Sarzameen
Introduction
You know that the film is in trouble when it starts off while addressing one issue, and by the end of it providing a solution to an entirely different issue. This fundamental issue of a mixtape is what leads to the downfall of the new Hindi film Sarzameen that turns out to be unintentionally funny at varied places in the drama. When you are introduced to Vijay (Prithviraj Sukumaran), you see him foiling a terrorist attack (even if it is moments later after the concerned folks blow up his convoy of men zeroing on the target), and capturing the second in command Kabali (KC Shankar) and his brother in the process. All this while, you hear the name Mohsin and how capturing him is paramount, only for the drama to make a turn towards the personal life of Vijay, wherein you see him frowning at his stammering teenage son Harman, who as per him isn’t cut out to be a symbol of toxic masculinity! No don’t get me wrong, getting into the army isn’t a form of toxic masculinity, but it is the drama that guilt-trips you into believing it through the gaze of Vijay. And this is the fundamental flaw of the film, sadly that acts as a building block of the film.
Story & Screenplay
One of the weakest aspects of Sarzameen is the characterization, wherein characters are heavily coded in the Karan Johar world of ‘It Is All About Loving Your Parents’. For instance, Vijay is straight up a distant version of Yash Raichand (Amitabh Bachchan) from K3G (2001). Even if Vijay wasn’t in the army, the core conflict of his character would not have changed towards his perception of his son, who in turn has seeds of Rahul Raichand (Shahrukh Khan) as well. It is drastically opposite to the father-son conflict that is showcased in the Hindi film Mission Kashmir (2000) wherein the driving nature of Altaaf (Hrithik Roshan) is to extract revenge on Inayat Khan (Sanjay Dutt), simply because he witnessed the latter (mistakenly) kill his entire family in front of his eyes. And hence, the foundation of the conflict ought to have been from Harman’s perspective all along, as opposed to Vijay’s perspective.
The setting of Kashmir was an interesting start, but it soon got overshadowed and buried in the garb of the central conflict that the drama wishes to focus on. The underlying potential of exploring the conflict of the land through various perspectives, is literally up in smoke, given how the conflict simplifies the external conflict of the land. It is literally a Kashmir-For-Dummies conflict that is presented in the most simplified manner – the army protects, the terrorists kill with no signs of the locals and their lives impacted. And because the latter isn’t showcased, a tense scene involving the kidnapping of Harman by potential terrorists doesn’t hold the same impact.
For the longest time in the screenplay (before making a U-turn with its messaging at the end), the patriotism remains a misplaced concept here just like in the other film Tanvi The Great (2025). It is often used as a tool of validity more than anything else, even as there is a laughable homage sequence of Harman (now Ibrahim Ali Khan without the stammer) who is shown training against the backdrop of a recording that states his father’s lines of putting the nation ahead of his son. It is laughable particularly given how sloppy the staging is, wherein Harman feels all the more motivated to train and miraculously cured of his stammer every time he listens to the recording. It is also laughable because the writers rush to this plot-point sooner rather than pausing in the moment, and the dilemma for Vijay who ‘notices’ changes in his son’s personality while beginning to also doubt his own judgment. There was your film.for the taking, but alas (remember how the Hindi film New York (2009) tapped into this dilemma so well back in the day?).
The drama is essentially a 90s coded universe handpicked, soaked in the problematic broad-stroked jingoism of the current day, and served as a 2025 film. You have ridiculous sequences like a fax machine being used to convey a confidential message to one of the characters that literally feels like an essay, a dramatic sequence involving a terrorist attack being foiled moments before disaster would take place, and even a laughable drama unfolding around the inauguration of a dam (damn it). And I say laughable because there is a bomb that can only be diffused after ‘entering the password’. Gosh that is so 90s. But literally nothing, nothing prepared me for that God-aweful twist that gave me a migraine out of nowhere!
