Please don't laugh! 😆 I'm trying hard not to as well, but it's not easy. Me and this series? Yes, really weird, you can even label me, but hear me out first.
The whole thing started with Netflix listing it as "Recently Added". All I knew about it was what I could see, and that was the poster, which is what you see above. When I saw the fighter plane, I said this can't be so bad, so let's give it a chance. So I watched it for a few minutes, till I realized what I've been looking at.
Two countries came up during these few minutes and those were Pakistan and India. It was obvious one of them made the series, but I didn't know which one was it.
The things I know about Pakistan are, unfortunately, all bad, so no way on earth I'm going to watch a Pakistani series or movie. India is in a bit better situation in my eyes, but not with much. When I was a kid, there were some Indian movies in TV and were all syrupy, they danced in groups in every movie and I grew up knowing Indian movies are the ones you run from. We have a lot of users from India, so most likely I'm going to have to face the music for this comment, but I'm not going to lie.
At that point I had two choices. One, quit and look for something I like. Two, give it a chance and see if it watchable for a change. At the end, I decided it to give it ten or twenty minutes, to see what it is about. Turned out it was an Indian series, which immediately made me have some expectations, but let's see what the series is about.
The Golden Arrows squadron of Indian Air Force pilots achieves remarkable feats in aerial combat, securing India's victory in the Kargil War.
My knowledge about the India - Pakistan situation is vague, I know a few things, but definitely not as much as those who are living it, so I thought it's a good occasion to learn something watching this series and also reading about it.
The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Ladakh, then part of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir and along the Line of Control (LoC). The Indian Air Force acted jointly with the Indian Army to flush out the Pakistan Army and paramilitary troops from vacated Indian positions along the LoC, in what was designated as Operation Safed Sagar (lit. 'White Sea').
The series is made of six episodes, which is the proper length to cover the story. Maybe it would have fit in five episodes too, but it's not the end of the world.
As we all know, every conflict, every war is fought on several fronts, not just at the battlefield. State leaders, politicians are participants, as well as the army, so we get to see a lot of plot twists here.
At the beginning, we get to know flight commander Ajay Ahuja, an important and key figure of the mission. Their initially task was photo-reconnaissance, but as things evolved, he was tasked with training new pilots for a more serious mission.
In combat every mistake costs, so getting the individuals selected to work as a team was key. He had a very unique way of teaching them to work together like a real team, to trust and rely on each other.
As I said at the beginning, as soon as I learnt this is an Indian series, I had some expectations and to my surprise, the series delivered.
First, I was curious how much patriotism the writers considered the viewers need, or can tolerate is maybe a better expression. I know the Kashmir situation is sensitive topic for both countries, but to my surprise, the writers didn't go overboard with patriotism.
The other thing that maybe seems stupid, is that I wanted to see if they can make a movie, or series, without dancing scenes. Well, they can't. This series is about the army, about war, about politics, but they still needed to have a dancing scene. It was only a minute or two, so I am not blaming them, but it shows they can't or won't deviate from what they usually do.
The beauty of the series and I'm not sarcastic here, I really mean it, is the focus on the technical part of the operation. I think it's safe to say it is the main focus and this is where they won. We get to see how they plan each operation, how they analyze everything, to do better next time and how they overcome shortcomings, or inconveniences of deliberately being fed with the wrong data,coordinates from allies. If I'd have to use one word for this, I'd say they kept it real. The focus wasn't on glorifying every team member, but on getting the job done.
Family drama was also kept at a healthy level. As it happens in real life, military actions have casualties, unfortunately, so this is also in the mix.
As far as objectivity is concerned, I don't know how accurate the story is and don't want to dig into it, I prefer to enjoy the series as it is and be left with good memories. To my surprise the series has a very good rate on IMDB. 8.6 is not something to neglect and I hope they can keep it in time as the series has been released this month.
All in all, I'm glad I was able to put aside my feelings based on previous experiences and give it a chance. I bet Indian users will love it.
Rating: 80/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.