Spy v/s Spy
The deadpan spy, whose facial muscles move only when he is in disguise, is code named Salakaar (advisor) in Faruk Kabir’s web series of the same name.
The show (on JioHotstar) moves across two timelines and thwarts Pakistan’s nuclear programme twice. In 1978, Adhir Dayal (Naveen Kasturia) –supposed based on NSA’s Ajit Doval—is sent to Islamabad as a cultural attache, to find out about General Ziaullah’s (Mukesh Rishi) plans to build a nuclear bomb.
Running parallel to the past case, is the report from deep undercover agent Mariam (Mouni Roy) that reveals plans of the tyrannical Colonel Ashfaqullah (Surya Sharma) to revive the defunct nuclear plant. And who should run her nail-biting extraction but the older Adhir (Purnendu Bhattacharya).
The show, which claims it is the “legend of an extraordinary Indian spy” has a comic book tone that makes it somewhat enjoyable, but it cannot be taken seriously. Thankfully, the violence is kept to a minimum—there is a torture scene and the vicious attack on a female embassy employee in Islamabad. Mariam happens to be her daughter!
Adhir wears minimal disguises and fools almost everyone from a scientist (who reveals the location of the nuclear plant) to guards who let him into secure facilities. He stands in the vicinity of the Kahuta nuclear complex and takes pictures, without anybody noticing. To get into Zia’s household, he engineers a fake kidnap attempt on the President’s grandson, and then rescues him. Zia is inordinately grateful; they discuss Faiz over dinner (vegetarian for Adhir) and nobody cares how an embassy official carries a gun and has military level shooting skills.
Miriam flaunts her large AI glasses, and the besotted Colonel Ashfaq (who is the grown up version of the almost kidnapped kid) does not notice. The monster, who is seen beating a white man to death with a cricket bat, proposes marriage to a horrified Mariam, and even takes her to see the nuclear plant. Pakistanis are often seen as stupid in our films and shows, but this Ashfaq is next level cretin. Indians are so sharp, that they managed to threaten the Chinese into withdrawing financial aid to Pakistan for the bomb.
The extraction scene at the airport borrows from Argo (2012), though it is fun to see Ashfaq gnash his teeth in rage and frustration, because the Indians managed to halt the Pakistanis’ nuclear ambitions yet again. Espionage is never this elementary, and Indians have suffered from intelligence failure on a few occasions too, but a series today has to be more patriotic than realistic. What else could Adhir’s son be called but Bharat!
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)