The pre-finale twist is one of a kind because it is firstly against the run of play, with the writers almost remembering that they had a loose end to the plot that needed to be given a closure. And in an attempt to give a closure, they introduce you to this hilarious ‘turn’ (which explains the casting of one of the characters in the film who up until then was hardly in the film), that changes the DNA of the film. It is so bad that the film was better off at not introducing this twist at all, even while making the core conflict of the film look like a K3G moment of togetherness in the most laughable way ever! It also had me scratching my head on whether even Nolan who could guess this twist, before facepalming with laughter😂.
And so when the climax of the film showed a caption on thanking the people who have lost their lives while protecting their ‘Sarzameen’, not only was it opposite to the messaging that the film delved on moments ago, but it also felt like a meta-commentary on the viewers who were watching the film. The kind of casual-ness at showcasing the armed forces on celluloid is baffling really, and on top of it, even the messaging is skewed! And such is the screenplay here – aweful and ‘Sardard’ (migraine) driven!
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are inconsistent and patchy, with not even a single line touching upon any emotions in store. The music is forgettable and with a checklist – so towards the end, the makers randomly inserted an ’emotional’ song sung by B Praak in the middle of a tense sequence, because why not. The BGM is loud and so heavily curated that it almost feels like a broad-stroke of patriotism that the makers want the viewers to feel without getting into the nuances of core. Patriotism again isn’t wrong but the manner in which the film portrays it is fundamentally half-hearted and broad-stroked. And that also remains an issue with the background score. The cinematography is so generic that it never quite allows the setting to play a character here. The frames have a lighting problem too, almost overtly relying on a blue tinge that stays consistent throughout the film for some reason. The editing reminding me of Nadaaniyan (2025) with an attempt to hide the performances of the common ‘lead’ actor in both films. It is so patchy and so random that you aren’t committed to the scene at all while never being emotionally present in the moment.
Director Kayoze Irani has a long long way to go before he can establish himself as a filmmaker. There is no way to put it – the filmmaking is so sketchy and so poor that it further brings the film down. Neither does the world-building impress nor do the characters, and even the emotional core remains absent. In a year that also saw his father Boman Irani delivering one of the finest Hindi films of 2025 in the form of The Mehta Boys (which also had a father-son conflict), Kayoze can do well to reflect on everything that is wrong with the staging of the drama here. The only way is up for Kayoze, this remains a travesty in every sense of the word.
Performances
The performances are mid by the members of the cast apart from Prithviraj Sukumaran who is phenomenal as Vijay. There is a simmering sense of anger that you notice in his character early on, even as Prithviraj uses this to formulate a character arc for himself. He is the lone shining light here. Talented actors like Mihir Ahuja, Boman Irani, Jitendra Joshi and KC Shankar are either completely wasted or given too little to do, so much so that they come across as one-note characters with moderately flat performances. Kajol as Mehar is a character that has hardly anything to do, apart from reacting to the father-son conflict in a heavy voice tone. It made me wonder on the casting choice here, until it all made sense at a crucial point in the film. Ibrahim Ali Khan as Harman seriously needs acting lessons. It remains a very specific issue of a performer lost and confused in front of the camera, wherein he doesn’t know (or understand) the right emotions that need to be conveyed. And even his dialogue delivery sounds like a robot or an AI delivering the lines. If anything, this is an improvement from the abomination called Nadaaniyan but is that even saying much? If the editing is designed to hide your god-aweful performance then what is the point even? There are lacs of talented actors there who are waiting for that one chance, so Ibrahim needs to understand and acknowledge that this is his opportunity to grab. So if he isn’t ready yet, he must actually pause, learn the craft and then return onscreen. This travesty just cannot keep going on and on…..come on boy, wake up and back to the drawing board!
Conclusion
Sarzameen is a great film………….just kidding! It remains a mixtape of contradicting ideas packaged in a confused ‘Sardard’ drama with poor performances that makes for a godawful watch. Available on JioHotstar.