Return to the Assassination

Among the welter of events that bombarded India and the world in 1991, the assassination of a former prime minister who was all set to return to power in a hard-fought election was a cata­clysmic moment. Nagesh Kukunoor’s new series examines Rajiv Gandhi’s brutal assassination from the point of view of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to find the killers. The series works as a procedural as well as a conspiracy theory. It examines the systematic recon­struction of the plot as well as the bewildering flaws in the investigation, mostly centred on the time lost in apprehending the lead plotter Sivarasan even when they knew the location of his hideout. Much has been written and said about the wait, particularly by Major AK Ravindran of the NSG commandos—who later made a movie on the subject, Mission 90 Days (2007). Sivarasan is the one-eyed jack whom the SIT was hunting. If he had been caught alive, many believe he would have revealed much more about the LTTE plot to kill Gandhi. But the series shows the inexplicable delay, perhaps prompted by the urging of the bureaucrats in Delhi to claim credit for the capture, or something deeper, which the series is very good at underlin­ing, especially through the portrayal of SIT head DR Kaarthikeyan as a world-weary veteran by Amit Sial. Ironically, Kaarthikeyan tells his team he doesn’t want the Rajiv Gandhi assassination to become like the John F Kennedy probe, which continues to feed a cot­tage industry of revelations and counter revelations. With tight control over the narrative, Kukunoor has created a fine political thriller. You know how it begins and ends, in trag­edy. However, it is impartial storytelling, the kind in short supply in these high decibel times of Whatsapp forwards and revisionist history.

Amit SialBagavathi PerumalNagesh KukunoorSahil VaidThe Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination CaseVidyut Gargi