There seems to be an overdrive in patriotic fare this Independence Week. We had the ludicrous War 2, the complex Tehran and now two brief (one at five episodes and one at six) very similar-in-concept web series, Salakaar (which means an Advisor) and Sare Jahan Se Accha.
Both series are based on Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and its repercussions on India. In both, there is an agent (posing as an office-worker and diplomat respectively) based in Pakistan to stymie their nuclear program. In Salakaar, the story is stretched between 1978 and 2025. In 1978, our intrepid agent manages to add substances in the reactors that make the experiment fail and an explosion destroys their project.
In the latter, far more gripping but equally improbable and simplistic series, we see an agent blast the incoming French ship containing the raw materials for the bomb! This, we are told, was also before the timeframe when Pakistan finally became a nuclear power in 1998.
Salakaar, on JioHotstar, features Naveen Kasturia as Adhir Dayal, our genius on hostile soil. He is on a personal mission as well, as his adopted sister and fellow worker, Jyoti Chaturvedi (Janhavi Hardas) has been cold-bloodedly murdered by General Zia Ullah’s (Mukesh Rishi as a caricatural version of President Zia-Ul-Haq!) men.
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In the present, Adhir, having sabotaged Pakistan’s nuclear tests, is now India’s National Security Advisor, portrayed by Purnendu Bhattacharya, and takes a personal interest in rescuing Jyoti’s granddaughter, Shrishti (Mouni Roy), officially teacher and unofficially mistress of Zia’s grandson, Col. Ashfaqullah (Surya Sharma). Shrishti, known to the colonel as Mariam, is on the verge of being wed to the smitten man.
Somewhere in the yarn is also a nuclear blueprint that plays a part. This yarn’s fabric (!!!) remains very much in the family. Of course, we have the caricatural Pakistani villains, a sucker local Pakistani sarpanch or village head and the usual coterie of devoted Indians.
The director (Faruk Kabir), known for the big-screen middling franchise Khuda Haafiz scales new heights of mediocrities here in both the directorial and scripting side (with co-writers). We even have a cartoon-like version of Dr. Abdul Kalam (Salim Husen Mulla), who, scientifically and from a remote location in India, guides Adhir in how to destroy Pakistan’s bomb as well as defense ambitions.
Childish and corny to the extreme, the series is bolstered a wee bit by Purnendu’s dignified and competent turn in his lop-sided character as India’s NSA. The physical atmospherics (the nuclear facility, the streets, the airport in the climax) are quite well-designed but the content, overall, sucks.
Also, the writing lacks depth. Themes like patriotism, personal sacrifice and more are superficially touched. Shristhi has AI-laced glasses but there is no hint at how she obtained them.
And now for the zinger! Maybe it was supposed to be symbolic, but we have a sequence wherein the 1978 Adhir passes (in the reverse direction) Col. Ashfaqullah’s vehicle with Mariam / Shristhi in 2025!! This is one laughable figuration!
And yes, the colonel has no compunction about taking his love to the nuclear site amidst a barrage of men from the army and workforces in an…Ahem!…revealing glam outfit. He could have allowed her to dress suitably after explaining where they were going!
Sare Jahan Se Accha (on Netflix), on the other hand, fares better with its layered plot despite the basically fanciful premise again of Indians sabotaging Pakistan’s nuclear tests. This time, the real-life personae shown include Homi Bhabha (Vivek Tandon), R&AW chief, R.N. Kao (Rajat Kapur), Indira Gandhi (Ashwini Akerkar), Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Hemant Kher) and Henry Kissinger (Scott Alexander Young), former United States Secretary of State.
There are better-etched characters, believable emotional turmoils (as between ace spy Vishnu Shankar (Pratik Gandhi) and his befuddled wife Mohini (Tilottama Shome), Vishnu and the man he has commissioned, Sukhbir (Suhail Nayyar), Pakistani army general Munir Khan (Atul Kumar) and his journalist niece, Fatima (Kritika Kamra), policeman Rizwan and his friend Sukhbir and more. I also liked the layered but not-all-black character of the ruthlessly patriotic Murtuza Malik (Sunny Hinduja) and his emotional bonding with Brigadier Naushad (Anup Soni).
Given the premise again, the story buildup is deft and even if the climax is pretty formulaic, the whole sequence is done well. We are also told, in Vishnu’s simultaneous narration, that being an undercover agent is a faceless and thankless job driven only a man’s passion for his country.
Sumit Purohit directs the series ably, and given everything, the script is also written and mounted skillfully. Ketan Sodha’s background score works too.
Pratik Gandhi is good as Vishnu and Sunny Hinduja is superb as Murtuza. Kritika Kumra is quite endearing and Suhail Nayyar, Tillotama Shome, Rajat Kapoor, Rajesh Khera and Anup Soni are effective. Ninad Kamat is okay, but Kapil Radha as Rizwan is excellent.
Ratings:
Salakaar—The Legend of an Extraordinary Indian Spy: *1/2
Jio Hotstar presents Sphere Origins’ Salakaar Produced by: Comall Sunjoy Waddhwa & Sunjoy Waddhwa Directed by: Faruk Kabir Written by: Farukh Kabir, Srinivas Abrol, Spandan Mishra & Swati Tripathi Music: Parth Saraf Starring: Naveen Kasturia, Mouni Roy, Mukesh Rishi, Purnendu Bhattacharya, Kuldeep Sareen, Ashwath Bhatt, Rohit Tiwari, Janhavi Hardas, Hassan Syed, Salim Husen Mulla & others
Sare Jahan Se Accha—The Silent Guardians: ***
Netflix presents Bombay Fable Films’ Sare Jahan Se Accha Created by: Gaurav Shukla Produced by: Sejal Shah, Gaurav Shukla & Prapti Doshi Moorthy Directed by: Sumit Purohit Written by: Kunal Kushwah, Abhijeet Khuman, Bhavesh Mandalia, Ishraq Shah, Shivam Shankar, Gaurav Shukla & Meghna Srivastava Music: Ketan Sodha Starring: Pratik Gandhi, Tillotma Shome, Sunny Hinduja, Suhail Nayyar, Kritika Kamra, Rajat Kapoor, Anup Soni, Kunal Thakur, Atul Kumar, Scott Alexander Young, Amit Jha, Nakul Roshan Sahdev, Ninad Kamat, Avantika Akerkar, Hemant Kher, Deepak Kamboj, Vivek Tandon, Diana Ch, Rajesh Khera & others