‘Saare Jahan Se Accha’ series review: Know your spy with Pratik Gandhi and Sunny Hinduja

The spy games of the 1970s, when India and Pakistan were trying to outwit and outpace each other in the race to become the nuclear state, form the subject of this high-stakes thriller. Headlined by two consummate performers, Pratik Gandhi and Sunny Hinduja, as the men in charge of operations for the arch rivals, the series has a beating heart; however, the structure and storytelling are not in sync. It appears that the material of a feature film has been stretched to six episodes.

In the deluge of spy stories on the big screen and digital platforms, Saare Jahan Se Accha deserves attention for its respect for the adversary’s patriotism and its portrayal of the emotional turmoil of a secret agent. It tells us how, in the service of national interest, morality and personal relationships become collateral damage. However, it does so with the presumption that the audience hasn’t come across Raazi or Khufiya, content that highlights the ordinariness of a spy working in extraordinary situations. It’s like Mission Majnu has a follow-up operation called Mission Vishnu, where Pratik Gandhi has been called in to lend his everyman resilience to sabotage Pakistan’s nuclear programme.

As India’s bid to go nuclear suffers a jolt after the mysterious death of atomic physicist Homi J. Bhabha, the intelligence apparatus comes up with the Research and Analysis Wing to secure our interests outside India. Pakistan already had its network of Inter-Services Intelligence. Between the lines, the series tells us how we had to catch up to outsmart the wily neighbour. After the resounding defeat of 1971, when Prime Minister Bhutto decides to secure the country’s interests by importing a nuclear bomb, RAW, led by the stoic R.N. Kao (Rajat Kapoor), decides to cripple his plan by sending an intrepid spy, Vishnu Shankar (Pratik), to Pakistan in the garb of a diplomat. But soon, Vishnu discovers that his hum mansab (counterpart) Murtaza (Sunny Hinduja) is no less. As the game of attrition begins, the series finds its mojo.

A couple of episodes stand out. The strand of a senior Pakistani military officer, Naushad (Anup Soni), who RAW is blackmailing, makes you suffer his dilemma. The seasoned Anup excels in portraying the emotional flux of a father and an officer, and the writers don’t separate RAW and ISI when it comes to manipulation for national interest. The conversations between Vishnu and firebrand Pakistani journalist Fatima (Kritika Kamra) are electric. He wants information, but she has a stance on nuclear bombs; however, there is a lot unsaid between them that sparks an attraction.

Pratik and Kritika live in the intensity of the situation. However, Tillotama Shome as the suffering wife of Vishnu, remains a cutout, much like Vishnu’s dispensable moles in Pakistan. Suhail Nayyar fleshed out Rafiq, a mole living under a fake religious identity, but it gradually peters into a predictable zone where the intrinsic logic stops working. The unevenness in storytelling also extends to characterisation. While the writers shape the protagonists with precision, they create the political leadership as cardboard. It feels like an outcome of self-censorship.

There is an inbuilt dialogue on whether the two countries, particularly Pakistan, can afford to direct their resources towards weapons of mass destruction, but it works out like an explainer. Like the greys of reportage are giving way to neutral explainers in the new scape, in the creative realm, writers of long-form tend to explicate emotions. The makers spend two episodes introducing the characters, with Pratik Gandhi providing a voiceover explaining what a spy goes through to make a living. Instead of tutoring the audience, the writers could have intrinsically woven it into the story, allowing the versatile actor to express the inner conflict.

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Curiously, dim lighting and artistic shot-taking by Ukrainian DOP Nedria Dmytro, who captures the zeitgeist of the period, offset the oversimplification of the writing. It gives the impression that the makers believe that the audience craves technical finesse, but the dramatic complexity must be clearly articulated. This unevenness, resulting from a lack of faith, sends the spy down the slippery slope.

Saare Jahan Se Accha currently streaming on Netflxix