Operation Safed Sagar

The Kargil War remains one of the most crucial and difficult wars that Indian forces fought and won. Since then, numerous films and shows have highlighted the valour of the Indian Army, who bravely reclaimed key peaks in the Kargil sector from the Pakistani army, but not much is known about the role that the Indian Air Force played in the war. Netflix’s new series, Operation Safed Sagar, retells an important chapter in history where the IAF fought in the toughest and highest altitudes in history and successfully bombed key hideouts of the Pakistani army in the Kargil and Drass sector, thereby enabling the Indian Army to capture the peaks for India.

How much courage is required to strap yourself into a lean mean machine and take off into the air, flying at supersonic speeds, zero-ing in on a target with snap-shot judgement which will make the difference between life and death, defeat and victory? The best war films deliver those moments, where the viewer and the man in the hot seat are breathing together, in their attempt to seek and find and destroy: the handsomely-mounted, solidly-executed Operation Safed Sagar gives us all of the above — combat pilots risking their lives with a smile, families living with bated breath and eternal optimism, and the men on the ground taking those tough calls, win or lose.

The Indian defence forces deserve accolades for winning against all odds during the 1999 Kargil war, after fighting at high altitudes and tough terrains with aging equipment while heeding diplomatic guidelines against an adversary whose strategic advantage gave them an upper hand. Quite a few movies like Lakshya, LoC-Kargil and Shershaah have fictionalised the battle on ground as part of Operation Vijay. The focus now shifts to the contributions of the Indian Air Force in Operation Safed Sagar. What sets the ambitiously scaled, meticulously crafted six-part series apart from the hyperpatriotic war takes of late is it aims for the sky with its feet firmly on the ground.

The Chief from Delhi (Mahesh Manjrekar) looks out of the aircraft window at the vast expanse of white Himalayan snow where Indian soldiers fight an impossible war against an enemy who has the advantage of firing at them from a height. He declares it ‘Safed Sagar’, that’s what the Indian Air Force operation will be called when it scrambles to provide air support and cover fire for the men on the ground. Most Indians know that in 1999, while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held peace talks with visiting Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, General Musharraf was putting into action a sinister plot in Kargil. Musharraf’s army men dressed like Mujahideen and speaking Pashtu like them, were quietly occupying salient peaks in the Kargil sector, breaking the Simla Accord with India. Inside Pakistan, it was a classic example of the rivalry between Islamabad and Rawalpindi before Musharraf overthrew Sharif and installed martial law.

कारगिल वॉर के दौरान उड़ान भरने को आतुर एक फाइटर पायलट को उसका कमांडर यह कह कर रोकने की कोशिश करता है कि उसकी पत्नी प्रेग्नेंट है। वह युवा पायलट, जिसे यह खबर अभी-अभी मिली, पल भर को रुकता है और कहता है, ‘यह मेरा पर्सनल मैटर है सर, यह मुझे उड़ने से रोकने का कारण नहीं हो सकता।’ सोचिए, क्या तो जज़्बा रहता है हमारे जवानों में। मालूम है कि दुनिया की सबसे ऊंची और खतरनाक पहाड़ियों पर आ जमे शत्रुओं पर रात के अंधेरे में घने बादलों से गुज़रते हुए बम बरसाते समय उनकी जान भी जा सकती है लेकिन वे रुके नहीं, थके नहीं। यही बात हमारी सेना को अलग बनाती है। इस बात का यथार्थ चित्रण इस वेब-सीरिज़ ‘ऑपरेशन सफेद सागर’ (Operation Safed Sagar) को उन फिल्मों से अलग बनाता है जिनमें एयरफोर्स वाले ‘फिल्मी’ कारनामे करते दिखाई देते हैं।

At the end of Operation Safed Sagar, the following words light up the screen: “Operation Safed Sagar remains the highest aerial offensive operation in history. The Indian Air Force flew a total of 7,631 sorties during the Kargil War across its helicopter, transport and fighter squadrons…. (It is) an operation without parallel in the history of aerial warfare”. Operation Safed Sagar is also a series with little or no parallel in the history of Indian storytelling. Across six episodes, the Netflix show not only talks about facts and figures, numbers and nuances, but also underlines the emotional depth of an operation driven by both patriotic fervour and personal payback.