‘Saare Jahan Se Accha’ review: Show about Pakistan’s nuclear bomb has a welcome unruly element

It’s apparently Pakistan Nuclear Programme Month. After Salakaar comes another show that looks at Pakistan’s attempts to build a nuclear bomb in the 1970s.

The Hindi-language Netflix series Saare Jahan Se Accha is set a few years before the events explored in Salakaar, with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, rather than Zia ul-Haq, as the lynchpin of Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions.

In 1966, Indian nuclear physicist Homi J Bhabha dies in a mysterious plane crash that Research and Analysis Wing agent Vishnu (Pratik Gandhi) is unable to prevent. Vishnu gets another opportunity to prove himself. RAW chief Kao (Rajat Kapoor) sends Vishnu on an undercover mission to Pakistan.

Bhutto (Hemant Kher) has tasked Kao’s counterpart Murtaza (Sunny Hinduja) with building a nuclear reactor at any cost. Such is Bhutto’s sense of urgency that Pakistan’s leading scientist Munir (Atul Kumar) attends a meeting in his dressing gown.

The groundwork is already in place by the time Vishnu arrives in Islamabad with his new bride Mohini (Tillotama Shome). Painted on his pick-up vehicle is the warning “We are watching you”. This tells Vishnu that not only is Murtaza on to him, but also that it won’t be easy to extract the secrets behind Pakistan’s bomb – such as who is funding it and where it will be assembled.

India has a man on the inside, the Pakistani Army officer Naushad (Anup Soni), as well as the undercover Indian agent Sukhbir (Suhail Nayyar). Vishnu also tries to convert conscientious Pakistani journalist Fatima (Kritika Kamra). In Paris, Vikram (Kunal Thakkar) teams up with a Mossad agent to keep an eye on a Pakistani-French collaboration.

Unlike the tacky and cartoonish Salakaar, Saare Jahan Se Accha approaches its subject matter with gravitas, a handsome budget and a somewhat better understanding of geopolitics. Writers Gaurav Shukla and Bhavesh Mandalia and director Sumit Purohit insert a welcome unruly element into the formulaic spy-versus-spy thriller that can have only one winner for Indian viewers.

The personal price paid by players of patriot games – this idea keeps the series on course even after the plotting enters well-trodden, predictable territory. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Vishnu declares. But the road to good intentions is paved with hellish challenges too, as events demonstrate.

Sukhbir has been undercover for so many years that every one of his acts has the ring of a transaction. I don’t know if I am in love or extracting intel from a woman, Sukhbir says. A fight to the finish between Suhkbir and a Pakistani mark has a rare quality of remorse.

Kao encourages Vishnu to marry, saying it will be a good cover for his activities in Pakistan. Mohini pays the price for a marriage that is more of an arrangement than a meeting of souls.

Although Vishnu isn’t as heartless as Murtaza, there are moments when the Indian agent chooses expediency over morality. While the balance of good and evil is tilted against the Pakistani characters, they too are shown to be pursuing their own national interests.

First seen summarily executing Pakistani traitors, Murtaza is a one-note adversary. But even this consistently cruel man has his moments of vulnerability. Murtaza complains that he has lost track of religious festivals, being utterly absorbed with making Bhutto proud.

A crucial sequence takes place at a movie theatre showing a re-run of the cult Pakistani horror film Zinda Laash (1967). At some level, the spies who chase each other across continents are living corpses too, as vital to national security as they are disposable. The idea isn’t explored with the depth it deserves, but it lingers.

Saare Jahan Se Accha goes into fantasy mode at times to assert RAW’s Mossad-like prowess. The factor of doubt over the human cost of espionage survives the imperative to show Pakistan on the back foot yet again.

Pratik Gandhi is a standout, smoothly portraying Vishnu’s desire to succeed while also trying not to be a flop as a husband. Mohini sees right through Vishnu, suggesting that his deception evaporates when it crosses the domestic threshold.

Suhail Nayyar and Anup Soni comfortably inhabit their roles. Rajat Kapoor is understated and suitably dead-eyed as the ruthless, country-above-everything-else spy chief.