Himmatwala: My quick take on KK Menon’s “Special ops 1.5 – The Himmat story”
I thoroughly enjoyed Season 1 of this espionage thriller, which was about a special task force led by KK Menon that hunted down the perpetrators of a heinous parliament attack. Neeraj Pandey, the director, had done an excellent job at the time. He demonstrates that his hits ‘Baby, Special 26, Rustam, My name is Shabana, and Aiyaary’ were not flukes, and it appears that he has mastered the art of espionage thrillers.
This time, he tried a “spinoff” of his main lead Himmat Singh from Season 1 and showed his backstory of “what made this Himmat Singh a Himmatwala.” Such spinoffs are common in the Marvel and DC comics universes, where the creators create a full-length feature on one of their famous characters (e.g. Black panther, Black widow, Ant man) Neeraj had previously attempted this when he created “my name is Shabana,” a spinoff of Tapsee’s character from Baby.
The best parts of this mini-series (only four episodes) are the amazing cast, stunning locations, and, of course, the “narrative style” with which the plot is unfolded. It’s similar to watching/reading a Vikram Betal story in which Betal distracts Vikram by telling a story and you, the audience/reader, are transported to a different world. Neeraj has used talented actor Vinay Pathak, who narrates Himmat’s story in front of an inquiry commission. Without a doubt, KK Menon did an excellent job in the film, but I believe Vinay Pathak is the true hero of the story; it is thanks to his powerful narration that the overall quality of the series has enhanced by few notches.
The plot revolves around honey traps, and all of the ‘queen bees’ hand-picked by Neeraj Pandey are fantastic. Aftab Shivdasani is a pleasant surprise in the series, as he is completely unrecognizable in the film. It’s a good thing he got out of the Grand Masti gang.
The series can be watched as a stand-alone because it is not entirely dependent on the events of Season 1. You should watch it if you enjoy spy thrillers that keep you on the edge of your seat.
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