Web Review: Commander Karan Saxena pulps the espionage genre!

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I can imagine Gurmeet Choudhary, a well-known TV persona, asking the producers and director whether they are offering him a TV serial or his first (if I am not mistaken) web series here, as he is not able to fathom how exactly Commander Karan Saxena will be presented to his fans.

For starters, Commander Karan Saxena is based on a series of pulp novels of the same name, written by Amit Khan, with the first book out in the early 1990s. Now also an audio book, it looks at the patriotic masala genre with aggressive pulp content. And so this web adaptation whips up exceeding melodrama and is very Hindi film (and that of the trite kind!). In the recent context, to use three examples featuring Sidharth Malhotra, I can say that this is like Indian Police Forceand Yodha rather than like Mission Majnu!

The other big negative is of Disney+Hotstar continuing their obnoxious new “tradition” of releasing a few episodes each week (one each from Mondays to Fridays!). And though I do not binge-watch (I have done that only twice sicne the web ‘trapped’ me!) I really do not have the patience to wait for watching in which way, this time, the ISI wishes to make India, as usual with Pakistani goals, cover for mercy at their hands!

After a few episodes, where the show was showing no grip whatsoever, and everything could be predicted in advance, I decided to quit and write my review, which otherwise I would have had to wait weeks to do when the drama will be finally done and dusted!

In the espionage and patriotic thriller departments, we have already watched outstanding products on the web, and the plotline takes, very obviously, elements from all these as some of them are always necessary for a film, series or serial that falls into this category. But what I am trying to stress here is that the show very much follows the beaten path with nothing new at all!

In a recent interview, Gurmeet Choudhary has revealed that his inspiration to play a Commander came from his father who was in the military, but I must admit, objectively speaking, that he is one of the weakest RAW agent protagonists I have seen in a saga of this kind!

All I have to point out to Disney+Hotstar, and the producers, writers and director—if they care to listen!—is that doing a web series is considered a prestigious new avenue by top directors, producers and actors, while working in TV serials was and remains more of a refuge for anyone not doing well in films. So the standards set by web series in general are—let’s just say—way higher.

And what takes the dough, cake and bakery is the hackneyed-to-the-extreme script that reminds me of the old television crime serials and even movies. The first point that hit me was the overall excess of people saying “Jai Hind!” with the subtitles stating “Hail India!” Why this is in such excess over what we hear in other police and patriotism dramas is something I truly could not figure out.

In the opening episode itself, one character even tells Karan, “This is Mumbai, India!” (Which other Mumbai is there, sir?). A police officer of “extraordinary” mettle, Rachna Mhatre (Hruta Durgule), keeps depicting her anger at terrorism with the frequent phrase “mera desh…” or “mere desh mein…” to emphasize her “meri deshbhakti (my love for my country)!” Then we have the very bombastic line, “Jab Commander aata hai to bavandar aata hai! (When the Commander comes, it’s like a facing a tornado!)”. This is heard in a boxing ring, when Karan bashes antagonists to pulp (the right word again!). Prime-time Kader Khan would have loved this kitschy line!

During a mission to meet fishermen who might know something about a body washed ashore, Rachna declares to Karan that they will open up more to a person than a uniformed officer. She goes to her room—and Viola!—emerges wearing a revealing outfit. And Karan and she head there now in a police car!! And when she reaches the fishing village, someone recognizes her in front of several other fisher-folk as a cop and smiles and assures her of all help. What’s more, after she returns to her chamber (which is disproportionately big for her rank!) and is at work, ma’am is still wearing the strapped dress instead of her uniform.

Finally, we have Karan judging shrewdly that a terror attack planned nine days later, rather than on a film star’s wedding, or a sporting event, must be planned at the celebration of Swadesh, a soldier being returned by Pakistan after his plane crash-landed there when the fuel ran out!!! Note also the gimmicky (only in context of course!) name Swadesh’ (my own country!). And after this, references to this are about something that will happen “in a week”!

Get the gist?

Rating: ** (Almost!)

Disney+Hotstar present Keylight Productions’ Commander Karam Saxena  Produced by: Rajeshwar Nair & Krishnan Iyer  Directed by: Jatin Wagle  Written by: Amit Khan, Jai Sheela Bhansal, Vivek Malik & Jatin Wagle Music: Bharatt-Saurabh  Starring: Gurmeet Choudhary, Hruta Durgule, Iqbal Khan, Anupam K. Sinha, Arsh Aneja & others