Fictions on conflicts and wars don’t always outrun reality :: new Netflix series - "Operation Safed Sagar" ::::: "Do you take over Kashmir daily ..," says Gen Musharraf

Web series and histories might often play with the horrors of the past.  

"Koi medal itna keemti thori na hae

Ki mein apne desh se gaddari karun"  - 

Squadron leader Ahuja in the web series during questioning by a senior Pak army officer  :::: 

the three-star general responds: "jisey asulon aur pagal pan ....

"He who cannot understand the difference between principles and madness ...neither I nor God can save him". 

Dialogues .. should be cherished !!   

(episode 4 -- aptly named - GOLDEN ARROWS 

The Kargil-1999 was certainly a conflict. During our Defence Ministry-sponsored 'media interaction and training' course of 2000, we often debated whether the female TV journalist who reported India's plans to attack Tiger Hill next day should have been arrested or deported from the reporting scene !! 

The Indian audience and authorities with the TV media was 'immature' and instead she was made a celebrity. 

And the country paid a heavier price when 26/11 ... so called live reporting cost the life of a brave NSG personnel. The journalist became a Sickular champion and was also involved infamously in the Radia tape scam.

Nevertheless, fictions on conflicts and wars don’t always outrun reality.  

While most of the actions and drama in new web series titled 'Operation Safed Sagar: The Untold Story of the Kargil War' 

.... is centred around Air Force operations and exercises; there are side plots too.  

One sample -- a young pilot proposes to his girlfriend inside a MiG-21 !! 

There are also simple moments like a birthday celebration, breakfast with fellow officers. A lover who lands in the squadron (Air Force campus) is allowed to stay with a senior officer's quarter where his wife Alka is ready to welcome the guest. These gestures are not quite unusual in units.  

The first episode I have seen is gripping enough. In the second episode Jimmy Shergill tells his junior colleague : 

"In Pakistan, a colonel on retirement gets five acres of land ... will they allow peace".

They tried Peace : Nawaz Sharif and Vajpayee 

Operation Safed Sagar was the codename given to the Indian Air Force’s aerial campaign during the 1999 Kargil War. 

The operation officially began on May 26, 1999, after Pakistani soldiers and armed intruders occupied several strategic mountain positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in the Dras, Kargil and Batalik sectors.  

Many pilots had been trained primarily for air-to-air combat. But during the Kargil conflict, they had to adapt quickly and carry out highly accurate strikes against enemy bunkers hidden among steep mountain ridges.

The initial bombing missions achieved limited success because identifying well-camouflaged targets from the air proved extremely difficult. The operation gathered momentum after the Indian Air Force deployed Mirage 2000 fighter jets fitted with laser-guided bombs.

Operation Safed Sagar was historic for several reasons. It marked the first large-scale use of Indian Air Force combat aircraft in Jammu and Kashmir since the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

The mission also became one of the most challenging air operations ever undertaken because fighter aircraft and helicopters had to fly at altitudes ranging from 16,000 to 18,000 feet. The mountainous terrain, thin air and unpredictable weather made every sortie more difficult than a conventional combat mission.

The series begins in the middle of the action. 

Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja's (Siddharth) jet is struck by a stinger missile over the snow-capped peaks of Kargil on May 27, 1999, Day 24 of the war. 

The pilot in the MiG is shown 'straying' from formation to find his wingman. But then a Stinger missile from the ground (Pakistan) is launched, hitting the MiG.

The scene immediately draws you in. 

Then the story steps back four months, to when Wing Commander B S Dhanoa, also known as Tony (Jimmy Sheirgill), brings a MiG-21 coach Ahuja to Bhatinda to train a group of young pilots. 

File snap 

The first episode is sub-titled - Peace and War. It shows among other things Nawaz Sharif (played by Vinay Pathak) boasting about his decision of giving Pervez Musharraf 'an out of turn promotion superseding three seniors'. 

Pakistan PM was confident that Musharraf will play on behalf of the team. But the reality was entirely different. The new army chief of Pak, had his own plans -- and the series shows the then DGMO and ISI chief were not with him with his plans to takeover Kashmir. 

"Do you take over Kashmir daily ..," he throws googly to his offices. 

Musharraf's role is played by Manu Rishi Chaddha -- who plans a covert operation, disguising Pakistani soldiers as Mujahideen and sending them across the Line of Control.

The then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif does not know.  

George Fernandes: Reality and spot visit 

"The series also strikes a good balance between personal stories and the larger conflict," says review piece in 'India Today'.  

Another media review says:

Operation Safed Sagar, a new Indian drama on Netflix, takes place before and during the Kargil War, a real war waged between India and Pakistan in 1999. 

The war was touched off when Pakistani army forces took over vacated Indian outposts along the Line of Control that the two countries maintained in the disputed region of Kashmir. 

The drama concentrates on the Golden Arrows, the elite Indian Air Force squadron that fought in the Kargil War.