Sarzameen Review: In this Hotstar thriller film, loyalties are tested when Army Officer Vijay Menon gets his son back 8 years after terrorists in Kashmir abduct him. However, when things don’t add up, he must make a terrible choice to save his nation, even if that means losing his son all over again.
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Sarzameen Hotstar Director
Kayoze Irani
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Sarzameen 2025 Cast
Prithviraj Sukumaran, Ibrahim Ali Khan, Kajol, Mihir Ahuja, Boman Irani, Jitendra Joshi, Abdul Quadir Amin
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Sarzameen Movie Writers
Soumil Shukla, Arun Singh
The movie has a runtime of 137 minutes.
Sarzameen Review
Nationalistic movies (or shows) are all the rage right now, what with the state of the world and all. JioHotstar’s Sarzameen is an odd mix of nationalism and family love, where neither is clear, yet both are too much. It’s a mix between cringe and over-the-top emotions that will leave you feeling all sorts of things, but, unfortunately, nothing good.
The film showcases the love between a father and a son, as well as an army officer’s devotion to his country. It’s a delicate balance, with his son being abducted for 8 years and all, but hey, let’s gloss over that trauma and introduce some silly twist to not talk about it. For too long in the runtime, Sarzameen blabbers about Vijay having a problem with his son because he has a stutter and only accepts that his son is his after a DNA test. That is, of course, a very rudimentary version of what happens, but if the shoe fits…
At times, you hate Vijay – the man seems to hate his son with a passion, although he would like you, his wife and even himself to think otherwise. He screams in the house that he shares with his young son that he is ashamed of him and is “shocked Pikachu face” when he overhears him. Thus, when he is abducted for 8 years, you hope for their eventual and obvious reunion to come with more stakes. However, other than some bullets being thrown around, there isn’t much arc for their relationship and whatever little there is feels surface-level and inadequate for the sheer neglect that Harman has gone through.
The problem, however, is also that Ibrahim Ali Khan is simply terrible. After the fever dream that was Nadaaniyan, another Dharma production, one would expect some growth… or acting lessons. However, Khan continues to be a menace and any scene where he expresses even the slightest emotion feels hilarious. It takes you out of whatever little emotions you feel for the lack of a relationship between Harman and Vijay.
In the midst of the dad-son relationship is Kajol’s Meher, who is mostly a forgotten entity, other than when she needs to scream at her husband for being an absolute degenerate against his son. Her character gets an interesting twist in the end, but that’s too stupid for me to comment on. Of course, by then, I had a raging headache trying to understand the point of the film, so there might be that as well.
The problem with Sarzameen isn’t the plot – objectively, it’s not the worst and can be a great drama-thriller. The problem with this film is that it’s bloated and over-stuffed with too much drama and unnecessary emotions that don’t seem to mesh well together. At 2+ hours, the film is an exercise in patience and makes you want to tear your hair out after a while. The sequence of events is obvious, so much so that you can guess what’s about to happen from a mile away. Again, the last twist is a bit shocking but only because it’s stupid – the moment you see it, you realise that they added this because they had nothing else to add.
Final Thoughts
Sarzameen is a test of patience, with the plot being too bloated and surface-level to showcase the complexities of military families and their responsibilities. In classic Dharma style, it favours style over substance, giving us too much melodrama that this film probably could’ve done well without. And, of course, a shorter runtime would’ve worked wonders.
Also Read: Aap Jaisa Koi Review: A Nonsensical, Misogynistic and Enraging Watch