The Sabarmati Report Review: Outright Propaganda Reporting

RATING - ⭐ ✨ 1.5/5*

The Sabarmati Report Review Movie Talkies:

In the beginning of The Sabarmati Report, some random girl driving a small car says, "Hindi patrakaron ki koi izzat nahi." I am sure this is going to trigger many of my journalist friends who are working in Hindi media, and they will do the needful while reviewing the film. Thankfully, I work in English media and am writing this review in English; otherwise, I don't know what I would have written in rage. The year is 2002, and still someone wants me to believe that Hindi journalism is not popular? Seriously? Even today, the largest section of citizens speak and understand Hindi in India. That's the first big propaganda by The Sabaramati Report, and it runs throughout the film until we have another female English journalist trying to undo these things. The second biggest propaganda is trying to initiate the motto of India is turning into the "Bharat," which is too political to be taken seriously by common viewers who don't believe in political propaganda. India is a big country, and people here have many better things to do than following these political and communal trends—just accept it and move on to realistic filmmaking, guys. The third is Hinduism, which I feel is somewhat portrayed with factuality, but then the narrative overuses the same to take a dig at its own "Mera Bharat" movement. So basically, The Sabarmati Report is anything but what you expect it to be—I mean, a decent investigation and journalism thriller.

Based on the Godhra train burning incident of 27 February 2002, involving the Sabarmati Express train, the film sees Vikrant Massey in the role of Hindi journalist-cum-cameraman, Samar, who goes to cover the ground-zero reporting of the incident. Star reporter Manika (Ridhi Dogra) is the anchor, and Samar believes that she speaks truth, and that's why people believe her. However, Manika has her own financial and political agendas, and she hides the truth behind the deaths of 59 people and declares the whole incident an "accident." Enraged, Samar quits journalism and becomes an alcoholic and a true blue sleepwalking basterrd. 5 years later, Amrita (Raashii Khanna) joins the same news channel and is asked to do a special segment on the same matter. She is a newbie and an honest journalist, so she wants to uncover the truth, and she gets Samar on board to help her. These two travel back to Godhra and investigate the matter to discover some shocking facts.

Arjun Bhandegaonkar, Avinash Singh Tomar, and Vipin Agnihotri sat together to write a script that has a political boosting and religious statements coming with certain agendas. It's good to promote a political party, but then feel that The Sabarmati Report should have been a Gujarati film if they wanted to glorify Gujarat and its government so much. Why make it a Bollywood film then? I hope almost hundreds of channels must have gone to cover the Godhra incident and had spoken many truths; then how does one single chunk of reporting by a female journalist change the perspective of the entire nation or the system? First you say that she is a star reporter, but then you show that the news channel hardly has one room; aren't you contradicting your own statements? Suddenly, the channel has its own building, as if there were no other channels to report facts or any other kind of agenda. In a particular scene, we see India vs. Pakistan T20 World Cup match from 2007, and the Muslim community in Gujarat is cheering for team Pakistan. How can CBFC approve this? Won't it cause communal hatred and unrest? I am not saying that it is not true, but Censor has been quite strict about these things recently; then why skip this film? The argument done by Samar in the courtroom is based on his experiences, but the court demands evidence, not speeches, right? How can you write such a dumb scene when the judge is referring to an investigation on a higher level just after hearing a speech from an ex-journalist when earlier you have already shown it as a big conspiracy? If they could pay the train driver, TCs, police, and other staff, then couldn't they pay judges? The script seems so scattered and illogical every 10 minutes that you don't find it trustworthy enough to believe. Then you also have to tolerate the daily soap feel, the Ekta Kapoor special, with constant use of loud background score, including Ram Ram chants. It's unbearable.

The main focus of the film is based on corruption in journalism, which is true, and I myself, being a part of the system, can confirm that. But the biggest drawback of the film lies in this aspect only. The film focuses on corrupt journalism; that's fine. It happens everywhere. But it can't be that big of an issue as you intend to call it. For instance, the same corrupt journalism happens with Movie Reviews all the time. Some star reviewer giving 4/5* to a bad film can't make it a blockbuster. On Monday, that review will be nothing but trash, and no one will bother to remember that. It happens with a dozen of films every year, but do we get a dozen of hit films in a year? Then how can you make one journalist's statement get so much importance when it's about a national issue—almost a 10 times bigger thing than a movie review? That just doesn't fit well anywhere. Amrita is all set to record her special segment without even informing her senior. Believe me, things don't work like this in a news channel office. An ex-journalist solving a case just by looking at a burned coach of a train is too much to ask for when you know there must have been a special team of investigation officers who would have found it long ago. The Hindu x Muslim chapter is sensitive even when we want to discuss it, but these people casually showed it as "mastermind" and even had him transported to Dubai/Middle East instead of handing him over to the police. What a big joke!

Vikrant Massey has delivered better performances than this in recent times, so I won't call it good. It's a fairly decent act from him, but I expect a lot more from him, especially after 12th Fail. Raashi Khanna's voice gave me jitters; she needs to work on voice modulation so that it can sync well with her gorgeous face. Rest, it was a fine performance. Ridhi Dogra had much bigger potential in this role because I expected some scenes of heated arguments later, which never came to her kitty. I wish she had gotten those scenes of brutal redemption, pain of atony, or something like that to take this performance to a standard level. Nevertheless, these three somehow kept the show going despite flaws in the writing, but let's not blame them for someone else's mistakes. There is a big bunch of supporting cast, and they were okay-okay.

The Sabarmati Report lacks technical support, be it sound design, cinematography, or art design. The dialogues are bad, and the screenplay is even worse. Somehow, the good production value keeps it safe from becoming a low-grade feature. This takes me to Dheeraj Sarna, the man who directed this film. Dheeraj needs to understand the difference between directing a daily soap or a political promotional TVC and a feature film. The Sabarmati Report would have made a fine soap or a political ad if it was never shot as a feature film. Sarna's direction skills are too poor to carry such a high-risk and sensitive film, and moreover, it's the writing that kills the realistic approach of the film and makes it a political and communal affair. I still don't understand how you can oversimplify every single thing that was so hard to crack for many politicians, journalists, and investigation officers. The Ram Mandir reference in the end is enough to tell you why The Sabarmati Report is more like an election campaign than a feature film. I hope you have a good time at the movies.

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