‘Sarzameen’ (2025) Movie Review - One Of The Funniest Films Of The Year

Poor Harman (Ronav Parihar) stammers a lot; he can't complete a sentence without pausing. Did his parents, Colonel Vijay Menon (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and Meher Vijay Menon (Kajol), ever take him to a speech therapist? Based on Kayoze Irani's Sarzameen, the answer seems to be, "Are you kidding? The kid's speech problem needs to be milked for sentimentality." This is why Meher asks Harman to congratulate his father in public. Couldn't she have arranged this moment in private instead of embarrassing her son in front of the guests at the party? When Harman gets kidnapped by the members of a terrorist outfit, Meher is so busy dancing that she doesn't notice that something is amiss. When Harman, now grown up and played by Ibrahim Ali Khan, returns to his family, Vijay suspects that something's wrong with his kid. He no longer stammers; he looks different. What does Meher do? She criticizes Vijay for doubting Harman — she scolds him. All these events could be viewed from a different angle: Meher wants to present her son as a brave, sweet kid at the party. She thinks her son is just playing with his friend, which is why she dances freely at another party. Meher wants to bridge the emotional gap between Vijay and Harman, so she gets angry at her husband for being suspicious about their own child. Yet, I couldn't help but see Meher as a villain. She unintentionally comes across as a bad guy. 

I confess I felt a little guilty for hating Meher because, at the end of the day, she was acting on her maternal instincts. But then came the climax, which basically reinforced my "Meher Sucks" belief. The preposterous twist tries to rival the one in Mandala Murders. All I can say is that the industry desperately needs good writers. Both Sarzameen and Mandala Murders seem to be more interested in shocking the audience. Both stories are executed without style, but the Netflix series is, at least, ambitious. In Sarzameen, complicated notions of patriotism and blood relations are reduced to simplistic, black-and-white emotional triggers — which don't work very well. Credit where credit is due, Sukumaran and Parihar bring some convincing and affecting touches to the father-son bond with their performances. When Vijay and Harman walk home after the latter finishes playing cricket with a new friend, Harman asks his father if he can join him for the game the next day. Just as he does, a phone call interrupts the conversation — and we feel how much Harman wants to connect with Vijay. Irani could have given us more such moments, which would have made Sarzameen decent, if not exceptional. But the writer-director settles for vapid psychology and flat fight sequences, and scenes that should have exploded fizzle out with a whimper. I rolled my eyes and then cracked up, thanks to a sentimental touch that visually unites the mother with the father and the son. Thanks to moments like these, Sarzameen ends up positioning itself as one of the funniest films of the year.

Final Score- [1.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times