Commando Series Review: Directed, written and created by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, who has also produced the Commando franchise (starring Vidyut Jammwal) as well as the Force franchise (starring John Abraham), this action-thriller TV series stars Prem Parija, Amit Sial, Vaibhav Tatwawadi, Adah Sharma, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Mukesh Chhabra and others. The series has 4 episodes, each with a runtime of around 40 minutes.
– Commando Series Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Commando Plot
When a top-secret covert mission in Pakistan goes awry, and his best friend Kshitij gets caught, Commando Virat decides to extract him right from the jaws of the beast. With international tensions rising between India and Pakistan, Virat must race against time to save his friend and save the face of his country as the world watches on.
Commando Series Review
Ah, another day, another piece of media surrounding commandos, India-Pakistan pissing contest and some form of horrible weapon that can destroy the world. The series takes the storyline of the Commando series forward, in the sense that it’s the same story but with different actors. Jammwal’s portrayal in the film series, although with not a lot of substance other than the usual cliches, looked and felt real because Jammwal himself was excellent and believable as someone who might work in the special armed forces.
Commando 3 was released in 2019, and after that, we got quite a few of these hyper-nationalistic films and shows. At this point, the concept being repeated over and over again might just be getting on people’s nerves and is losing its charm. The saddest thing is that all of these characters are just so one-dimensional and cliched that there’s not much that is left to the imagination, and neither is it intriguing in the least.
The moment the series starts, you know what will happen. On top of that, Commando (2023) has its brave guards of the country make such cliched and, frankly, stupid decisions that you’d be forced to roll your eyes to oblivion every few minutes. Plus, it doesn’t help that this storyline has already occurred in some of Shah’s own films from the past as well as other pieces of media. The dialogues, the way the story flows, and the screenplay everything is just recycled material in a Prem-ified package.
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Ok, coming to the protagonist – Prem Parija, who plays the commando this time around, clearly isn’t Vidyut Jammwal. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that Jammwal made this role absolutely iconic with his amazing action sequences. Parija is fine, too, the action sequences are smooth, and he looks good performing them, but Parija doesn’t have the dexterity or the finesse to perform these stunts as well as him. This is a problem with remaking popular franchises with new faces – they never really match up to our beloved original actors, and you are left to compare them constantly.
That being said, Parija does his best, and although he’s quite stiff in some moments and probably isn’t ready for a protagonist’s heavy lifting, but he’s fine. Adah Sharma is back as Bhavna Reddy, and she is speaking in the same way. I don’t understand this choice, starting from 2017’s Commando 2, but hey, here we are. She’s really good with her action scenes, though, and without that weird dialect, she would be a much more charming watch.
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In episode 3, Virat, with patriotism in his heart and some firey dialogues, convinces his teammates that walking into a very clear trap is the best course of action to extract another one of their imprisoned comrades. I guess that hard-hitting dialogues are always a part and parcel of such shows, but man are they getting stale. It would actually make more sense if, for once, people would follow and make logical decisions instead of emotional ones.
Another trope of such pieces of media is the fact that things just work out in the favour of our protagonists a bit too easily, which is also a thing with this show. Regardless of how tough, impractical or impossible of a situation it is, our protagonists will overcome adversity at any cost because luck is apparently always on their side. It’s actually quite hilarious to watch because, unfortunately, the series takes itself very seriously. Thankfully, the short runtime makes up for watching the undercooked show that depends too much on playing with our sense of patriotism.
Commando Series Review: Final Thoughts
There’s a scene in the series where Kshitij, groaning in pain from being beaten to a pulp, is given an indication by his friends and comrades that they are coming to rescue him, giving him a sense of hope. That scene is probably the biggest testament to what this show tried to achieve in its 4-episode runtime – bringing forth a storyline that plays with our emotions, simply being an entertainer if you’re in the mood for something quick, easy and forgettable.
Commando is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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Such a cheap webseries this commando was. It’s good that Vidyut is not in it. Flaw in every frame and nonsense in every act.
Means such an idiot raw agent and that too a commando, who fights terrorists without spare magazines, then uses camera from one main hole but lifted other one with hands..and all those soldiers in hospital are blind? Female in, male out from the ward of terrorist and no one cares. Then in BRDO lab, all soldiers are without weapon? I mean what the hell this was. 2 star is also enough and that too for Adah Sharma , otherwise zero.