Saare Jahan Se Accha

The new Netflix series Saare Jahan Se Accha begins with Pratik Gandhi’s character being posted to the R&AW’s Islamabad station, and it ends with him foiling a major nuclear operation and blowing things up real good. All of this happens in six episodes of roughly 45 minutes each. In these six episodes, we are introduced to several characters — field agents, a journalist, the chief of the ISI; even Indira Gandhi drops by. Most of these characters, including the protagonist’s wife, is introduced with enough fanfare to suggest that they are going to be important to the plot. Some of them are, most aren’t. But you can never shake the feeling that Saare Jahan Se Accha was stripped to the bone after somebody interfered with either the scripts or the first assembly. Nearly everybody in the cast suffers, not to mention the show itself. But nobody is done quite so dirty as Tillotama Shome.

It’s not the fault of this series that it comes exactly a week after the one which had the same theme. Well, almost. Salaakar is about scotching Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions with the help of canny footwork by Indian spies : this week’s new show on Netflix, Saare Jahaan Se Accha, created by Gaurav Shukla and directed by Sumit Purohit, is exactly about the same thing. The intent may be the same but the treatment, thankfully, is vastly different: the beyond-terrible Salakaar, with Naveen Kasturia leading the charge, reminds you of a comic-book with none of the fun of the genre; this Pratik Gandhi starrer, on the other hand, takes things seriously, and that’s a good thing, more or less.

Vishnu Shankar can’t come to terms with his inability to prevent nuclear physicist Homi Bhabha’s death. Now married, working under RAW, he’s transferred to Pakistan to stop its emergence as a nuclear power, which could mean doomsday to humankind at large. Torn between his conscience and national duty, Vishnu is relentless, however, paying a heavy price for his choices. There’s no better news than Pratik Gandhi getting his due as an actor – even if it’s on OTT more than the big screen. Playing a role modelled on a real-life hero, he doesn’t make a saint out of him, portrays his integrity, while also highlighting his grey areas. Rajat Kapoor, in the shoes of Kao, has it a little too easy; the character is no real test to his mettle.

The Hindi series Saare Jahan Se Accha is a fictional take on historical events and is centred around India and Pakistan’s nuclear programs. Created by Gaurav Shukla, the show is set during the late 1960s to early 1970s, focusing on the early days of India’s Research and Analysis Wing and its attempts to sabotage Pakistan’s nuclear program. The taut thriller globetrots all over the world, but the action in Pakistan is where the story matters. The makers build up the suspense and action, leading to a dramatic and satisfying finish. Pratik Gandhi plays Vishnu Shankar, a counterintelligence officer who becomes a RAW agent under RN Kao (Rajat Kapoor). The newlywed heads to Pakistan with his wife, Mohini (Tillotama Shome), for a dangerous mission to find out what is going on with their nuclear program. ISI chief Murtuza Malik (Sunny Hinduja) runs a tight ship, weeding out traitors and spies while helping Pakistan cross the finish line to become a nuclear power. The clash of these two individuals and their successes and failures makes up more of the story of 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.