oppn parties The Freelancer: The Build-Up And Mohit Raina Make It Worth A Watch

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  • Congress calls Election Commission's affidavit in the SC saying all decisions were taken unanimously as 'deceptive, deceitful and duplicitous'
  • Petitioners ask Supreme Court to order preservation of Election Commission's files and notings related to SIR
  • At least 89,000 people have been evacuated from vulnerable coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh as Cyclone Arnab intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal. The IMD forecast landfall on Wednesday morning with sustained winds of 115–125 kmph, gusting to 140 kmph, while 53 train services were listed for cancellation on October 27 and 28
  • Authorities deployed hundreds of additional security personnel in Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang Valley following violent protests against the proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project near the Chinese border. Opponents fear the dam would submerge ancestral lands belonging to the Adi tribal community, while the project is also intended to address concerns arising from China’s planned upstream hydropower dam
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre on the Digital News Publishers Association’s challenge to provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and its rules. The publishers argue that the absence of a specific journalistic exemption could undermine investigative reporting and expose confidential sources; the matter is scheduled for further hearing on November 17
  • The Supreme Court gave petitioners additional time to respond to the Election Commission’s affidavit defending decisions connected with the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and fixed November 17 for the next hearing. The court also issued notice on a separate petition by Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen concerning alleged changes to Form 6 used for voter registration
  • The Bombay High Court quashed an FIR against a Pune college student who was arrested over an Instagram repost related to Operation Sindoor. The case arose from a social-media post concerning the 2025 India-Pakistan tensions
  • A Reuters poll of economists projected India’s GDP growth to slow from 7.7% in fiscal 2025–26 to 7.1% in 2026–27 and 7.0% in 2027–28. Economists cited higher energy costs and inflation risks linked to the conflict involving Iran, while warning that prolonged price pressures could constrain household demand and employment growth
  • Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan cautioned India against exhausting its foreign-exchange reserves to defend a particular rupee exchange rate. He said moderate depreciation could support exports, while warning that high oil prices and continued foreign investment outflows were adding pressure to the currency and the current account
  • Indian equity benchmarks ended nearly unchanged after a volatile trading session. The Sensex slipped 8.08 points to close at 73,598.67, while the Nifty 50 fell 3.45 points to 22,749.75, with elevated crude oil prices and caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s decision weighing on sentiment
  • Ranji Trophy: Bengal recover as Shahbaz Ahmed scores 121 and then took 2 wickets to put them in a commanding position versus Kerala. In other matches, Delhi were in a fine position against Jharkhand and Gujarat and maharashtra were evenly placed
  • India thrashed Bangladesh 13-0 in the Asian Champions Trophy hockey
  • Despite a brilliant come-from-the-back effort, India A were robbed of victory against New Zealand A in the first unofficial Test as the Kiwis ended at 187 for 9 (target 313) when play was stopped due to bad light
  • Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced that India plans to amend its anti-doping law to criminalise the supply and sale of banned substances, including penalties for coaches and other participants in doping supply chains. The proposal was announced at a UNESCO anti-doping conference in New Delhi as India seeks to strengthen enforcement and support its bid to host the 2036 Olympic Games
  • India defeated New Zealand by six wickets in Wellington to take an unassailable 3–0 lead in their five-match T20I series. Abhishek Sharma smashed 113 off 38 balls, reaching his century in 35 deliveries, while he and 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi combined for a record 118 runs in the powerplay
A stunning 113 off 38 balls from Abhishek Sharma drowns New Zealand as India chase 199 in 13.2 overs to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the series
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The Freelancer: The Build-Up And Mohit Raina Make It Worth A Watch

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-09-04 14:33:23

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

Neeraj Pandey has a solid body of work after he made his directorial debut with the amazing A Wednesday that immediately propelled him into the limelight. Special 26, Baby and M.S.Dhoni: The Untold Story kept the magic alive before he gave a flop in Aiyyary. On TV, he directed the riveting Special Ops where again he was in solid form. The Freelancer (streaming on Disney+Hotstar), his latest offering, is based on the book A Ticket To Syria: A Story About the ISIS In Maldives by Shirish Thorat and the writers of the series, Ritesh Shah and Pandey, have changed the location to India to make it relevant for viewers in the country.

The story is about how a globe-trotting ("5 book ka passport hai mera", she boasts) mohallah badi bi, Farhat Khala (Balaji Gauri)  who goes around like a preacher manages to radicalize educated and wealthy Muslim families (and it is here that the writers falter by not making the radicalization process convincing - it is almost childish) to adopt the 'true' way of Islam and join the ISIS in Syria. But when she sends one such family from Malaysia, she forgets that their son has recently married Aliya (Kashmira Pardeshi),the daughter of Mumbai ex-cop Inayat Khan (Sushant Singh), who will go to any length to establish contact with her daughter who goes missing in Istanbul with her husband's family just days after her marriage. When Inayat fails to contact his ex-colleague and now top mercenary Avinash (Mohit Raina), he gets himself sprayed by bullets by the police in front of the US Consulate in Mumbai to make international headlines and grab Avinash's attention. Sure enough, Avinash turns up although he is troubled by his wife's illness (she is in a sanitarium for her depression after she accidently kills their only son while backing her car) and is duty-bound to help Inayat's widow and her daughter.

But it is not a simple mission. For, although ISIS is a declining force, it is almost impossible to extract someone from their strongholds in Syria. He seeks the help of security expert Dr Khan (Anupam Kher) and the CIA. The radicalized family, in the meantime, along with Aliya, is ensconced in a safe house in ISIS stronghold where there are stringent restrictions and brutal punishment for deviating. Their mobile phones and laptops are confiscated. The ISIS has interest in the third son, Sameer, who is a US-trained pilot. Aliya somehow retains one of her phones and messages her dad (not knowing he is dead) and her mother replies to her informing that uncle Avinash will rescue her. She sends pictures and location and also downloads a virus in her husband's laptop as directed by Avinash. The CIA plays a hard game with Avinash who knows he cannot do it without their help. Simultaneously he explores other options like contacting a oil smuggler to explore the possibility of bringing back Aliya on one of his trips back and a Gujarati restaurant owner in Morocco who has business interests with the ISIS to find out if he can enter their stronghold. The first part of the series (4 episodes) ends with the planning and the second part promises to be a fitting finale.

Mohit Raina is excellent as the former Mumbai cop who has gone international. He has the build for the part and executes the limited action scenes (more are promised later when he will do the actual extraction) expertly. The others in the cast are adequate but Balaji Gauri as Farhat Khala is menacing. The Freelancer is definitely worth a watch.

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