Sarzameen Review: Prithviraj, Kajol’s Kashmir-Set Family Drama Fails to Impress

Director Kayoze Irani’s ‘Sarzameen’, starring Kajol, Prithviraj Sukumaran, and Ibrahim Ali Khan, attempts a fusion of family drama and Kashmir-set patriotism—but ends up offering little substance in either direction.

Following closely on the heels of Ground Zero, another military drama set in Kashmir, Sarzameen revolves around a fractured army family grappling with personal loss and national duty. While Ground Zero briefly flirts with self-reflection before retreating into safe patriotism, Sarzameen rarely ventures beyond surface-level storytelling.

At the heart of the film is Colonel Vijay Menon (Prithviraj Sukumaran), an accomplished officer who begins the film by capturing a wanted separatist, Qaabil (K.C. Shankar). But triumph on the battlefield is quickly undercut by failure at home. In a party hosted by his wife Meher (Kajol), their young son Harman is encouraged to speak—but stumbles due to his stammer, facing public embarrassment and his father’s cold response.

This emotional detachment defines Vijay’s relationship with his son, whom he seems to view as weak and unworthy of military ideals. When Harman is kidnapped by Qaabil’s group, a prisoner exchange is arranged—but even after the trade, the boy doesn’t return.

Years later, a young man claiming to be Harman (played by Ibrahim Ali Khan) reappears during an army operation. Buff, bearded, and visibly Kashmiri-looking—despite neither parent having such features—he’s brought home by Vijay. But suspicion quickly sets in, especially from Vijay, who believes the young man may be hiding something. Meher, meanwhile, clings to hope that her son has truly returned.

A Missed Opportunity to Explore Kashmir

While the central mystery might intrigue on paper, Sarzameen falters in execution. The film treats Kashmir more as a snowy backdrop than a living, complex place. Kashmiri characters are largely reduced to stereotypes—Qaabil and his followers are terrorists; army personnel, all non-Kashmiri, are the only ones afforded complexity.

Even basic cultural markers are absent: there’s little in the language, accents, or music to ground the story in the region. When Qaabil and his son speak, it's in flat Hindi with no trace of Kashmiri inflection. The film’s reliance on snow-covered visuals, barbed wire, and soldiers feels tokenistic rather than immersive.

K.C. Shankar tries to bring dignity to Qaabil, but the script gives him no real depth. The narrative also falls into problematic tropes, such as equating Muslim names and eating habits with radicalisation—an outdated and divisive framing.

Wasted Potential, Underdeveloped Characters

Ibrahim Ali Khan, in only his second film after Nadaaniyan, seems tentative in front of the camera. A stronger director might have shaped his hesitation into the character’s inner conflict, but Irani—making his directorial debut—struggles to guide the performance.

Worse still is the underuse of Kajol, whose character remains stuck in one emotional gear: the worried mother. The film eventually attempts a major twist tied to her arc, but the gamble fails, leaving her underwritten and her performance underwhelming.

One particularly awkward scene has young Harman and his adult self conversing—a narrative device too ambitious for a film that doesn’t do enough groundwork.

Conclusion

In the end, Sarzameen seems unwilling to confront the complexities of the Kashmir conflict. While it echoes the premise of Mission Kashmir (2000)—where a boy raised by the officer who orphaned him returns for revenge—Sarzameen lacks that film’s moral provocation and emotional urgency. It remains an outsider’s story told with little insight or conviction.

Despite its promising cast and premise, Sarzameen struggles to land its emotional and political beats, reducing a potential exploration of trauma, identity, and nationhood to a strained family melodrama set against a poorly sketched backdrop.