Salakaar: Fact or spy fiction, it lacks conviction

What can be more exciting than the world of espionage, especially when the lead character is somewhat fashioned after our current National Security Adviser! We won’t name him since ‘Khuda Hafiz’ fame director Faruk Kabir’s ‘Salakaar’ doesn’t. The similarities, however, are uncanny.

Of course, like all celluloid fiction, the series, too, takes cover under a long disclaimer and the ultimate caveat: inspired by true events. As is with all marriages of fact and fiction, as viewers, you are clueless about which part of the film is true and which isn’t.

Pakistan, we all know, is a bona fide nuclear nation with a substantial nuclear arsenal. So, why should a web series revisit the days when it was trying to make a nuclear bomb? The period of attention here is 1978 and the focus is on the Kahuta nuclear plant. The man in charge of Pakistan is General Zia-ul-Haq, portrayed by Mukesh Rishi with demonic inflections of a demagogue, which is what perhaps Zia was.

Our hero is undercover agent Adhir (a restrained Naveen Kasturia), serving as the cultural attache in the Indian High Commission in Pakistan. His mission is to scuttle Zia’s nuclear ambitions. A conspiracy is hatched, bringing him face to face with the General, who appears shrewd enough to see through his cover. Now, one would assume the fun begins… we get ready for the cat and mouse games.

Alas, as the series goes back and forth between 1978 and 2025, it neither whips up enough tension, nor has enough intelligent twists. Intercutting of two timelines is often a perfect ploy to keep viewers immersed in the plotline. But here it serves more as a matter of convenience and conjecture. Past and present are connected through an emotional backlog and more importantly, a grandson, Pakistani Col Ashfaq (Surya Sharma), who has his own Machiavellian plans of creating an illegal bomb. Pray why… and how can he go about masterminding a secret facility? Much here beats rationale even when Adhir attempts to bust Zia’s dream, and the scientific reasoning is provided by none other than our great scientist APJ Abdul Kalam’s lookalike.

Logic is not the only casualty here. The Pakistanis are portrayed with broad brushstrokes of villainy. Among Zia’s few demonic men is this officer (Ashwath Bhatt), whose idea of menace is dilating his pupils as wide as he can. He even goes about uttering standard lines of hate.

Surya Sharma’s vile act is relatively more controlled; even when he calls his sweetheart “My love”, his urge to dominate surfaces in full measure. In 2025, we encounter another Indian spy masquerading as Mariam. Mouni Roy plays an undercover agent who has honey-trapped Ashfaq. Supposedly an ace sleuth, sadly, we hear more of her abilities and all we see her doing is sending some photographs of classified documents and throw a few furtive glances here and there.

Worse still, she is soon reduced to a damsel in distress. But, to be fair, the fifth episode in which she has to be extracted from Pakistan does give you some nail-biting moments. Tension is in the air. But, is it a classic case of too little, too late? Or the series will pick up in the possible season 2?

Maybe that is a big ask from the series, the end credits song of which, too, is a misfit in the scheme of scheming men and women.

Dialogues are co-written by director Faruk along with Spandan Mishra and Sanober Kabir Singh. One of the few intelligent one-liners is: “Every India-Pakistan action has an equal and opposite Chinese reaction”. Another tongue-in-cheek jibe goes as “yeh India-Pakistan cricket match nahi jo hum har bar haar jaayenge”.

More than spy games, cricketing references, including one that talks of Kapil Dev’s debut, find cleverer interspersing. Much of the India-Pakistan action does not rouse patriotic sentiments, nor is it adrenaline pumping. We understand an Indian James Bond needn’t be Martini-sipping suaveness personified, but this tale of a spymaster leaves you cold. Doval or not, Indian espionage deserves a more cutting-edge thriller.