The tagline of the web series Operation Safed Sagar is ‘The Untold Story of the Kargil War,’ and that is stating it matter-of-factly. There have been dozens of films and OTT series, about patriotic Indians beating devious Pakistanis. One would imagine that after the two Dhurandhar films, there was no stick left with which to beat the hostile and troublesome neighbouring country, but there is always the power of the flashback.
The 1999 Kargil War is one of the most thoroughly documented conflicts on the Indian screen, possibly because it is recent enough to have a lot of footage and media coverage. Netflix’s six-part series Operation Safed Sagar, directed by Oni Sen and co-created by Abhijeet Singh Parmar with former IAF officer Kushal Srivastava, focuses in the Indian Air Force’s pivotal and near-impossible aerial campaign—computer technology makes it easier to recreate the dogfights and sorties with fighter planes, missiles and the gleaming snow-covered terrain, that gives the show its rather poetic name that translates as ‘white ocean.’
As the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Aanjjan Shrivastav) meets his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif (Vinay Pathak) for peace talks, the rogue General Parvez Musharraf (Manu Rishi Chadha) makes a sneaky attempt to attack India and grab Kashmir. He sends in troops dressed as Mujahideen, an idea that gives him plausible deniability if the plot is exposed. It is on record that Pakistan dishonoured its own soldiers by refusing to accept the bodies of those killed in battle. The Indian side buried them with respect. The Pakistanis also tortured the Indian prisoners of war and sent back their mutilated corpses.
The series follows the men of the Bathinda-based Golden Arrows Squadron and chronicles how a team operating under severe constraints, extreme weather, and equipment limitations used a blend of courage and tactical brilliance to carry out aerial reconnaissance and strike strategies that ultimately turned the tide of the war. It had never happened before that an air force carried out raids in the dark, flying at dangerously low altitudes.
The first two episodes build the atmosphere at the air bases, establishing the camaraderie and minor rivalries within the squadron. The Golden Arrows have been tasked primarily with documenting enemy positions on high-altitude peaks where standard flight radars and targeting systems are ineffective due to the high altitude.
When conflict becomes unavoidable, Air Vice Marshal V. Patney (Adil Hussain) and Commanding Officer B.S. “Tony” Dhanoa (Jimmy Shergill) bring in veteran instructor Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja (Siddharth) to coach the younger MIG pilots. The core drama follows these pilots—Rajpal Singh “Dhali” Dhaliwal (Abhay Verma), “Baldy” (Mihir Ahuja), “Sangy” (Taaruk Raina), and “Goofy” (Arnav Bhasin)—as they transition from cheeky recruits to valiant pilots facing surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and a better equipped and concealed enemy force.
The strength of Operation Safed Sagar lies in its casting and execution, which avoids melodrama, building layers of tension, till the final attack that brings the Pakistani army to its knees and ends the Kargil War. Siddharth, Jimmy Shergill, Abhay Verma and Mihir Ahuja deliver standout performances, keeping the dignity of their real-life characters in mind (the end credits show their photographs), without minimizing the dramatic highs and lows of the rishy flights they had to undertake, that often border of suicide missions. It might, perhaps have worked better as a film than a six-hour show, with the inevitable repetitions and bloat.
Indian military thrillers frequently suffer from video-game-like CGI,  Operation Safed Sagar, corrects that and works with excellent visual effects. The series is a well-crafted tribute to the Indian Air Force and the documenting of an important chapter of contemporary history.
Operation Safed Sagar
Directed by Oni Sen
Cast: Siddharth, Jimmy Shergill, Abhay Verma, Mihir Ahuja and others
On Netflix