Saare Jahan Se Accha

Saare Jahan Se Accha spends most of its time listing differences between India and Pakistan. But Netflix’s new spy series can’t help draw attention to a common heritage: language. Characters switch naturally between Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and English, as so many did in undivided Punjab. The Punjabi in particular—spoken by Pakistani and Indian characters—is mellifluous, flowing off the tongues of the actors, not the same intonations you’d hear in a modern Hindi film. It reminded me of Song of Lahore (2015), Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s musical documentary, with the Punjabi session players hitting the consonants in trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ name: ‘Vin-ttun’.

बॉर्डर पर देश की सुरक्षा के लिए लड़ने वाले जांबाजों के किस्से हमेशा बड़े गर्व के साथ सुनाए जाते हैं, मगर कुछ योद्धा ऐसे भी होते हैं, जिनका कोई शौर्य गान नहीं होता। उनके साहस और बुद्धिमत्ता की कहानी कहीं दर्ज नहीं होती। ये गुमनाम हीरो हैं, वे खुफिया जासूस जो देश पर आने वाले हर खतरे को रोकने के लिए अपना सब कुछ कुर्बान करने को हमेशा तैयार रहते हैं। ऐसे ही जासूसों की कहानी है, वेब सीरीज ‘सारे जहां से अच्छा’। अभी जब हम देश की आजादी की 79वीं वर्षगांठ मनाने जा रहे हैं, यह सीरीज उन नायकों के प्रति सम्मान की भावना और देशभक्ति का जज्बा मजबूत करती है।

Just like the Bhagat Singh story became a first-come-first-serve race for Bollywood historicals in the early 2000s, the Bangladesh Liberation War became the medium to stage Indian patriotism a few years ago. This month marks the beginning of a new period device for Hindi productions: the spymaster story. The recent Salaakar did its clumsiest best to fictionalise the career of India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. The role of an intelligence agent who sabotages Pakistan’s covert mission to go nuclear in the 1970s is reduced to a series of tacky espionage cliches and cultural stereotypes. It even uses two timelines to double the sense of victory.

In today’s times, a series that documents the patriotic achievements of unsung heroes without resorting to mouth-frothing, jingoistic chest-thumping distinguishes itself by default. Saare Jahan Se Accha, now playing on Netflix, is yet another addition to the canon of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and its Indian counterpart R&AW attempting to get ahead of each other in a duel of wits, words and weaponry. But with a difference. This six-episode series is set in the 1960s and ’70s, a tumultuous period not only for the two nations which had already sparred with each other on the war field, but one that found itself in the middle of a rapidly changing world order. With alliances being both forged and broken, it was a time of deep political unrest and immense distrust, with an inclination towards unchecked nuclear proliferation. That called for the world’s secret service agencies pressing quickly into a race against time to thwart attacks from powerful adversaries.