'Sarzameen' movie review: No punch in patriotic drama with big names

When the opening montage of a movie informs you in all seriousness that decades of insurgency in Kashmir, all the strife, the tragedies, not to mention the political machinations, were all thanks to one person with the code name ‘Mohsin’, you know you are in for two hours of sheer mindlessness of the Dharma Productions variety. 

It gets worse. The first 20 minutes are spent convincing the audience that Vijay Menon (Prithviraj Sukumaran) is your upright army chap stationed in Kashmir (which the intro describes as ‘every Indian’s heartbeat’), but is utterly ashamed of his teenage son. Why? Primarily because he stutters! Also, because he is ‘kamzor’ (weak) and does not hit back when school bullies taunt him. Vijay’s wife, Meher (Kajol), mostly cries or looks on in mute anger, sometimes acceptance. The teenage son grows up to be Harman, aka Harris (Ibrahim Ali Khan), who is out to take revenge on his father. If you are still with me and wondering why, it is because his ‘appa’ (the only nod to Vijay’s south Indian origins) chose his ‘sarzameen’ instead of his son. It is all about loving your family, remember! 

The movie ends predictably in what is supposed to be a tense climax, but one that manages to make the audience chafe in boredom or laugh in derision at how caricaturish the acting, the screenplay and the plot are. Was this planned as yet another launchpad for the star son? This, but, is a sputtering rocket best buried in the zameen.