IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack Review: Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah’s Series Is A Turbulent Trip Down Memory Lane

Title: IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Cast: Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Dia Mirza, Patralekhaa, Manoj Pahwa Kumud Mishra, Dibyendu Bhattacharya and others

Where: Streaming on Netflix

Rating: 3 stars

This series directed by Anubhav Sinha, isn’t just a series; it’s a harrowing descent into one of India’s darkest chapters. Inspired by real events including Captain Devi Sharan’s book Flight into Fear, this series drags you through eight days of airborne terror, where the only thing more palpable than fear is the overwhelming sense of helplessness. But does this adaptation take off or merely taxi down the runway, never quite achieving lift-off?

From the moment Captain Devi Sharan played with stoic determination by Vijay Verma, boards the ill-fated flight from Kathmandu to Delhi, there’s an uneasy calm that belies the storm to come. It’s the last Christmas Eve of the millennium—a night for celebration, not for the nightmare that unfolds when five masked hijackers, armed with guns and grenades, turn a routine flight into a flying prison. The series captures this shift from normalcy to chaos with a gut-wrenching precision that leaves you gripping your seat, even if you know exactly how the story ends.

Visually, the series is stark and unflinching, refusing to sugarcoat the dire conditions inside the aircraft. The cinematography struggles to mirror the claustrophobia of the passengers, who are not just confined by space but by the gnawing uncertainty of whether they’ll ever see daylight again. Instead of immersing viewers in the relentless tension of survival, the series’ execution feels more superficial, lacking the depth to make you feel the weight of their desperation. What should have been a gripping portrayal of endurance ends up as a missed opportunity to evoke genuine dread.

The cast is top-notch, though some roles stand out more than others. Additi Gupta and Patralekhaa Paul, as air hostesses Chaya and Indrani, bring a human touch to the chaos, balancing fear with flashes of bravery that remind you that heroes come in all forms. As for the hijackers—let’s just say their menace is more implied than actual. Played by Rajiv Thakur and his less-than-threatening crew, they come off more like amateur villains from a daytime soap than the masterminds of a global crisis. It’s an odd choice, but perhaps it’s meant to highlight the absurdity of the situation—a reminder that evil isn’t always as intimidating as it is destructive.

Naseeruddin Shah as Vinay Kaul, the Cabinet Secretary, and Pankaj Kapur as Minister Vijaybhan Singh lend the gravitas you’d expect from veterans of their calibre. Their performances anchor the series, adding a layer of bureaucratic dread to the already suffocating atmosphere. The series benefits from these moments of grounded realism, punctuated by the occasional archival footage—a reminder that this isn’t just fiction but a brutal reality played out on the world stage.

However, for all its strengths, the series doesn’t tread new ground. It’s a well-crafted retelling, but it offers little that hasn’t been explored in the myriad other accounts of this infamous event. The series keeps you engaged, but ultimately, it’s like a flight where you know the destination—tense and dramatic, but with no surprises along the way.