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Join UsStar Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Ibrahim Ali Khan, Kajol, and others.
Director:Â Kayoze Irani
What’s Good: The plot and the actors.
What’s Bad: Nothing major, except some minor flaws.
Loo Break:Â Anytime you want
Watch or Not?:Â Yes, definitely for the actors!
Language: Hindi
Available On: JioHotstar
Runtime: 2 hours 17 minutes
User Rating:
Whenever you see a man in a vardi, what is the first thought you get? It is background music that might hum a patriotic song, and in all probability, it would be a loaded and dramatic version of some beautifully written lyrics. The Army and their stories are mostly about the patriotic fervour – stories about valor! Whenever we have slightly deviated from this celebration, we have delivered stories about the lost and misguided youth, used and trained against our land. In the rarest of cases, an army story would bring you the humane side of it on-screen, and Sarzameen effectively logs into that category!
When we see a vardi on screen, we expect galore, celebration, bravery, and unfortunately, bomb blasts! It is genuinely very difficult to balance the humane story of an army officer – the officer who has a family – a child, a woman he loves, and a dilemma, when he chooses to fulfil his promise of choosing his country over everything else, every single time!
Some of the best, human stories we witnessed on screen include Akshay Kumar’s Holiday – A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, but the closest we see Army officers discuss or connect to their families is through a song – mostly beautifully depicted in a JP Dutta film song – be it Sandese Aate Hain from Border or Main Kahin Bhi Rahun from LOC – Kargil. But Sarzameen breaks the mould and brings the story of a warrior, but not the story about his war!
Sarzameen Movie Review: Script Analysis
Director Kayoze Irani taps into this unknown territory and brings the story of Colonel Vijay Menon (Prithiviraj Sukumaran), a celebrated Indian Army Officer, his wife Meher (Kajol), and their son Harman (Ibrahim Ali Khan). They are a dysfuntional family to begin with because of how the Army Officer takes the tough route to train his son and expects him to become an Army Officer, but the only problem being the child is too scared and bullied to even speak four words with confidence, forget about having the confidence of holding a bullet and shooting an enemy, looking right into his eye!
The bridge between Vijay’s strictness and Harman’s scare is the mother, Kajol, who effectively tries to narrow the distance between the father and the son until Harman disappears and re-enters the plot as Haaris. How, why, and when form the entire crux of Sarzameen.
Most of us have always questioned the elite classification when it comes to the civilians vs the army families. But here is a story of an Army family and what they go through as a family! A family that deserved all the happiness, but not everyone can find happiness in the smallest things when you deal with bomb blasts any minute and every minute! How do you fight this uncertainty? How do you fight when you know that your family is just one second away from the worst threat? You fight. Brutally, yet honestly. Will one win this fight? Probably not always? Will one lose everything in this fight? Probably, not always. But there is a lot at stake. Actually, more than a lot, but we mostly have an afterthought for the families, after we celebrate the valor!
Sarzameen brings forward the story of one such family and what it goes through while an Army Officer puts his nation first! Soumil Shukla, Arun Singh, Kausar Munir, and Jehan Handa, along with Kayoze Irani, make sure to bring the story in the most human form they could. And this effort should be celebrated, not because such stories are rare, but because such stories need to be celebrated.
Sarzameen Movie Review: Star Performance
Prirhviraj Sukumaran clearly leads Sarzameen with a performance that is so emotionally powerful that I was convinced for a second that Ibrahim Ali Khan is his son! He emotes in each and every frame, and he talks through these emotions! In one of the scenes, he just looks at Ibrahim and asks, “Kya ban gaye ho Harman.” And Vijay cries – not profusely, but silently. But you feel that pain – the hopelessness of a father, the fear of a father who might have felt failed as a parent, and in that moment, you do not see the tough Army Officer. You only see the father!
There is another moment when you see this father – while he fights powerfully as an Army Officer, but still behind that tough fight while he is shooting bullets, you see him shaken and crumbled as a father! Kudos to writing such a character and more power to Prithviraj to playing this character with such sincerity!
Ibrahim Ali Khan dares to choose Harman and Haarish as his second outing, and he wins this time. With his effort and honesty to play Harman and Haaris! He does not disappoint while he tries to keep fidgeting with his dilemmas as Harman and Haaris!
Kajol needs another chapter to discuss what she brings to the table as an actor! When she believes in a script, she rules each and every frame! It happens with Sarzameen and the actress acts as the rock solid base of the story! Also, her chemistry with Prithviraj Sukumaran is so good that I manifest to see them more on screen in equally good stories! (Hey Dharma, just do this!)
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Sarzameen Movie Review: Direction
Directed by Kayoze Irani, the film starts as a story about an Army Officer and his choices. It intensifies as it plays around one major hook – ‘Sarzameen ki salaamati se badhkar, mere liye kuch nahi. Chahe wo mera beta hi kyun na ho.’ But the story isn’t about a young lad getting trained and misled against the nation or an Army Officer choosing his country over his son, or an Army wife, just dealing with their unpredictable lives. Sarzameen comes together as a story of an entire family, which is not common.
The best part of Sarzameen comes with its casting as Prithiviraj Sukumaran, Kajol and Ibrahim Ali Khan, really look a family! They do not pretend or act – they just come together and convince as a family!
Sarzameen extends a tribute to all those who lost their lives in wars, but it also extends condolences to the families who fought an internal war. Families who need to be protected, but families who are one second away from getting penalized for being an Army family. Families, who also deserve peace, but families who have to struggle and find happiness amidst doubting each other, fighting with each other for priorities, and surrendering to each other’s choices!
Sarzameen Movie Review: The Last Word
Kayoze Irani, despite presenting a protagonist who keeps his ‘Sarzameen’ above his family, presents a story that keeps the family above valor and courage on the war front! It is beautiful and I loved it! I loved it every time Prithviraj ached for his son, I loved every time Ibrahim Ali Khan wanted his Appa to hold, and I loved it every time Kajol’s Meher fought with her husband for priorities. A family that lost a lot in the Sarhad storm, but a family that still survived the Sarhad storm!
3.5 star!
Sarzameen Trailer
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