Sarzameen

Sarzameen Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Ibrahim Ali Khan, Kajol, and others.

Director: Kayoze Irani

What’s Good: The plot and the actors.

What’s Bad: Nothing major, except some minor flaws.

Loo Break: Anytime you want

Watch or Not?: 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!)