Pratik, Sunny shine in a familiar story!

Review

Netflix: Saare Jahan Se Accha: The Silent Guardians

Cast: Pratik Gandhi, Kritika Kamra, Rajat Kapoor, Tillotama Shome, Suhail Nayyar, Sunny Hinduja and Anup Soni

Director: Sumit Purohit

Rating: Three stars

Only the other day Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir’s ‘nuclear sabre rattling’ made headlines. As he made no bones about how Pakistan would not desist from using nuclear bombs against India, it made us once again wonder about the severity of looming nuclear threat.

On hindsight, could we have prevented the neighbouring nation from acquiring nuclear bombs? More significantly, did we really delay it? Yes, if we are to go by the two series which have dropped on OTT platforms in a span of less than a week.

While we are still digesting Salakaar, yet another series, Saare Jahan Se Accha…, once again about foiling of Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions streams on Netflix. Two series on nearly the same idea is bound to set in fatigue and we prepare for more of the same. Yet, surprisingly, Saare Jahan Se Accha handles its material, both fictional and factual, in a far better fashion. Period is nearly the same — 1970s. Only in the Netflix six-episode drama, the Pakistan government is in the hands of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who famously said, ‘We will eat grass but will have our bomb’.

Creator Gaurav Shukla and director Sumit Purohit do contexualise things and build a step-by-step case for why Indian spy agency needs to scuttle Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions. Shimla Agreement, R&AW’s formation in 1968; we are clued in to information which bears the stamp of veracity. Besides, where the series scores is, it does not show R&AW’s Pakistani counterpart ISI as an agency of bumbling idiots. The Pakistani agents, especially its head Murtaza, (Sunny Hinduja) are smart, shrewd, astute and often one step behind if not ahead of the Indian spies. Why we have even R&AW’s founder RN Kao (suitably understated Rajat Kapoor) admitting how ISI which came into being in 1948 was decades ahead of them.

Of course, for a series titled Saare Jahan Se… it’s obvious who will be the ultimate winner. Until the inevitable happens, it’s almost a war of equals. Both Pratik Gandhi as ace Indian spy Vishnu and Sunny Hinduja as Murtaza do justice to their respective nations in their reel parts and rise to the demand of their characters. Early on, Pratik’s Vishnu tell us, how a spy’s life is far removed from that of stylish and glamorous James Bond. But this Vishnu knows his vodkas and even sips Martini when required. Most actors are on even keel and Tillotama Shome may not get much to do, but as Vishnu’s disgruntled wife, she nails her part.

Writers and creator whip up enough tension and spin a few emotive moments too. Double life of a spy comes with its own set of dilemmas. Competent Suhail Nayyar’s Rafiq urf Sukhbir’s character and act brings it out poignantly. In the battle of survival, kill they have to, but not without the burden of guilt. They certainly have a heart, even if at the heart of it all spies and their masters need to be merciless. Not everything which even R&AW does falls within the moral ambit. And its pointers like these and lines such as ‘hum jaise bandon ke mulk nahi hote, sirf agencian hoti hain’ that lift the series.

Not that this espionage drama is perfect. Loopholes are aplenty. Why doesn’t Murtaza grill Pakistani traitor (Anup Soni) hard enough and pray, why did we have to have ‘same sex’ blackmail angle here too. Lovely Kritika Kamra’s Fatima, an upright Pakistani journalist’s involvement in the spy maze, too, is a bit of stretch. But where the series truly works is it does not make covert operations a one-man mission. The tentacles spread to foreign lands and extend right up to Mossad too. Besides, in the high-stakes spy game, where we often are on tenterhooks, it does manage to convey the undying spirit of unsung heroes.

While the story may be entirely fictional, it rings true on many counts, especially while enumerating the challenges which agents face. War on borders does cease but for a spy as Pratik’s Vishnu says ‘it never ends.’ Expectedly, the franchise is likely to roll on too… and we are not complaining.

Lifestyle