Salakaar review: An amateurish attempt to craft an espionage thriller inspired by Ajit Doval’s real life!

Salakaar is one of those shows that almost makes you question whether the makers fell short, or if the demand for second-screen shows has grown so high that the effort in filmmaking has been compromised!

History, even when recorded, rarely offers complete certainty, especially when it comes to the secretive world of espionage. No matter how incredible they sound, the exploits of intelligence agencies are often buried, and for obvious reasons of not spilling the secrets. It is exactly where fiction can offer respite, crafting stories that feel as real as they are imagined. Salakaar attempts to do precisely this, painting a portrait from the trail of mythologies surrounding legendary life of Indian NSA Ajit Doval. While the concept is intriguing, the execution leaves much to be desired almost making it’s the kind of show that could have greatly benefited from a skilled advisor like Doval himself to sharpen its filmmaking choices.

Loosely inspired by real incidents, the show unfolds across two timelines. In 1978, against the backdrop of India’s successful nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974, which spurred Pakistan to pursue its own program. Adhir Dayal (Naveen Kasturia), a small but sharp intelligence officer, is sent to Pakistan as an undercover agent. His mission is to stop the menacing tyrant Zia Ullah (Mukesh Rishi) from building a nuclear bomb he plans to drop on India during Diwali. In 2025, another undercover agent, Mariam aka Srishti (Mouni Roy), has been working for nine months to become the mistress of a Pakistani colonel, Ashfaq with the goal of extracting information on yet another nuclear bomb threatening India.

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Truth is stranger than fiction, which is why certain historical dramas that blend fact and imagination can spotlight overlooked or forgotten aspects of the past. But that depends on the fiction being able to weave factual threads into a gripping narrative, something this show struggles to do. Opening with a quick-cut succession of slow-motion character introductions, we meet a feared Pakistani colonel, a tuition teacher turned spy, a dreaded Pakistani general from the past, and both the old and young versions of a street-smart agent. As the key players are introduced, the tone of the show is also established which is that while the threads exist, there’s little that binds them into a coherent whole. 

And the cracks reveal all too quickly as the creative narrative choice to trail two timelines quickly becomes an excuse to intercut between them simply to fill gaps. The show also tries to build a conncetion through its sprawling family drama spanning generations as Srishti is Adhir’s so-called niece and Ashfaq is Zia’s vengeful grandson yet it becomes another desperate attempt to pad the plot. So, instead of two gripping espionage thrillers packaged in one, we don’t even end up with one! Even the attempt to evoke patriotism by repeatedly showing a female diplomat being brutally beaten feels like an act of sheer desperation.

If you strip it down, both stories essentially follow an undercover agent stopping a villainous Pakistani military leader from building a nuclear bomb and neutralizing the threat to India. Yet the representation is so caricatured that the two Pakistani leaders are reduced to panicking, shouting, and being violently erratic for no reason. And even a veteran actor like Mukesh Rishi can’t salvage this Faiz-quoting tyrant from the drab filmmaking, while Mouni Roy’s spy is reduced to a sultry stereotype who is only a spy when her AI glasses scan secret documents otherwise she is a helpless woman awaiting to be saved by a man. Naveen Kasturia brings some gravitas to Adhir, but his charming, cosplay-like antics to outwit Pakistani soldiers end up more comical than thrilling. 

Zia-ul-Haq was indeed a former military president of Pakistan in 1978. While unconfirmed, it’s entirely possible that Ajit Doval, known as a master of deception who infiltrated Pakistan multiple times to neutralize threats might have come close to Zia and outsmarted him. Yet this five-episode historical fiction, knowingly mispelled from Salahkaar as Salakaar is staged flatly as intent never meets ambition, almost making real life sound more thrilling!

Salakaar is currently streaming on JioHotstar! 

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