“Saare Jahan Se Accha: The Silent Guardians” (TV Series 2025) is yet another sorry riff that probes the tensions around the Bangladesh Liberation War. Set up as a battle of wills between the Indian spy in Islamabad, Vishnu (Pratik Gandhi), and ISI boss, Murtaza (Sunny Hinduja), the series looks keenly at Pakistan’s resolve to build a nuclear reactor. Murtaza is dumped with the responsibility of making the bomb dream happen. Vishnu travels to Islamabad to show his mettle is no fluke. The series cuts between the two. Murtaza hacks his way through a path riddled with rivals and threats, while Vishnu has to move past possible plans where his cover might get blown. Clashes between strong sentiments on both sides erupt. Who will emerge successful?
Amidst these, there’s a whole clutch of conspiracies and double-crossing and triple-crossing. The question of loyalties gains alarming credence and valence. Can anyone make it out of the mess alive well intact? Complications amass, the plot grows rife with trouble and ill-suspected intentions. Vishnu’s wife thinks he might be hiding something and not letting her in. His marriage, therefore, becomes cloaked in ample disguise. The nation’s political interests supersede the fray, dictating individual relationships and the degree of stakes at play. Though the Pakistani side receives the short end, they too are weathered by the brunt of political allegiance.
There’s a stately ambience that the series soaks in. You can feel it straining to be massive, sprawling for big emotion, but that doesn’t mask the mostly thin period recreations. Make no false assumptions. This is no “Jubilee.” Neither does the series employ savvy to take us closer to the 1970s with wit and ambition. There’s a tendency to pontificate, cast serious glances all around, give the series a prestige sheen, when there’s little holding it all together.
What’s particularly grating to watch is Gandhi bogged down by the task of a star having to anchor it. He seems visibly bothered by the burden, glaring a lot. “Scam” established him as a blazing actor. However, the show weighs him down, instead of letting him soar and sweep you all away. A spy drama like this needs a thinking mind, one with razor-sharp intelligence. This is too faded, wedged between jarring, half-etched parts.
There’s too much cramming the show, straining it away from a sharp thread where you can feel the tension hum and eventually pound. Tonal fluctuations exacerbate the problem. It’s as if the show cannot quite make up its mind, torn between high drama and petty diversions. Tillotama Shome is painfully wasted as someone who keeps suspecting her husband. You wonder what made her even sign up when it asks so little of her. There’s doom and tragedy in the wings, but the series isn’t quite able to lean into the sadness and vulnerability.
You wish for the show to reach for tenderness and grief, but it’s frequently bungled by a sense of the plot working hastily and with great frenzy through the accelerating hazards and risks. There’s no compunction or narrative intrigue that can power the plot. It strains for a dramatic pulse but feels tepid and struggles to gain conviction.
The show reflects no specific understanding of how the stakes might collide. There’s an almost generalised approach Sumit Purohit’s direction takes. Characters take on double identities, the geopolitical strife colouring their decisions, and you see how the conflicts threaten to take full precedence in their personal lives as well. It seems beleaguered by a confusion about where to fully place itself. In the hands of a greater, more skilled director, this could yield delicious contradictions, a richness thriving off tonal disparities, but honestly, this show isn’t certain in its voice.
The show does its bit to render motivations complex, decisions fraught, and people caught between the nation’s overarching duty and personal hesitation. There’s a vein of righteous dilemma bursting in every now and then. But a desire to go behind the scenes for both sides, noble as it might be from a distance, doesn’t translate here into provocative complexity. Ultimately, it all slumps to the oldest, laziest tricks in the book. After a point, even Gandhi looks just exhausted from the heavy-lifting. It doesn’t help his case that the supporting actors come off more sparkling. Hinduja is dealt a clichéd role but consistently elevates whatever he gets with danger and unpredictability. In Gandhi’s performance, everything is designed and mannered to a fault. The show trudges by without ever feeling essential or something you want to keep unravelling.
