmat Singh, which began in season1, has gone to the next level this time around. In the first season, the finest officer narrated his part of the story in favour of his legal expenditure from the secret service funds.

Now, this new inquiry supposedly needs to be done on the officers who are likely to retire soon in order to compile their retirement package. One of the finest police officers, who have worked closely with Himmat Singh has been roped in by the two R&AW officers for some more clarity on the latter. Abbas Sheikh, essayed by Pathak, narrates the whole story in the most subtle and appealing way possible.

The first episode begins with a brief recap of season 1, where the police officer met and worked with the R&AW agent for the first time. After being self suspended post the parliament attack, Himmat was asked by one of the senior agents to unofficially join the department again for a secret mission. He meets his college pal and old colleague Vijay, portrayed by Aftab, and the story begins.

Neeraj Pandey, Deepak Kingrani and Benazir Ali Fida’s writing has been executed word by word in this espionage thriller, which makes the show alive and makes it believe the audience that the characters are real and have not been played by the actors. From taking stairs to boarding a flight and collecting the luggage, the series looks perfectly calculative with each scene.

Pandey and Shivam Nair’s direction has been taken flawlessly into the action with panning the camera perfectly between the sequences which shows the mid-cuts seamless.

Special Ops 1.5 is definitely a shocker when the story bends towards Himmat’s wife, Saroj (Gautami). Meanwhile, the action-thriller web series features a girlfriend from the R&AW agent’s past, which leads to the most emotional scene in the series. Shiv Jyoti Rajput as the love interest of young Himmat couldn’t be more perfect for a girl in the biggest dilemma of her life.

The MUA’s ideal work on Menon and Kapoor’s faces to make them look younger went to perfection with their lean body image.

Aftab’s R&AW agent, Vijay is the most sophisticated and competent in the show after Himmat. The espionage series chronicles their friendship and partnership in an ideal way.

We’ve already seen the action sequences performed by Menon in the first season and admired them, while Aftab has nailed his performance by flawlessly carrying out the stunts in the latest part.

Meanwhile, the dark humour and funny punches by Menon as well as Pathak breaks the monotony of the serious show every now and then and makes it a fun watch.

Now comes the main antagonist of the story- an ex- R&AW agent on the path of betrayal and treason, who had always been seen a step ahead of the protagonist. Adil Khan impresses the viewers as Maninder Singh in one of his initial scenes, where the fearless officer was seen successfully accomplishing a mission.

The Himmat Story is not just the story about Menon’s character but the important people of his life as well, which makes it THE perfect show and the most interesting story of a soon-to-be-retired officer.


Verdict:

Neeraj Pandey and his team proved their creativity and took their second series in the franchise a level up. Special Ops season 2 is definitely on the charts, which has been stamped by the climax scene that features Karan Tacker on a mission. Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story is a must-watch.