Is Operation Safed Sagar Worth Watching? #BeSMicroVerdict
Every year, we get a patriotic war drama that waves the flag so hard it sometimes forgets the storytelling. Operation Safed Sagar is one of the rare ones that remembers.
The six-episode series dramatises the Indian Air Force’s role in the 1999 Kargil War, taking its name from the real operation, Safed Sagar or “White Sea”. It follows the Golden Arrows squadron as the conflict escalates and the Air Force is called into action.
And the flying is a big reason to show up.
The aerial sequences are some of the most impressive we’ve seen in an Indian streaming war drama. MiGs move through the Himalayan terrain, cockpit scenes feel tense, and the bombing runs and dogfights carry actual weight instead of simply looking expensive.
What lifts it above the usual flag-waving is its restraint.
These men were real. Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, played by Siddharth, did not return from Kargil, and the series largely avoids turning his story into easy slow-motion melodrama. Jimmy Shergill and Abhay Verma help anchor a large ensemble, while the political track brings Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf into the story without reducing everything to simple caricatures.
There are drawbacks. The roster is crowded with pilots and military personnel, so a few characters start blurring together. And if you came only for fighter jets, some of the family scenes, political conversations and command-room stretches may feel slower.
But those scenes are also what stop the show from becoming six episodes of planes flying over mountains.
Who’s it for?
Anyone interested in the Kargil War and the Indian Air Force’s role in it, aviation nerds who will enjoy the aircraft and operational details, and viewers who like war dramas that spend time on the people involved as well as the combat.
#BeSMicroVerdict: One of the more impressive Indian war series in recent memory. The aerial action delivers, but the restraint around the people and the losses is what keeps it from becoming empty spectacle.
We recommend watching it on the biggest screen you have.
