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Zindabaad (2018)

Zindabaad is a web series written by the well-known name of the thriller genre, Vikram Bhatt. The show is about an ex-RAW agent turned security agent, best of his time. The show’s initial episodes present the heated and angry behavior and persona of the protagonist, Arjun Vashisht toward the children of the nursery school that runs on the ground floor of his apartment building. His stony exterior hides a lonely yet loving heart which harbors love for the children. This is where the story takes turn, when the local train of Mumbai, the mode of travel for the children blasts up killing all the children. The news delivers this as an attack by the terrorist group Fauj-e-azaadi. This pushes Arjun to go back to his RAW days as he threatens to kill the leader of the group. And so he does. The thing that displeased me about the show was its lack of the realism factor by showing Arjun as the undefeatable human. He is shown to be fighting a large mass of officers whilst being injured himself and still manages to defeat them single-handedly. Heroic much? The soundtrack of the show is amazing and so is the star cast that delivers their scenes with absolute ease and perfection and the show that wakes the patriot in you

Zindabaad features Vikram Bhatt, an erstwhile spy, now old and a drunkard as the protagonist. He's exasperated at the sight of some kids from the nursery school in his building being bombed because of a terror ploy by some Pakistani terrorists and decides to assassinate the terror attack's mastermind who is a celebrated extremist-cum-politician living in the infamous state. This also features Sana Khan and Sanaya Irani in key roles. The plot is nothing new, just the old wine served in a new brandish bottle, with new setting, new characters, yet the famous however retired intelligence agency officer and some lookalike of Hafiz Saeed. It's entertaining, sure, but it lacks depth and realism.

The series focuses on Vikram’s character. He is drunkard, who gets irritated at the drop of a hat. Near his home, is a school and every time the children make some noise, Vikram gets irritated. His irritation level is so much that all he wants is the school to get shut down. He even goes to the Education Minister to get the school shut. But he is turned down by the minister. As his irritation for the children increases, one day a mishap happens. The school children are killed in a bomb blast and this devastates Vikram. Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Sayed takes responsibility for the blast and Vikram vows to take revenge for the blast. He phones in a Pakistani show, where Hafiz is a guest and threatens to take revenge for the blast. RAW tracks down Vikram to know who threatened Hafiz on TV. Sanaya Irani works for RAW and visits Vikram at his place. This brings the revelation that Vikram used to work with RAW 15 years ago. Sanaya is disappointed with how Vikram is keeping up with life, and suggests that he doesn’t do anything about the blast. But Vikram gets hold of the person who conducted the blasts and kills him for information.
The concept of the show is interesting. Getting RAW involved in any series definitely raises expectations from the series. Sanaya makes for a good digital debut as a RAW agent. She manages to keep the audience’s attention intact, more than any other cast member. Vikram Bhatt impresses with his turn as the Epic Hero. Sanaya Irani is really good as Sara Sayed, as she goes about her role of a no-nonsense RAW agent with effortless ease. Sana Khan as the ISI agent Benazir looks hot and is impressive in her acting skills. Aniruddh Dave, Pankaj Dheer, Manish Khanna give the needed impetus to the story with their mature portrayals. Special mention to Meherzan Mazda, for giving an awesome performance in the cameo that has been offered to him. The makers could have taken a better child actor to play the part of Santosh, as this character makes an appearance several times in the show.
On the whole, the show is quite watchable, and manages to capture our attention. It is gripping in parts – not the hold-your-breath kind of edge-of-the-seat gripping, but gripping, nevertheless. Still,I expected better. Given the vast body of work behind Vikram Bhatt, it’s not like he’s a novice in the spy thriller genre. He’s the writer of the story, while Sidhant Sachdev takes on the mantle of director. Sidhant’s vision and execution are on spot. Srivinay Salian has written the dialogues, which, to be honest, are really good, showing glimmers of brilliance in between.