Tanaav: Thrills  During Times Of Terrorism

Tanaav

By Subhash  K Jha

Tanaav(SonyLIV, 12 Episodes)

Directed  by Sudhir Mishra, Sachin Krishn

Rating:****

Tanaav  gets it terror-dynamics right  from the start. It’s  not just the families of  the Indian officers  and  the  terrorists  who suffer, even friends  and acquaintances  are not  spared. There is  a chilling  clarity in  the narrative in the  way  it identifies  the two sides and then  leaves them to their devices.

Authentic  in look and  speech,  Tanaav doesn’t look  like an adaptation, of the Israeli series Fauda. The  terror contexts  are  smartly changed and localized. The characters  do not waste time in allowing us to get to know them. Their  jobs are  well-planned  from before. Heads will role, tides will turn  and  the  fugitive  terrorist Umar(played  with  an eerie quietude by Sumit Kaul)  will find his  nemesis.

I   like the way  the series makes room for the families to have their say. There is  this  one  especially revealing  encounter where Indian Intelligence  officer  Jagjit  Malik(Rajit Kapoor, always a natural) barges  into terror kingpin Umar’s home  and threatens  his mother(Zarina  Wahab) and  wife(Waluscha De Souza) with subtle  terror tactics.  The  sequence  show  how  and why the two sides adapt the  same  modes to get their way.

The  murder of  a respected  professor in the Valley is one of the several triggering points  in the plot. The writing(by  Adhir Bhat) though  set to  a pounding beat, never oversteps the line of action.

Tanaav  constantly  feels  tenable, if not always  fully credible. Some  of  the  terror violence seems  too  haphazardly  planned  and the execution of  these terror  activities have a touch of the amateurish.  But let us  not forget that more often than not,  many of the young recruits  in terror  outfits  are  completely new to the  violence.

Tanaav  could have  done  with  some  serious editing. But the  action is  never  compromised on. The  interaction between  the Indian officers  and  the  terrorists  draws out that  disturbing  element  of moral  ambiguity—who is  right and  who is wrong—which navigates  the plot through choppy  waters.

Among the actors,Manav Vij holds his own  as  the  muddled counter-terrorist  .Too little  of Satyadeep Mishra  , Rajat Kapoor, Zarina  Wahab and  M K Raina and too much of actors who don’t even deserve to be here.