Karan Johar-backed Sarzameen, meant to be an intense father-son drama set against a militant backdrop, unravels into a morally confused and narratively broken film. Instead of exploring complex themes, it unintentionally asks viewers to sympathize with a radicalized youth and see a father’s cold-hearted abandonment as patriotic duty.
Directed by Kayoze Irani, the film stars Ibrahim Ali Khan as Harman, the timid, stammering son of Army officer Vijay Menon, played by Prithviraj Sukumaran. When terrorists abduct Harman in Kashmir, Vijay makes no effort to save him. The film frames this as noble sacrifice “nation first.” But this idea quickly collapses under the weight of emotional detachment and warped ideology.
The most unsettling part? Sarzameen doesn’t challenge Vijay’s decision. It rewards it. Harman, after surviving a bullet to the head, re-enters the story eight years later more confident, fluent, and possibly brainwashed. But instead of confronting the ethics of raising a child in hate, the film spins its suspense around whether he’s “really” Vijay’s son not whether he is a threat.
There is no exploration of the psychological trauma Harman faced or the abuse masked as discipline. The father’s hatred is never interrogated. Instead, viewers are pulled into a strange position almost rooting for Harman to take revenge.
The characters are barely sketched. Kajol plays the mother who stays married to the man who abandoned her son. No explanation is offered. When the film finally reveals that her character was a double agent all along, it plays like a cheap twist from a forgotten ’90s thriller not the emotional payoff the story needed.
Even the action sequences feel spliced in from another movie. There’s no coherence in tone or logic. The emotional stakes are non-existent because the film edits out the most important part: the missing years of Harman’s life.
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What makes Sarzameen truly problematic is its portrayal of moral equivalence. It shows a soldier who lets his son die as honorable, and a militant as redeemable not because of nuance, but because of sheer narrative laziness. The story fails to question itself, and in doing so, invites the audience to cheer for vengeance, not understanding.
Instead of unpacking trauma, Sarzameen glorifies abandonment, punishes vulnerability, and dangerously blurs the line between patriotism and cruelty.
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