Raazi (2018) [Movie Review]

Dir: Meghna Gulzar

Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal

Dur: 2 hrs 17 mins

Genre: Biographical Thriller
Rating: 8/10

I can’t tell you how impressed and happy I was with this film. The true story behind this is really inspiring and yet poignant. The film is based on a 2008 novel written by Harinder Sikka, ‘Calling Sehmat’, which tells the story of an Indian woman spy who was married young into a family of Pakistan officers with the view of relaying information to India in the buildup to the 1971 Indo-Pak war. Another interesting thing about the film is that it doesn’t show Pakistan in very negative light; there is just that villainous shade but nothing overly explicit.

The first thing that struck me about the film was that India is shown to have a pretty neat spy network. Frankly, this is something I was unaware about. I mean, I know that we have our own intelligence agency and stuff but I didn’t think we were as advanced and slick as depicted in the film. Kudos, to the film makers for not hiding the grueling realities of espionage and war.

The film tells the story of a young, Sehmat Khan, who is asked to drop out of college and become a spy by her father who has been a spy for nearly all of his life. Sehmat heeds her father’s words and takes up the difficult task. Once she is ready, she is married off to the son of one of Pakistan’s military officers who was a close friend of her father. Here is where the story begins to get really interesting. Sehmat puts all her training to use to extract information and relay it to India. The suspense and drama of this part of the film is excellent and really begins to creep under the skin. Once her work is done and she is almost compromised she is extracted and sent home. Frankly, I didn’t quite get the meaning of the ending until I began writing this review. During the final victory speech, the camera time and again zooms in to one officer, who is actually the son of Sehmat.

Overall, the film is really wonderful and a must watch. Alia is simply stunning. She deserves an award for her terrific portrayal of Sehmat. The story is incredibly well written and directed. Supporting cast were also convincing and endearing. The film is poignant and subtly uplifting. It fosters a general spirit of pride for our country but also helps us understand the nature of the ‘enemy’, in this case, Pakistan. In War, it is not two geographical locations that battle but human beings, and this I think is the biggest lesson of this film. War is unnecessary evil and must be avoided as far as possible. In our day and age, the thought of war is frightening considering the advancements in weapon technology. Let’s hope that war never breaks out, because it doesn’t take a war to make heroes or heroines. Heroes and heroines are born whenever people show the courage to take a stand for what is good, right and just. We can all be heroes and heroines. Let’s do it!