What Is the Story About?
In Sarzameen, Kayoze Irani sets his sights on a landscape already bruised by conflict i.e. Kashmir, but chooses to tell the story through the lens of a broken home rather than a battlefield.
At the centre is Colonel Raghav Oberoi (Prithviraj Sukumaran), a man so tightly wound by military discipline that he’s all but disappeared as a father. His silence has raised a boy in emotional vacuum who is Ayaan (Ibrahim Ali Khan), a stammering teenager caught in the turmoil of neglect and rage.
The household has long stopped pretending to be one. Kajol, playing Aarzoo is the mother and the only emotionally literate adult in the room. She tries to bridge the gap. But her efforts are no match for years of unspoken grief and one particularly devastating tragedy that the film gradually unfolds.
Ayaan, desperate to feel seen, ends up in the company of Kabil (K.C. Shankar), a local militant leader who knows exactly how to exploit emptiness. Ultimately, the son slips into radicalisation just as the father is forced to reckon with what and who he’s actually fighting for.
Irani uses the militancy plot as a backdrop, but it’s the emotional misfires at home that drive the story. That’s both the film’s strength and its limitation. At its best, Sarzameen is about how generational wounds comes out. At its weakest, it gives in to overused tropes and avoids digging too deep.
Performances?
There’s a certain brooding weight Prithviraj Sukumaran brings to Sarzameen. His Colonel Oberoi is a man carved from discipline and denial. He is a father who mistakes silence for strength. Sukumaran understands restraint, and for the most part, he plays within the muted notes of a man unwilling to confront his emotional failures. But the script rarely gives him the space to unravel. What should have been an emotional arc ends up looking like controlled indifference.
Kajol, meanwhile, does the heavy lifting. As Aarzoo, she’s the emotional centre of a fractured home, and it shows. Her scenes, especially the ones where she negotiates grief and helplessness, offer the kind of emotional texture the film often lacks. But even her performance is sometimes undercut by clumsy transitions in tone as she’s dealing with two broken men, but the screenplay doesn’t quite give her the gravitas or narrative depth her character deserves. She is a highly experienced actress who brings decades of experience on the screen. We must say that her performance is one of the best parts of the film.
The real stress test of Sarzameen is Ibrahim Ali Khan. His debut in Nadaaniyaan was an utter disaster. This film doesn’t show much growth either. Ayaan is a complex role. He is a boy shaped by emotional neglect, inching toward radicalisation and it demands far more internal life than what Ibrahim currently brings to the table. He looks the part and shows brief flashes of vulnerability, but he isn’t yet equipped to handle the character’s psychological weight. He needs a big time training from his parents. Even his sibling is far better than what this chap is.
Analysis
Sarzameen is one of those films that starts strong, shows promise, and then slowly drifts into safer territory.
Why are we saying this?
Try to remember a film like Shakti. Dilip Kumar plays an honest officer. Amitabh Bachchan is a boy who grows up neglected by his father. The daddy issues make him a rogue criminal. Meanwhile Rakhi, who happens to be the mother of Bachchan grinds in between.
Tada, we just told you the plot of Sarzameen.
This overused plot has been used in numerous blockbusters of the past century and looks like the makers are still not over this.
Director Kayoze Irani clearly wants to tell a personal story set in a complicated space. The idea of exploring a broken father-son relationship against the backdrop of Kashmir is a solid one. In the beginning, there’s genuine restraint in the storytelling. The first few scenes feel lived-in. There’s silence, tension, and a believable distance between characters. You think, maybe this film is going to take its time, dig deeper, stay with the discomfort.
But that doesn’t last.
By the second half, Sarzameen starts leaning too heavily on background music, dramatic turns, and formulaic writing. The personal story gets lost in the rush to make the film more “appealing” and in that process, it stops feeling honest. It wants to be a big emotional film but without doing the hard work of staying raw or unpredictable.
For a story based in Kashmir, there’s barely any political context. The region, which should feel like a character in itself, ends upto accounting for just a scenic backdrop. That’s why you shouldn’t try to remember Haidar, because you will end up disliking Sarzameen more.
The script doesn’t explore the deeper reasons behind radicalisation or the impact of generational trauma. It avoids the tough questions, and that holds the film back from saying anything truly bold.
Visually, the film looks great. The cinematography is elegant, the score is well-placed, and the action sequences are tightly done. But technical finesse can only take you so far if the emotions don’t land.
At the end of the day, Sarzameen plays it too safe. It touches on pain, but never truly enters it. And that’s the frustrating part because you can see the ingredients are there. But the film never fully trusts its own potential.
It wants to move you.
But it forgets to stay still long enough to do that.
Music and Other Departments?
Technically, Sarzameen is a well-assembled film. The visuals do a lot of heavy lifting, even when the narrative falls short. The cinematography is striking as the film captures the Kashmir Valley as a land marked by tension and loss. There’s a cold stillness in the frames that mirrors the emotional distance between the characters, especially in the early scenes. The landscape becomes a visual metaphor, but it’s a pity the story doesn’t dig into it further.
The background score by Shashwat Sachdev, however, walks a finer line. There are moments where it genuinely enhances a scene but there are also times when it overreaches. Especially in the second half, the music starts telling you how to feel instead of letting the scene breathe. That takes away some of the subtlety the film seemed to be aiming for.
Other Artists?
K.C. Shankar, as the antagonist Kabil, feels like a caricature more than a character. His menace lacks detail, his ideology is thin, and his presence never quite lands with the dread the story calls for. We can conveniently say that his character has not been the importance he deserves.
Highlights?
Kajol
Cinematography
Drawbacks?
Overused plot
Not enough tension
Ibrahim Ali Khan
Did I Enjoy It?
Not much
Will You Recommend It?
Not really
Sarzameen Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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