ZEE5 Original Final Call Review: Arjun Rampal-Sakshi Tanwar’s Combo Rocketed Sky High

Unlike your regular suspense-thrillers, the ZEE5 Original Series Final Call, now streaming in Kannada, was made with the intention to portray a grave tragedy such as an air crash, from the point of view of an ex-airforce pilot now turned commercial pilot, Captain Karan Sachdev. Of course, a hijack or a suicidal pilot provides a brilliant way to make compelling content around it but Final Call is so much more than that.

While watching the series, which is actually inspired by Priya Kumar’s book I Will Go With You,  you should be prepared because it has some wonderful spiritual, psychological and emotional lessons for you that are noteworthy. Directed by Vijay Lalwani and produced by Ajay G Rai, the show stars Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal, who made his web-debut with this series, in the role of Captain Karan Sachdev. Alongside him playing an equally important role is Sakshi Tanwar as ATC (Air-Traffic-Control) in-charge Kiran Mirza. 

The premise of Final Call is the fact that what if the next flight you take is the last flight of your life? I mean here we all our making plans for her future but have you ever stopped to consider if the plane you board next could possibly be hijacked or could have an unstable pilot? It’s a faith that keeps us in check as we assume that we will reach safely but what if the final call for your flight is in the truest sense ‘The Final Call’?

The first part of the first episode itself leaves us with an intriguing cliffhanger when a plane, full of passengers, is seen moving unpredictably heading towards an island, while the respective ATC head of that island tries to make contact with the flight, Skyline 502. While this scene is intriguing enough, it is cut short leaving us wanting for more.

But that’s when the story goes into a flashback smoothly starting with the pilot, Captain Karan Sachdev, who goes to buy poison before making the decision that this would be his last flight. As a result of a mental trauma that happened a while back with his family, Karan doesn’t realise that his death-wish involves 300 other passengers apart from the co-pilot, the backup pilot and the cabin crew.

Soon, things go drastically wrong when his co-pilot Captain Abhimanyu drinks from the coffee cup (that had the poison) accidentally. Subsequently, as fate would have thanks to one of the air-hostesses, who obviously wasn’t doing her job well, the poisoned copy reaches the second backup pilot in no time. Approximately forty minutes after takeoff when there is no communication established with the flight SL 502, the best officer of the Mumbai Air-Traffic-Control, Kiran Mirza, joins in on what was supposed to be her last day at work.

While all this is going on there are other important sub-plots in the series that involve class actors like Anupriya Goenka as air-hostess Pari, Neeraj Kabi as a pious Tamil astrologer V Krishnamurthy, Javed Jaffrey as a rich business industrialist, Vipin Sharma as the ATS (Anti-Terrorist-Squad) head Nilesh Kale, Vineet Sharma as the wanted man Jaikrit Tyagi, Anshuman Malhotra as the young footballer Dhruv Sehgal, Paula McGlynn as the unsuccessful Australian writer and Harshad Arora as the co-pilot Captain Abhimanyu.

The makers of Final Call have not only given a good screentime to Sakshi and Arjun but have also ensured that each of these supporting characters has their own backstory till the point they boarded the flight. For example, V Krishnamurthy, who is a spiritual man and has discovered that the sooner you accept death as your friend, the sooner all problems go away in life. His intention to board the flight was to meet death first hand.

Similarly, Siddharth Singhania accidentally boards this flight as something goes wrong with his private plane and he needs to get to the destination at all costs.  So in a way, you will learn that fate has its own way of bringing everyone on the same path, i.e, of death. So as Kiran Mirza goes on to uncover one of the brutal truths of life; her son’s death, she also makes a connection with the suicidal pilot, Karan and tries to ensure that the passengers are safe.

Whether the pilot lands safely or crashes, you must find out by watching because of the experience, your emotions matter when you visually see it. It is emotional no doubt but will teach you a hard lesson that the only way to keep your sanity intact is to forgive those who have wronged you and find peace to move on in life.

Verdict: With Final Call, is a lesson on more than one lesser-spoken topic, like depression, spirituality, angst and peace. The relatability though is apt for today’s generation. A truly must watch!

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