The Sabarmati Report

The Sabarmati Report Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Vikrant Massey, Raashii Khanna, Riddhi Dogra, Barkha Singh

Director: Ranjan Chandel & Dheeraj Sarna

What’s Good: The fast pace and crisp narration

What’s Bad: The outcome of the court scene as shown and the accosting of the main villain look contrived and fake, and more liberties are also taken.

Loo Break: Nothing to say!

Watch or Not?: As a factual drama, just alright. As a thriller ‘inspired by reality’ as claimed in the disclaimers, ditto!

Language: Hindi

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 162 Minutes

User Rating:

The Godhra massacre of 2002, in which two coaches of the Sabarmati Express were set on fire, and 59 people—all kar-sevaks returning from Ayodhya—were burnt alive, is all too known. This film chooses to explore what happened next. The aftermath includes looking at a fictitious media house named EBT News, which manipulates the truth in favor of a particular party that decided to exploit this ghastly tragedy for electoral purposes by hitting out at their opponents. This is done through the models of ethical and non-ethical journalists. The outcome is predictable.

The Sabarmati Report Movie Review: Script Analysis

Though it was very relevant in 2002, the media angle takes overwhelming precedence. Though vital in itself, it tends to dilute the impact of the storytelling of how the case filed in court went through several ups and downs before the Supreme Court convicted 31 people, sentencing 11 of them to death in 2011.

The film, instead, focuses on just three journalists: Manika Rajpurohit (Monica Dogra), who decides what the people should know and works for EBT News, which, as mentioned above, is hand-in-glove with a political party, her one-time fan, rookie journalist Amrita Gill (Raashii Khanna) and the honest yet frustrated Samar Kumar (Vikrant Massey), a Hindi journalist whose love affair too is hindered because of his principled stand.

After being invited to cover the Godhra incident at Ground Zero as a photographer with Manika, he records his own evidence and interpretation of what happened separately. Samar then expounds the theory of murder and arson and is blacklisted. Five years later, in 2007, an honest worker for EBT News who has carefully stored Samar’s cassette hands it over to Amrita. She manages to contact and befriend him. The duo then heads to Godhra again to find things out.

The final court scene (with which the film also begins) needs to be more convincing in the overall context. It also does not show Amrita at all. Also, the simplistic solutions (how easily things pan out for Samar and Amrita after five long years, especially in the investigations), the loyal worker who has retained Samar’s cassette for years, and everything else may be intriguing because of the way things are depicted but do not hold water in terms of logic.

I liked the way Samar pieces out and debunks both the “stories” postulated by interested parties are put together. For me, that was the most interesting point, along with the real footage of the incident.

There is a studied approach not to offend any community even while narrating the truth. In principle, that is praiseworthy as it depicts a sensitive vision of inclusivity. After all, the perpetrators of the post-Godhra inaccuracies are all from the community that was the victim.

At the same time, we also see a very noble and brave woman battling the divisive and unrepentant forces in her community. It is also stressed—at least twice!— there is good and evil in each section of Indians, and a cricket match sequence between India and Pakistan is also shown in a fresh and interesting manner.

The Sabarmati Report Movie Review: Star Performance

Vikrant Massey carries the film on his shoulders. He is again the underdog like in 12th Fail but with a difference. His sardonic jibes and quirky habits are as well-conveyed here as his intense frustration and downs in life. Monica Dogra carries herself well as the always arrogant, self-styled diva. Raashii Khanna fits in as Amrita, but her role barely has meat. The “mastermind” and all other characters have little to do.