Vishal Bhardwaj & Tabu Photo- Netflix
By Neeraj Nanda
MELBOURNE, 14 October 2021: A person working in India’s spy agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), based in New Delhi on a sensitive assignment vanishes amid the political turmoil engulfing the country.
Branded a ‘traitor’, his escape from India with the assistance of his powerful overseas handlers is the story of director Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Khufiya’, based on Amar Bhushan’s 2012 novel ‘Escape to Nowhere’. Amar Bhushan served as Special Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat from where he retired in 2005. Loosely inspired by actual incidents in 2004, the Netflix production ‘Khufiya’ is likely to give a rare insight into how one becomes a ‘traitor’, the working of different intelligence agencies, and their inside workings laced with mysteries.
Netflix has released the Teaser of the production, which hints at Khufiya (concealed) being a spy-thriller. In a nutshell, the story in the novel and publically available reports is about one person in RAW who when posted in a European country becomes the spy of a big country and later starts his operations from New Delhi. There is suspicion about him and he is put under surveillance. His handlers are not known and the mode of communication with them is a deep secret. He passed on classified sensitive documents and emailed his handlers regularly.
Basically, the spy was using the internet and its VOIP system which gives talk, chat, and text communication. This, probably, was not known to the agencies in India. Currently, this technology is used by anyone with an internet connection in the world.
Things seem to be closing on him. And, one day along with his wife with their new identities escapes from India to a neighboring country. From there they are flown to the country for which he was spying. Big questions were raised including whether how could such a high-profile person under surveillance vanish from New Delhi. Or, was there something else behind it? Some reports indicate the spy died in an accident in 2016.
Director & Producer Vishal Bhardwaj said, “With Khufiya, my attempt is to create an edgy espionage film that contrasts the slow burn of intelligence & surveillance work with one’s deep-rooted emotional conflicts.”
Collaborating with Netflix and Vishal Bhardwaj yet once again, Tabu said, “Khufiya is a one-of-a-kind project, extremely close to my heart and I am excited to be a part of this gripping spy thriller. As always, it’s a delight working with VB (Vishal Bhardwaj) again, and feels like a homecoming!”
The topic of ‘Rahasya’ is sensational, and what is actually in the script will only be known once the product is released. Tabu, Ali Fazal, Vamika Gabbi, and Ashish Vidyarthi are in the lead roles.
Rahasya will be streaming on Netflix soon.
